Rick Bay was a sports executive for 25 years in both collegiate and professional sports. He has been the athletics director at the University of Oregon, the University of Minnesota, San Diego State University and The Ohio State University. He has also worked for George Steinbrenner as the Chief Operating Officer for the New York Yankees, and was the President of the Cleveland Indians.
Rick graduated from the University of Michigan, where he played football, was an All-American wrestler and was voted the Big 10’s Most Outstanding Wrestler. He later coached wrestling at his alma mater. His last two Wolverine teams were undefeated, won a Big 10 championship and finished third and second in the NCAA Tournament – and Rick was voted the National Coach of the Year.
In 2008, Rick was named to the Illinois All-Time Illinois High School Wrestling Team and in February 2010, was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Honor. In 2010, Rick received another honor when he was elected to the National Athletic Directors’ Hall of Fame. He will inducted at a ceremony in June 2010 in conjunction with the organization’s national convention.
A man of many interests, and still an active fitness buff, Rick ran the Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 47 minutes. He has traveled the world (usually with his late beloved wife, Denice), and visited such remote places as Rwanda, Burma, Laos, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Cuba and North Korea. Last fall he traveled to the Middle East including visits to Iran, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
In August of 2007, Rick lost his wife of 23 years, Denice, in a tragic car accident. Two weeks later, he hiked to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa, which, at nearly 20,000 feet, is the highest freestanding mountain in the world. There, in a tribute to Denice, who had visited and loved the African continent, he scattered her ashes. Last June Rick returned to Rwanda for the dedication of a new building for the Imbabazi Children’s Orphanage (in the town of Gisenyi), part of which is named in Denice’s honor.
Rick is a patron of the cultural arts; He is a collector of contemporary art and enjoys attending opera and ballet performances. He has also attended professional theatre productions of all 37 plays written by Shakespeare.
From the Buckeyes to the Bronx is Rick’s first full-length book, and he has written for professional purposes throughout his career. Rick has finished the manuscript, and is working on two other books. He will be teaching a Master's level course in Sports Management at the University of Michigan in 2010.
