BATON ROUGE — Judy Southard, the Director of Athletics at Texas Woman’s University for the past nine years, has been named Associate Athletics Director/Senior Women’s Administrator at LSU, Athletics Director Skip Bertman announced on Thursday.
As LSU’s Senior Women’s Administrator, Southard will serve as the administrative liaison to the Tigers’ nationally recognized Olympic sports teams, which includes women’s basketball, softball, soccer, gymnastics, volleyball, men’s and women’s track and field, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s and women’s swimming and diving.
“I’m very excited about the opportunity,” Southard said. “A career goal of mine was to have the opportunity to return to the NCAA Division I level, and even one step further, to work at a high profile institution in one of the nation’s premier conferences. To be able to realize that goal at LSU is a dream come true for me.”
While at Texas Woman’s University, Southard initiated a corporate partnership program for the athletic department that tripled the involvement of area businesses and corporations in Pioneer athletics.
Southard also established the TWU Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame and she played a key role in addition of softball and soccer to TWU’s list of intercollegiate sports.
Last year, Southard served as chair of the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Committee.
“Judy is going to be a great addition to our staff,” LSU’s Senior Associate Athletics Director Dan Radakovich said. “Having been a coach as well as serving as an athletics director, Judy has all of the knowledge and experience necessary to take our Olympic sports to the highest level.”
Prior to her nine-year stint at Texas Woman’s University, Southard served as head women’s basketball coach at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va., for 11 years where she led the Lady Herd to five Southern Conference regular-season titles. During her 11years with the Lady Herd, Southard was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year three times and her career record of 178-130 still stands as a school record for victories.
Southard also served as assistant athletics director at Marshall from 1983 to 1988, including a four-month period when she was interim director.
Prior to her tenure at Marshall, Southard spent three years as head coach at Tennessee-Martin and she also served for one season as an assistant coach at Tennessee. As a high school teacher from 1970-77, Southard coached both basketball and tennis, leading her West Florence High School basketball team to the South Carolina 4A state title in 1976.
A native of Columbia, S.C., Southard earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and health from Coker College in 1970 followed by a master’s degree in physical education from Tennessee in 1978.
Southard will assume her duties at LSU on August 1.