On top of its ongoing search for a new chancellor, UMD now needs to find a new athletic director.
Josh Berlo, who was hired in 2013, has taken the same job with the University of Denver. Berlo joins DU as its vice chancellor of athletics, replacing Karlton Creech, who had been at Denver since 2018. Unlike UMD, which is Division II for all sports except for men’s and women’s hockey, Denver is a full Division I athletic program, sponsoring 18 sports.
“My family is honored to be joining the prestigious University of Denver and its exceptional academic and athletic traditions,” Berlo said in a Denver press release. “DU offers a world-class experience for our student-athletes, coaches and staff, and I look forward to contributing to that experience as well as the overall institutional mission.”
In addition to overseeing all UMD head coaches, staff and administrative personnel, Berlo was responsible for the student-athlete experience, developing and implementing a strategic plan, managing the departmental budget, directing the use of the University’s athletic facilities, and leading fundraising and marketing efforts for the 16-sport program.
In his nine seasons, Berlo and the Bulldogs finished in the top 50 of the D-II Directors’ Cup five times (of seven possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and currently sits in 29th through the winter sports calendar, which would mark the highest finish in his tenure. During his time at Duluth, the Bulldogs won the Division I men’s hockey national championship in 2018 and 2019 and finished runner-up to the Pioneers in 2017. In women’s hockey, the Bulldogs finished as the national runner-up to Ohio State this past spring. The two hockey programs combined for six Frozen Four appearances under Berlo’s leadership. This past winter, for the first time in program history, all four basketball and hockey teams advanced to the NCAA Tournament and earned a combined three conference regular season and tournament titles. In total, 15 of UMD’s 16 varsity programs have advanced to NCAA postseason competition since Berlo arrived in Duluth in 2013.
Prior to joining the Bulldog staff, Berlo was employed as Notre Dame’s senior assistant athletics director for guest relations and event marketing. In this role, he oversaw all aspects of athletic ticketing, event marketing and promotional efforts, football game-day parking operations and revenue generation, the Drive with the Irish sponsorship program. He also was the sport administrator for Notre Dame baseball and he represented Notre Dame on the Executive Committee of the Sports Management Institute (SMI), a program which he has been involved with since his undergraduate days and completed in 2008. Berlo currently is an athletic director representative on the SMI Executive Committee.
Recently, Berlo co-chaired the committee responsible for hiring the NCHC’s newest commissioner, a group that chose St. Cloud State athletic director Heather Weems for the job last month.
This post was updated at 12:20pm with comments from Berlo and more information on his tenure at UMD.
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