By WJBC Staff
BLOOMINGTON – Illinois Wesleyan University has named Mike Wagner the successor to retiring athletic director Dennie Bridges.
LISTEN: WJBC’s Dan Swaney talks with new IWU Athletic Director Mike Wagner.
Wagner has been second-in-command in IWU athletics since 2004 and has been working at Wesleyan since 1992. He has been the event coordinator and facility director of the Shirk Center athletic complex.
Wagner’s appointment comes following a national search to replace Bridges, who will leave the post he has held since 1981 at the end of July.
“Mike has played an important role the expansion of IWU’s athletic program,” said IWU Provost and Dean of the Faculty Jonathan Green, whose office oversees the school’s athletic department. “There is no new AD in Division III who is inheriting a program with a greater depth and quality of coaches, athletes, and staff. I know that Mike will continue to uphold the Titan tradition of ‘Victory with Honor.’”
“I am thrilled and very thankful to President (Richard) Wilson and Provost Green for affording me this great honor and opportunity,” said the 44-year-old Wagner. “I have been a part of Illinois Wesleyan athletics for 23 years and have been so proud of the success of the athletic programs on the fields of play, the classrooms, and in the community. The support we have from the Bloomington-Normal area, the alumni, and campus is greatly appreciated. My entire family is honored and very humbled to stay a part of the IWU family in this new role.”
Wagner will be just the third athletic director IWU has had in nearly 70 years. Bridges and his predecessor, Jack Horenberger, held the post for 34 years apiece.
Wagner spent his first 16 years at IWU as an assistant football coach and coordinator of strength training.
“We are both pleased and proud to appoint Mike Wagner as the athletic director at Illinois Wesleyan,” said retiring IWU President Dick Wilson. “He has extensive experience as a coach and athletic administrator and an abiding commitment to what it means to be a student athlete at a Division III liberal arts college. Over the last decade, Mike has worked hard not only to meet the athletic and recreational needs of the University but also to meet the University’s commitment to the community, particularly in terms of the use of facilities comprising the Shirk Athletic Complex.
“Those who know Mike well will attest that he is a devoted Titan and diligent about addressing the needs of student athletes, coaches, and the University as a whole.”
A native of Wildwood, Ill., and a graduate of Gurnee Warren Township High School, Wagner graduated in 1992 from Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., with a bachelor’s degree in biology.
Wagner won four letters in football at Augustana and earned honorable mention All-American status from Don Hansen’s Football Gazette as a senior in 1991. That same year he was an all-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin linebacker for the Vikings and the teams he played on won three CCIW titles and appeared in three NCAA Division III playoffs.
An associate professor at Illinois Wesleyan, Wagner earned a master’s degree in exercise science at Illinois State University in 1994.
