John V. Lombardi - University of Florida

University of Florida

Lombardi served as the ninth president of the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida, from 1990 to 1999. He was barely settled in his job at the beginning of the fall 1990 semester when Lombardi was confronted by one of the most serious crises in the university's history—the horrific murders of five students by serial killer Danny Rolling. He is remembered as both comforter-in-chief and as a "student's president" during his term as president. As part of his athletics reform agenda, Lombardi created the Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, which ultimately removed responsibility for student-athlete academics from the control of the University Athletic Association (UAA) and placed it under the control of the committee. Lombardi actively reinserted the office of the president in the UAA's chain of decision-making; the president retained final authority over all major decisions. He implemented further institutional controls intended to promote the welfare and academic achievement of student-athletes and continued compliance with the rules of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA). Lombardi was also responsible for the selection of Jeremy Foley as the new athletic director in 1992, now recognized as one of the most successful athletic directors in NCAA Division I sports. His relationships with the Florida Board of Regents and the Florida Legislature were characterized by a series of ups and downs, confrontation followed by conciliation, usually involving conflicts over declining state financial support and conflicting state education funding priorities of the legislature. Lombardi resigned as president in 1999, but continued to teach as a member of the history faculty until 2002.

Lombardi's enthusiasm for classic cars led him and a friend to operate Farmer's Garage, a specialty shop for older model automobiles. At the University of Florida, he is fondly remembered for driving about the Gainesville campus in an old red pickup truck.