F. Gregory Campbell was the 18th president of Carthage College. From his arrival in August 1987 to 2011, full-time student enrollment grew from 800 to 2,500, and total enrollment exceeded 3,400 students. In 2011, nearly 7,000 high school seniors applied for 720 positions in the freshman class.
Mr. Campbell came to Carthage from The University of Chicago, where he had been special assistant to the president, secretary of the Board of Trustees, and senior lecturer. Before his time at Carthage, Mr. Campbell held administrative and/or faculty positions at Yale University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
One of Mr. Campbell’s legacies is the transformation of the Carthage athletic program into a nationally-recognized leader. Since his start in 1987, Carthage constructed four major athletic facilities, including the Carthage Softball Field in 1997, the Smeds Tennis Center in 1999, the N.E. Tarble Athletic and Recreation Center in 2000 and Tarble Arena in 2009. The new Student Union, opened in 2011, includes permanent seating for Carthage fans at Art Keller Field and a new press box.
Mr. Campbell also oversaw a dramatic increases in the number of students participating in varsity and intramural athletics, along with a growth in coaching and athletic staff to support these activities.
Nearly 30 percent of Carthage undergraduates participated in athletics at the end of his tenure, with more than 700 students involved in 24 NCAA intercollegiate sports. Seven sports were added during Mr. Campbell’s time at Carthage: men’s and women’s soccer, women’s golf, men’s volleyball, women’s water polo and both men’s and women’s lacrosse.
These advances led directly to Carthage’s ascent into the upper tier of NCAA Division III athletics. Since 1987, the Red Men or the Lady Reds have won 66 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin titles and placed in the top-eight in the nation 20 times.
