5 Questions with Senior Associate Athletics Director Tim House

Tim House graduated with a degree in sport management from the College of Natural Resources in 2008 and a master’s degree in sport administration from Belmont University in 2010. He is now the senior associate athletics director and assistant vice president for development at Purdue University. We recently spoke with Tim to learn more about his current role and what drew him to sport management. Check out the Q&A below.

What is a typical day in your job like?

Honestly, no two days are the same for me. As succinctly as I can put it, I oversee Purdue’s version of the Wolfpack Club: The John Purdue Club. I also sit on the senior staffs for both the Purdue athletics department and the Purdue University development office. My time gets divided between working with my teammates to develop the strategy behind our fundraising efforts, actively fundraising myself, and sitting in meetings where we make decisions that hopefully develop a culture of success for both the Purdue athletics department and the development office. 

All of that being said, if I’m doing my job well, I’m spending all my time working to position those around me for success. Whether it be our student-athletes, donors or my coworkers, everything I do has to be about doing whatever is necessary to make their Purdue athletics experience a great one.

What inspired you to study your major?

If I am being totally honest, I chose sport management because of an intense desire to become the athletics director at NC State someday. I grew up in Raleigh as the son of two NC State grads, and I was blessed to go to countless games and sports camps on campus. Pack athletics became a passion from an early age. My mission in life slowly became to help NC State athletics win national titles. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that I wanted to do all I could to dominate the school in Chapel Hill.

I was initially studying political science when I found out about the sport management program from a buddy named Matt Schultz who is now a fellow alum of the program. When he told me about his classes I fell in love and walked across campus the next week to discuss the program with Dr. Candace Goode Vick.

She [Vick] helped me get into the program and did all she could to support me throughout my experience. She was an amazing resource and a blessing in my life. I also wouldn’t have had the courage to transition to sport management if it weren’t for my parents Mike and Maria House and their hard work in our family business, Casa Carbone Ristorante in Raleigh.

What impact are you making through your position?

First, I hope I’m doing my small part to help Purdue University develop elite student-athletes who leave our campus as champions in competition, but more importantly prepared to make society better every day of their lives. Secondly, I hope I am helping our team develop a great platform for the world to see those student-athletes succeed by winning the right way. We have a responsibility to represent the Purdue alumni to the rest of the world through our programs, and to do so in a way that makes them proud of their degrees and inspires generations to come to pursue a similar path to theirs.

How did the College of Natural Resources prepare you for your current position?

The simple answer would be that the College of Natural Resources required an internship experience that led me to the NC State ticket office which ultimately exposed me to the business that is college athletics. I fell in love with everything I did during that experience and the rest is history.

The classroom experience in my major was outstanding too. What I love about our field is that people of every walk of life love sports and you can learn so much about people through sports.

My classmates came from an extremely diverse cross-section of backgrounds. The awesome discussions and presentations I got to partake in allowed me to see things from different perspectives. I have gotten to work with so many different people at the various schools I’ve had the privilege to serve, and my experience at NC State absolutely played a big role in any success I’ve had in those interactions.

What advice do you have for current students?

Get to know as many people as possible on NC State’s campus. You have been blessed to attend a large and diverse school with a ton of extremely talented and intelligent people. Let those people make you better through your interactions with them. Engage them, listen to them and learn to appreciate how their uniqueness makes them great.

Also, have a long-term goal every day and don’t care at all what anyone else thinks of it. I mentioned that my goal is to be the athletic director at NC State. That goal has carried me through a lot of long days, but it has also made my journey fun. Every job has tough days, but when you are working towards a goal you embrace and appreciate, even those days are great because they are getting you closer.

It is ok if your goal changes because of experiences that shift your vision but always be working towards something. If you aren’t working towards something, you’ll eventually realize you are just going through the motions and who wants to do that?