TEMPE – It wasn’t a go-ahead touchdown or a game-winning basket that got him out of his seat like this, but the jubilation was all the same for Jean Boyd.
In the fall of 2012, for the first time in Sun Devil Athletics history, the department’s graduation success rate for its student-athletes had topped 80 percent. It prompted a department-wide party, considering the GSR lived below the 70 percent threshold just several years prior.
“We were at a 69 percent GSR, and we worked for years [to improve it],” Andrea Lore, ASU's associate athletic director of Academic & Student Development, said. “How can we help increase our graduation rates? We spent time, research, trial and error, trying to figure out what kind of programming our students need. Early on, Jean said, ‘Our goal is 80 percent.’ We’re like, OK!
“We’re working hard with our students, supporting them, helping our student-athletes come back and finish their degrees and then I remember the day we hit 80 percent and there was a big celebration.”
Total euphoria, Lore remembers. Dreams had been fulfilled and hard work had been rewarded. Two days later, however, Lore received an email from Boyd. His goals had since pivoted:
“Let’s go for 90 [percent]!”
In December 2023, Sun Devil Athletics announced a new all-time high GSR of 93 percent, as 13 teams posted 100 percent marks. Ranked third in the Pac-12 Conference, the department extended its streak of either maintaining or surpassing its all-time best GSR every year since 2008.
Many credit the academic ascent to Jean Boyd, the department’s Deputy Athletics Director, who was committed to elevating the opportunities and resources in-place to aid the development of student-athletes. He created organizations and systems, sayings and mantras, and breathed culture into a department when it needed it most, like his Scholar Baller program, aimed at combining excellence in athletics and academics by honoring athletes who hold a 3.0 GPA or higher.
His creation of the Tip of the Fork program also helped challenge ASU’s highest-achieving student-athletes to becoming transformative leaders, helping them gain an understanding of who they are as a leader, build and develop leadership skills, and ultimately create and implement a community service initiative.
In May 2023, it was announced that ASU had recorded a multiyear Academic Progress Rate (APR) average of 995 over a four-year period (2018-19 to 2021-22), which ties the all-time ASU high and first in the Pac-12 for the second year in a row.
“It’s not single-handed, but under his leadership, ASU has been incredibly relevant and respected on a national scale because of things under his purview,” Kim Durand, Deputy Athletic Director of Student Services at the University of Washington, said. “ASU without Jean, you wouldn’t be as relevant and as groundbreaking in a lot of important areas serving student-athletes.”
A 29-year professional career at SDA, Boyd’s deep-rooted love for the Sun Devils is multifaceted.
He joined the football team in January 1991 as a transfer from Southern California’s Cerritos College, spending two seasons in the Maroon & Gold uniform. In July 1995, he became a management intern for Sun Devil Athletics, marking the start of a tenure that included stops in various roles centered around academics and student-athlete development.
Since October 2017, he’s served as the Deputy Athletics Director, managing the overall implementation of SDA’s strategic plan and serving as the department’s Chief Operating Officer (COO). Additionally, Boyd serves as the primary sport administrator and General Manager (GM) for football.
There have been many chapters to Boyd’s Sun Devil story, but none will impact more than this next one. After three-plus decades in Tempe, Boyd announced in March a plan to retire at the beginning of May.
Sun Devil Athletics interviewed a half-dozen people to help tell the story of Jean Boyd – the former student-athlete who used his passion, purpose and profession to transform the lives of the hundreds he encountered along the way.
In December 2023, Sun Devil Athletics announced a new all-time high GSR of 93 percent, as 13 teams posted 100 percent marks. Ranked third in the Pac-12 Conference, the department extended its streak of either maintaining or surpassing its all-time best GSR every year since 2008.
Many credit the academic ascent to Jean Boyd, the department’s Deputy Athletics Director, who was committed to elevating the opportunities and resources in-place to aid the development of student-athletes. He created organizations and systems, sayings and mantras, and breathed culture into a department when it needed it most, like his Scholar Baller program, aimed at combining excellence in athletics and academics by honoring athletes who hold a 3.0 GPA or higher.
His creation of the Tip of the Fork program also helped challenge ASU’s highest-achieving student-athletes to becoming transformative leaders, helping them gain an understanding of who they are as a leader, build and develop leadership skills, and ultimately create and implement a community service initiative.
In May 2023, it was announced that ASU had recorded a multiyear Academic Progress Rate (APR) average of 995 over a four-year period (2018-19 to 2021-22), which ties the all-time ASU high and first in the Pac-12 for the second year in a row.
“It’s not single-handed, but under his leadership, ASU has been incredibly relevant and respected on a national scale because of things under his purview,” Kim Durand, Deputy Athletic Director of Student Services at the University of Washington, said. “ASU without Jean, you wouldn’t be as relevant and as groundbreaking in a lot of important areas serving student-athletes.”
A 29-year professional career at SDA, Boyd’s deep-rooted love for the Sun Devils is multifaceted.
He joined the football team in January 1991 as a transfer from Southern California’s Cerritos College, spending two seasons in the Maroon & Gold uniform. In July 1995, he became a management intern for Sun Devil Athletics, marking the start of a tenure that included stops in various roles centered around academics and student-athlete development.
Since October 2017, he’s served as the Deputy Athletics Director, managing the overall implementation of SDA’s strategic plan and serving as the department’s Chief Operating Officer (COO). Additionally, Boyd serves as the primary sport administrator and General Manager (GM) for football.
There have been many chapters to Boyd’s Sun Devil story, but none will impact more than this next one. After three-plus decades in Tempe, Boyd announced in March a plan to retire at the beginning of May.
Sun Devil Athletics interviewed a half-dozen people to help tell the story of Jean Boyd – the former student-athlete who used his passion, purpose and profession to transform the lives of the hundreds he encountered along the way.
Sandy Hatfield Clubb first learned of Jean Boyd one summer at Camp Tontozona while Boyd, then a member of the Sun Devil football team, was training in the team’s annual summer camp in northern Arizona. Boyd met with members of the media post-practice one afternoon and, as an older, veteran leader, updated reporters on the state of the team.
He was thoughtful and composed, genuine and insightful. Hatfield Clubb, then a senior associate athletic director, watched from afar and took note of how he carried himself.
It was a memory etched into Hatfield Clubb’s mind and one that would later cement her decision to hire Boyd as her management intern back in 1995. Freshly removed from his playing career, Hatfield Clubb recognized Boyd’s uncanny ability to connect with student-athletes.
His career was just in its infancy, but his calling was clear.
“If there’s anybody who exemplifies ASU, it’s Jean Boyd,” she said.
As Hatfield Clubb rose through the ranks of Sun Devil Athletics, so too did Boyd. Whenever she was promoted, Boyd was tabbed to fill the vacancy. He aced anything thrown his way and always left the position better than he found it – a rather humorous realization for Hatfield Clubb, she said, given it had previously been her position.
Across a 16-year tenure in Tempe, Hatfield Clubb was continuously impressed by Boyd’s genuinity, his passion, his ability to be a teammate and his penchant for problem-solving.
Just as Sun Devil Athletics routinely honors the impact of figures like Frank Kush, Pat Tillman, Linda Vollstedt and Don Bocchi, among others, Hatfield Clubb believes Boyd deserves that recognition next.
“Sun Devil Athletics will, of course, go on,” she said, “but it’ll never be the same.”
Everyone has a Jean Boyd story, their own personal tale detailing the man’s genuinity, his passion for the Sun Devils, his love for his profession.
Dr. Kevin White, the school’s athletic director from 1996-2000, remembers the wide-eyed, hungry staffer eager to make his mark on his alma mater.
“[He was] obviously bright, well seasoned as a former student-athlete, coupled with unqualified curiosity, endless personal integrity and a relentless aspiration relative to professional growth and development.
“Jean represented all that was good, and right, about college athletics, both academically and competitively.”
Durand, a Pac-12 lifer who’s had stops at Oregon, UCLA and Washington, has never formally worked with Boyd, but the two have “grown up in the business together” as their paths overlapped and intersected given their similar roles at their respective universities.
“The thing that sticks in my mind most about Jean is how deeply and passionately he loves his school,” she said. “Everybody knows him. I have colleagues who don’t even know Jean but when his name comes up, it’s always, ‘He’s the guy from ASU, right?’ It’s hard to put into words other than to say, nationally, he’s the face and the heart and the soul of ASU.”
Former teammates strike a similar chord.
Jon Baker arrived in Tempe in the summer of 1992 as a placekicker on the football team, joining the Sun Devils as a junior college transfer. Upon his arrival, it was evident Jean was a respected leader, one of the team’s older players whose character and work ethic stood out.
“He was a leader on the team. It was clear he got along with virtually everybody, regardless of who they were, where they came from, what position they played, anything like that,” Baker said. “Jean was a guy who could spread over those differences with whoever he was talking to.”
Through mutual friends, the two became close.
The same holds true 30 years later. Baker is a sports agent, representing both players and coaches, some of which have come back to work with the Sun Devil football team. It’s often placed Baker and Boyd on opposite ends of the table amid contract negotiations for the potential hiring of coaches.
“At the end of the day, Jean is sincere in everything he does,” Baker said. “For me, that is a huge value. I don’t have to play games with Jean. I don’t have to worry about whether I’m negotiating in the middle of conversation to get his honest response. He just gives it to me. That’s the strength of our relationship. He knows at the end of the day, he wants my honest opinion and he’s going to get it. We may see things very differently and can appreciate it at the same time because we know it’s an honest response.”
The question almost feels rhetorical. It feels silly to ask, but it poses even more of a challenge to answer.
What is ASU without Jean Boyd?
Andrea Lore: “Big shoes to fill. He brought that comprehensive experience. I know we’ll figure it out, but it’ll be like, ‘Jean, you left some big shoes to fill. It’ll take six of us to fill them.’”
Michael Aguirre: “Jean is synonymous with ASU athletics,” Aguirre, a former Sun Devil football player from 1996-2000, said. “There’s been a lot of change over the last 25 years in leadership, coaches, athletic directors – one of many constants has always been Jean … People light up when they talk about Jean and the impact he’s had on them. He’s somebody you come back to when you’re back at the university. He always has time for you, cares about who you are as a person and is one of those people who’s hard to imagine Sun Devil Athletics without.”
Kim Durand: “If I may be so bold, I’m not sure ASU would have the same success it’s had as a result of him not being there.”
Dr. Kevin White: “Jean Boyd is truly a gift to college athletics.”
A gift that has transcended generations and reshaped an athletic department.
A gift that has reinforced the belief that good things happen when time and resources are poured into the development of student-athletes.
A gift that has left the Sun Devils better than he found them, just as he set out to do more than thirty years ago.
