Dear Tufts community member, 

I am writing today with the bittersweet news that John Morris, our highly successful director of athletics, will be departing the university to become the chief executive officer of Collegiate Sports Connect, a technology platform and marketplace for athletics administrative talent across the college sports landscape. John’s last day at Tufts will be Friday, June 6.

It goes without saying that John leaves a legacy of both athletic achievement and academic excellence by our student-athletes, about which you can read more in this Tufts Now piece. There are some accomplishments in particular I would like to highlight:

During John’s tenure, Tufts Athletics not only won the coveted Learfield Director’s Cup as the nation’s best Division III Athletics program in 2021-22 but also had five top-five finishes in the race for the cup during five of John’s ten years as athletic director, after never placing in the top five before. In that span, our student-athletes had a collective average GPA of 3.47, and fielded 43 Academic All-Americans and 383 Academic All-NESCAC honorees. And two of our student-athlete alumni earned the prestigious NCAA Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship, making Tufts the only NESCAC school with an honoree, and the only Division III school across the NCAA ever to have two honorees.

Such collective and sustained excellence across the board is the result of the tenor and standards John set for the entire athletics program. Thanks to his distinctively warm personality, he has had an ability to engage with students and alumni, coaches and parents, faculty, and staff, creating meaningful relationships in service of our student-athletes. In addition to his leadership, we will miss his sense of humor and his true love for Jumbo athletics.

I have asked Alexis Mastronardi, currently the deputy director of athletics, to serve as the interim director of athletics until a permanent replacement is named, and she has graciously accepted. The university will immediately launch a national search for John’s successor.

For now, let me congratulate John at this exciting next chapter in his career and thank him for all he has done in service of Tufts, its athletics program, and especially to enable the athletic and academic success of our student-athletes.

Best regards,

Sunil Kumar