Cottingham Resigns As Marquette Athletic Director

Milwaukee – Steve Cottingham, athletic director at Marquette University, has resigned to pursue other interests.
 
Cottingham worked on the university’s move to the BIG EAST Conference in 2005, has remained an active participant in BIG EAST matters on behalf of the university and negotiated Marquette’s contract with the Bradley Center, home of the men’s basketball team. As athletic director, he oversaw 14 intercollegiate sports and was instrumental in adding men’s and women’s lacrosse to the athletic roster, beginning in 2012. Under his leadership, the department constructed the Klein Family/KBS Soccer Pavilion at Valley Fields and the Blue & Gold Scholarship Fund, providing annual funding for student-athlete scholarships, grew to more than $3.5 million. Cottingham also launched and made substantial progress on a goal to increase the athletic scholarship endowment to $20 million by 2017.
 
Prior to being named athletic director in January 2007, Cottingham was an associate senior vice president at Marquette and, before that, served as an attorney in the university’s Office of the General Counsel, with responsibilities that included coaches’ contracts.
 
In a letter to Marquette University President Robert A. Wild, S.J., Cottingham said, “Although recent events involving a few student-athletes have certainly been a disappointment to me, I leave Marquette with positive feelings and confidence in its future.”
 
Wild said Mike Broeker, currently deputy athletic director, had been named acting athletic director. He said the university would launch a national search for a permanent AD in fall.