A Young Athletic Program Rises
Green Bay Phoenix Athletics has been a Division I school for thirty-seven years. Through the last three decades, the school continues to get stronger every decade. In 1969, Donald Makuen took the athletic director position at Green Bay and started off the program. Makuen leaving the position after a year, Dean Austin took the position as the athletic director and expanded Green Bay athletics. The addition of four men’s sports; basketball, soccer, tennis, and golf helped the Phoenix to compete at National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). In his three years at Green Bay, Dean Austin left the program with room to improve and be a trademark at Green Bay community.
As the athletics expanded at Green Bay, Bruce Grimes put a name on it. Grimes held voting between faculty and students; the Fighting Phoenix became the winner. As Grimes started advancing the program in order to get the Green Bay Phoenix to the next level; in 1979, he hired Aldo Santaga to become the head coach of the soccer program. His next move became official when the fighting Phoenix made a jump from NAIA to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). NCAA is an institution where the highest level of collegiate programs competes at. In his final year at Green Bay, Bruce Grimes not only helped the program to switch from NAIA to NCAA; also moved UWGB from NCAA Division II to Division I. The difference between divisions at NCAA level includes scholarship numbers, representation of genders.
As the Phoenix moved on from Bruce Grimes, Donald Harden took over the position to lead a young athletic program. Being the Associate Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin– Green Bay (UWGB), Donald Harden raised the bar for what it means to be an athletic director. In his three years at the position, Donald Harden became the first athletic director to see a Phoenix team participate at an NCAA tournament when soccer team led by Aldo Santaga took the field against Akron in 1983. Aldo Santaga being the face of the soccer program at Green Bay, Harden left the program with finding a for the basketball program.
As Harden moved on from athletics, his last move was hiring Dick Bennett as the new men’s basketball coach. Prior to holding the AD job in 1985, Dan Spielmann held numerous other positions at UWGB. He spent nine years at the top of the department of athletics and experienced an NCAA tournament appearance with men’s basketball team, led by Dick Bennett and his son Tony Bennett. Dan Spielmann stepping out of the athletics office did not create a big change in the department because a familiar face would be next guy in line. Otis Chambers, who was the first person that Spielmann hired as the head athletic trainer in 1985, moved up to the head athletic director position after being the assistant for the past years. Chambers’ hardest task after taking over the job was to hire a head coach for the women’s basketball team. In over 40 years of history of Green Bay Phoenix, most important hiring took place in 1998 by Otis Chambers. Chambers hired Kevin Borseth as the head coach of the women’s basketball team. In his first stint as the Phoenix head coach, Borseth went 125–13 in conference play and made the NCAA Tournament 7 times out of 9 seasons. Unfortunately, Chambers only got to work with Borseth for three years because in 2001 he got fired, he was the only athletic director in Phoenix history to be fired.
Phoenix found its’ new athletic director in Ken Bothoff, who made a huge impact as a fundraiser. When University needed to expand facilities and become a household name in athletics, Bothoff raised 11 million dollars in private funds to 33 million expansion to Phoenix Center, now named Kress Events Center and the addition of Aldo Santaga Soccer Stadium.
Bothoff staying in Green Bay for 12 years made him the longest-tenured athletic director at the position and he left the program by bringing back Kevin Borseth from Michigan, who is currently 200–22 in conference play during his second stint. After Ken Bothoff, with the help of Dan Spielmann, Mary Ellen Gillespie became the -first female- athletic director at UWGB. Ellen’s toughest decision came when she had to find a new men’s basketball coach and find a gear sponsor for the athletic program. Ellen found the coach she was looking for in Florida, Division II program Florida Southern’s head coach Linc Darner was hired in the summer of 2015. Just in her second year, Ellen signed the biggest sponsorship in UWGB history with Adidas, the deal that goes through the 2021–22 school year. In her final year, Phoenix fund reached over 1 million dollars setting a new record. On May 24th, 2017, Mary Ellen Gillespie left the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to become the athletic director at the University of Hartford.
