Mike Bobinski had plenty of reasons to smile in his first year as athletics director at Purdue.

Two teams won Big Ten Conference championships - men's basketball (its conference-leading 23rd all-time) and women's outdoor track & field.

Six squads finished in the top 25 at their respective NCAA Championships - women's golf (11th), men's swimming & diving (13th), women's indoor track & field (14th), men's basketball (NCAA Tournament Sweet 16), women's outdoor track & field (21st), and women's swimming & diving (23rd) - and three others were close: men's golf (28th) and women's basketball and volleyball (NCAA Tournament second round).

All told, 12 of 20 teams were involved in postseason competition, while 11 finished in the top half of the Big Ten. The average Big Ten finish was 7.20, which ranked seventh among the 14 conference schools.

Purdue accumulated 548.25 points in the Directors' Cup to rank 41st out of 351 schools, the 88th percentile. Both the point total and placing were the best by the Boilermakers in eight years.

Twenty-five student-athletes combined to achieve 41 All-America honors. Thirteen combined to earn 19 first team distinctions. There were 23 first team All-Big Ten selections, and Boilermakers won 12 individual conference titles.

Academically, student-athletes maintained better than a 3.0 cumulative grade-point average for the 17th consecutive semester last spring, and they continue to regularly perform equal to or better than the student body. Following the spring 2017 semester, the cumulative GPA for all current Purdue student-athletes was 3.05. The current four-year average Graduation Success Rate is 84 percent.

Three Boilermakers were recognized as second team Academic All-Americans, 185 garnered Academic All-Big Ten distinction and 48 were recognized as Big Ten Distinguished Scholars.

Bobinski made two significant hires in his first year - Jeff Brohm as head football coach in December of 2016 and Jason Butikofer as deputy athletics director in June of 2017.

Bobinski, who was named the ninth full-time athletics director in Purdue history Aug. 9, 2016 - the first with no previous ties to the school - is primed to take the Boilermakers to greater heights.

"We are positioned to really take off and for great things to happen in the years ahead," Bobinski says. "And for me, being able to have an impact, to be able to move things forward, that's what gets me up in the morning. I'm not a status-quo guy. I like to help people and programs succeed, and I believe the opportunity to do that at Purdue is significant."

Bobinski replaced Morgan Burke and became just the fourth full-time athletics director at Purdue since 1942, following Guy "Red" Mackey (1942-71), George King (1971-92) and Burke (1993-2016).

At Bobinski's introductory press conference, Purdue president Mitch Daniels said: "We went looking for the most competitive, determined, proven winner we could find, but someone who shares our values of academics and standards of conduct. Someone who wants to win, but in the right way."

Before coming to Purdue, Bobinski enjoyed successful stints as athletics director at Georgia Tech (2013-16), Xavier (1998-2004, 2006-13) and Akron (1994-98). Between stints as AD at Xavier, he served as associate vice president for development, overseeing all of the university's fundraising efforts, including major gifts, grant services and annual and planned giving.

In Bobinski's three years at Georgia Tech, 34 student-athletes earned All-America honors. The football team won the 2014 Orange Bowl and was ranked No. 8 in the final national poll. Other athletic accomplishments included back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances for baseball in 2013 and 2014; conference championships and top-10 NCAA finishes by men's golf in 2014 and 2015, and an NCAA Sweet 16 berth for women's tennis in 2016.

Academically, the Yellow Jackets posted a school-record Graduation Success Rate of 84 percent each year under Bobinski. Some 301 student-athletes earned their degrees, while 498 received Atlantic Coast Conference honor roll acknowledgement

During Bobinski's 12-year tenure at Xavier, nine programs combined for 40 team or individual spots in NCAA championship competition. The men's basketball program averaged 25 wins, advancing to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight in 2004 and 2008.

Bobinski served as chair of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee for the 2012-13 season.

The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics named Bobinski the 2011-12 Under Armour Division I Northeast Athletics Director of the Year.

From 1989 to 1994, Bobinski was associate director of athletics at the U.S. Naval Academy. He served as associate and assistant business manager at Notre Dame from 1984 to 1989.

As a licensed certified public accountant, Bobinski went into accounting with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells and Arthur Young & Company from 1979 to 1982. He subsequently worked for the Walt Disney Company in Orlando, Florida, from 1982 to 1984 before moving into college athletics.

"There is a lot to like about Mike," says Mike Berghoff, chairman of the Purdue Board of Trustees. "He is competitive and expects to win. He was a student-athlete, a coach and a CPA with career experience in both industry and universities with lofty academic and athletic expectations."

A native of Yaphank on Long Island, New York, Bobinski earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Notre Dame in 1979, graduating magna cum laude, while playing four years for the Fighting Irish baseball team.

Bobinski has two children, Melissa, a 2009 Xavier graduate, and Brian, a 2012 Ohio State graduate, and one grandchild, Maggie Ann..

SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

Jason Butikofer

Deputy Athletics Director

Lee De Leon

Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director / Assistant Vice President of Development

Nancy Cross

Senior Associate Athletics Director / Senior Woman Administrator

Mike Braughton

Senior Associate Athletics Director - Development

Ed Howat

Senior Associate Athletics Director - Student Services

Barb Kapp

Senior Associate Athletics Director - Business

Tom Schott

Senior Associate Athletics Director - Communications

Doug Boersma

Associate Athletics Director - Sports Medicine

Tom Mitchell

Associate Athletics Director - Compliance

Tom Moreland

Associate Athletics Director - Strategic Initiatives

Chris Peludat

Associate Athletics Director - Marketing and Fan Experience

Calvin Williams

Associate Athletics Director

Al Capitos

Assistant Athletics Director - Facilities

Chris Clopton

Assistant Athletics Director - Major Gifts / Senior Director of Development

Jan Metzinger

Assistant Athletics Director - Human Resources

ALL-TIME PURDUE ATHLETICS DIRECTORS
Years	Name
1904-05	Oliver Cutts
1906-14	Hugh Nicol
1915-18	Oliver Cutts
1919-30	Nelson Kellogg
1931-36	Noble Kizer
1937	Robert Woodworth (acting)
1938-39	Noble Kizer
1940	Edward Elliott (acting)
1941	Allen "Mal" Elward
1942-71	Guy "Red" Mackey
1971-92	George King Jr.
1992	John Hicks (interim)
1993-2016	Morgan Burke
2016-	Mike Bobinski