Breakfast Leadership Show Featured Interview with Fred Glass
In Making Your Own Luck, former Indiana University athletic director Fred Glass recounts how even a self-described "knucklehead" learned to be prepared to recognize and seize opportunities and thus make his own luck through life.
With great humor and insightful reflection, Glass details how he helped keep the Colts in Indianapolis—he spearheaded a massive convention center expansion and the building of Lucas Oil Stadium and even helped to attract the Super Bowl to his hometown. Any of these accomplishments individually would be more than enough to call Glass's career a resounding success, but they were only the beginning. In the latest stage of his journey, Glass led the rebuilding of the athletic program of his beloved alma mater, Indiana University.
Featuring a foreword from IU alumnus and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, Making Your Own Luck is a must-read not only for Indiana sports fans, but for anyone that recognizes the importance of preparation, opportunity and action in creating your own success.
About Fred:
Fred Glass is a prominent Indianapolis attorney and civic leader who served as Indiana University’s athletic director for nearly twelve years and is now a partner in the law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister. He and his wife Barbara have four children, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, and five grandchildren.
Fred served as IU’s athletic director and a vice-president from January, 2009, through its Bicentennial Year ending in June, 2020. During this time, he led a cultural and physical rebuild of the athletic department including record-setting academic, athletic, fundraising, fiscal management, and facility successes, as well as a nationally-recognized commitment to rules compliance and the holistic development of the students under his charge.
Before his appointment at IU, Fred was a partner for 15 years at Baker & Daniels (now Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath) practicing general corporate law and also served as the chair of the firm’s management committee. He also served as president of the Marion County Capital Improvement Board where he led successful negotiations to keep the Colts in Indianapolis, regularly host NCAA Final Fours, develop Lucas Oil Stadium, and dramatically expand the Indiana Convention Center. Fred also led the effort for Indianapolis to host the Super Bowl, laying the groundwork for its successful 2012 bid.
Fred previously served as chief of staff to Indiana Governor Evan Bayh and was a law clerk for Judge S. Hugh Dillin for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. He graduated from Indiana University in 1981 and its McKinney School of Law in 1984, cum laude. Fred serves and has served on a variety of civic, legal, educational, political, and sports-related boards and projects, including as chair of the Indiana Clinton/Gore Presidential campaign and as the first alumnus to chair the Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School Board of Trustees