University of Texas Arlington Athletics

Jim Baker joined the University of Texas at Arlington as Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Feb. 1, 2012, the same day the university and department opened the $78 million, 7,000-seat College Park Center.
 
A respected and vital member of the UTA leadership team, Baker has led the unprecedented growth of staff and success of Maverick Athletics in competition, in the classroom and in the community since taking over at the helm of the department.
 
During Baker's time with UTA, the Mavs have won 24 conference championships and made 13 NCAA Tournament appearances. Baker was instrumental in navigating UTA through its only three conference affiliations, including the most recent announcement of the Mavs joining the Western Athletic Conference this July.
 
Under his leadership, just this past fall UTA was the recipient of the Sun Belt Conference’s Institutional Graduation Rate Award and also the more heralded Student-Athlete Graduation Achievement Award. Possessing an 85% student-athlete graduation rate, UTA had the highest four-year class average graduation rate of any current Sun Belt school, as published in the NCAA Division-I Graduation-Rate Annual Report. Additionally, that four-year graduation rate exceeds the general student body graduation rate of the university.
 
During the 2020-21 year, the Mavs had 142 student-athletes named to either the Sun Belt Conference Commissioner’s List (3.5+ GPA) or the Sun Belt Academic Honor Roll (3.0-3.49 GPA), in addition to several individual and team national academic recognitions.
 
Community service has been a mainstay and focal point under Baker’s tenure as well. UTA – which consistently performed more community service hours than any other Sun Belt member – claimed either the Sun Belt’s Community Service Initiative Award or its Community Impact Award every single year from 2015-16 to 2019-20.
 
Furthermore, on the strength of its Operation Global Impact service initiative, UTA was one of three D-I finalists by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) for the 2019 Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.

While the 2019-20 season was cut short due to the worldwide Coronavirus Pandemic, UTA’s student-athletes still produced numerous individual and team accolades, but none more impressive than their collective 3.4 GPA in the spring – believed to be best GPA in department history. Each of UTA’s 15 teams had better than a 3.0 GPA, despite the upheaval to a virtual online-learning experience midway through the semester. It marked the 13th-straight semester UTA student-athletes produced better than a 3.0 GPA.

Prior to the 2019-20 season coming to an end in mid-March with less than half of the Mavericks’ teams regular seasons completed, UTA still produced an incredible 16 all-conference performers. In addition to those conference accolades, UTA had several student-athletes achieve all-region or all-district honors, with the most notable feat coming from Justin Domangue, who became the first cross country All-American in program history in the fall.

Under Baker, UTA Athletics has consistently made community service a focal point as the Mavericks won the Community Service Initiative Award for the fourth-straight year in 2019. The point-based award recognizes the Sun Belt member which yearly has the most community service participation across all of its student-athletes.

The Mavs won the Community Impact Award for the second-straight time in 2019 as well due largely to their Operation Global Impact project as part of ‘Team Uganda.’ The trip to Uganda was part of the larger Operation Global Impact series which in the summer of 2019 resulted in UTA being named one of three Division-I finalists nationally by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) for the 2019 Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.

In 2018-19, UTA added three more Sun Belt Championships under Baker’s tenure – men’s cross country, women’s basketball and men’s indoor track & field. Highlighting the athletic success for the year was the softball team winning the National Invitation Softball Championship (NISC) for the first time, and the women’s basketball team earning its first postseason WNIT win.
 
Those successes helped UTA finish with a department-best 2nd-place finish in the Bubas Cup – the Sun Belt Conference’s all-sports award which recognizes overall competitive success. The Mavericks totaled 115 points for their 2nd-place finish, representing the department’s best showing in its six years at the time as a Sun Belt member and bettering 3rd-place finishes in both 2016-17 and 2014-15 as the highest in UTA history.
 
Additionally, the Mavericks had 10 individuals compete in NCAA Championships, including nine from track & field (Alexus Henry competed in both the indoor and outdoor high jump) and Guanarteme Nuez qualifying for the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship for the second-straight season.
 
Furthermore in 2018-19, three different individuals claimed four total Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year honors: Krista Gerlich (Women’s Basketball), Chris Ogden (Men’s Basketball) and John Sauerhage (Men’s Cross Country & Men’s Indoor Track & Field).

Baker was instrumental in adding women’s golf as the department’s 15th intercollegiate sport with the inaugural season taking place in 2017-18.
  
The 2017-18 season had many noteworthy accomplishments on and off the field of competition. UTA student-athletes graduated at the 2nd-highest rate among all Division-I public institutions in the state of Texas, according to the NCAA Graduation Success Rate.
 
In the spring of 2018, Kevin Hervey was selected in the 2nd Round of the NBA Draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Furthermore, Alexus Henry became the first UTA female National Track & Field Champion when she claimed the high jump title.
 
In 2016-17, UTA student-athletes continued to excel in the classroom. Priscilla Glenn received national grants and accolades for her research within the College of Science, and Hervey was named the Sun Belt Conference Male Student-Athlete of the Year.  Additionally, three head coaches were named their respective Sun Belt coach of the year.
 
The track and field program achieved another Sun Belt triple crown by winning men’s cross country, men’s indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. Men’s basketball won the Sun Belt regular-season championship and reached the quarterfinals of the NIT behind a record crowd of 6,366.
 
Championships continued to pile up in 2015-16 as men’s tennis and men’s cross country won Sun Belt trophies. The Mavericks finished 4th in the Sun Belt’s Vic Bubas Cup.
 
Men’s basketball tied a program record with 24 wins, softball opened the season with 19-straight wins and 91 students were honored for their academic accolades by the Sun Belt – the most in the department’s history. Additionally, men’s basketball attendance increased by 50 percent from the previous year, while softball saw an uptick of 102 percent.
 
The 2014-15 season was highlighted by a league championship in women’s cross country and an incredible 29 individual conference crowns in men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field – with men’s outdoor track and field finishing the year ranked No. 25 in the nation. UTA placed 3rd in the Bubas Cup – just two points out of 1st. Academically, student-athletes posted a spring and cumulative GPA of 3.055 – at the time the highest in the department’s history.
 
Baker was also instrumental in 2014-15 in the department reaching an agreement with Learfield, previously Nelligan Sports Marketing, to handle its sponsorship and media rights. That contract resulted in the largest one-year sponsorship total in UT Arlington athletics history as well as the signing of the largest contract with a sponsor in Nelligan Sports Marketing history.
 
Baker helped the university transition from the Western Athletic Conference to the Sun Belt Conference, which the Mavericks joined on July 1, 2013.
 
In the department’s first season in the Sun Belt, men’s track and captured its first triple crown. Baseball set a program record with six players taken in the MLB Draft, including three in the top-10 rounds.
 
The 2012-13 season was not only Baker’s first full year in Arlington, but also UTA’s one and only year in the Western Athletic Conference following 48 years as a member of the Southland Conference.
 
Men’s cross country won the WAC Championship, while baseball claimed a share of the regular-season title for what was its second-consecutive league championship. Paul McConnell won the conference’s men’s individual golf championship, while 13 members of the men’s and women’s track squads reached the NCAA West Preliminary Round, with three going on to the National Championships.
 
During the year, UTA unveiled new indoor hitting and practice facilities for baseball and softball. Baker then announced the plans for a $5.5 million project to build clubhouses for each of those teams in September of 2013 which opened for the 2015 season.
 
Baker previously served as associate athletic director for events, operations and sports programs at the University of Texas, where he helped direct significant growth in one of the nation’s most recognized athletics programs.
 
In his 20 years with the Longhorns, Baker had wide-ranging responsibilities, from directing merchandising and concessions, to overseeing more than a dozen athletic facilities construction projects. He had chief responsibility for the Texas golf and baseball programs and directed all game-day activities for football.
 
Baker earned his bachelor of science degree in business administration from Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio, and held positions with Gladieux Food Service at Ohio State University and the University of Florida before joining Texas in 1991.
 
Jim married the former Nicole Lavoy on New Year's 2019. He and his late wife, Nancy Ann Baker, shared 32 years of marriage. They have two sons, Nate and Jordan – who is married to Tiko.