COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State Athletics Director Gene Smith was awarded the David Williams II Leadership Award during the 2022 Collegiate Sports Summit this week.
The award goes to an athletics director who personifies exemplary leadership, vision, service and dedication in intercollegiate athletics.
"Gene is completely and passionately focused on making a difference for young men and young women," said retired Penn State Athletics Director Sandy Barbour.
The award is named after David Williams, who was at Ohio State for 14 years. He died in 2019.
“I feel so honored and privileged to have the opportunity to receive this award in David’s name,” Smith said. “He was a trailblazer. We’re both very different in where we came from, but we shared one passion and that was the student-athletes that all of us in this room serve."
This is Smith's 18th year at Ohio State.
