Who is Bob Bowlsby? Big 12 debuts award, given to conference's top men's and women's athletes
Bob Bowlsby has been an integral figure to the Big 12, and 2023 was the first year an award was named after him. The winners of the inaugural Bob Bowlsby Awards were Iowa State's Ashley Joens and TCU's Max Duggen.
The Big 12 has established the Bob Bowlsby Award, to be given to a male and female athlete who best represent leadership and excellence.
First winners are:
-TCU QB Max Duggan
-Iowa State WBB player Ashley Joens
According to the Big 12's official website, "the award is bestowed to the two student-athletes (one male and one female) who represent the absolute best in the Big 12 for their leadership and excellence, on and off the field of competition."
Who is Bob Bowlsby, and what is his connection to the Big 12?
Who is Bob Bowlsby?
Bob Bowlsby was the Big 12 commissioner from 2012-2022. He was also the athletic director at the Iowa, Northern Iowa and Stanford University. Bowlsby stepped down in 2022 with three years remaining on his contract, allowing Brett Yormark to take over as the current commissioner of the conference.
Bowlsby spoke to ESPN as he made the announcement and said he had an honest conversation with conference leaders about his decision:
"They knew that sometime in the next year or two I was going to look for an off-ramp, and so the more we talked about it, the more we got to the point where, yeah, maybe it makes sense to transition now and bring somebody in that has a little longer runway."
Bowlsby is married to Candice, and they have four children together.
What is Bowlsby's legacy in the Big 12?
Bowlsby was the head of the Big 12 when both the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners announced they were leaving for the Southeastern Conference. However, he was able to steady the conference after losing two major programs by bringing in the BYU Cougars, UCF Knights, Houston Cougars and Cincinnati Bearcats.
He also was part of the College Football Playoff management committee that helped college football expand to a 12-team format.
One major factor to consider is the fact that Bowlsby was the Big 12 commissioner throughout the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic. He spoke about that as well to ESPN about the amount of stress he was under at that time:
"On the 14th of August (2020), we didn't know if we were playing football two weeks later. When you consider the amount of revenue and the number of student-athletes that are involved, the implications of canceling football games, those are pretty weighty decisions that have to be made in real time, and they come with their fair share of stress."
Bowlsby was one of the best commissioners in college football as he was able to guide the Big 12 through some tough times.