Honors & Accomplishments
• Teams have won 105 Ivy League team titles and 35 total national championships.
• Member of five Halls of Fame.
• Past member and chairman of numerous NCAA and Ivy League committees.
Athletics Administrative Experience
• Director of Athletics, Cornell University (1999-present)
• Associate Director of Athletics, Cornell University (1996-99)
• Assistant Director of Public Affairs, Cornell University (1988-90)
Non-Athletics Administrative Experience
• Partner and co-owner, Advantage Sports and Fitness, Inc. (1993-96)
• Product Marketing Manager, Deanco Inc. (1990-93)
Boards and Committees
• NCAA Championships Cabinet (2003-06)
• NCAA Misconduct Appeals Committee
• NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel
• NCAA Wrestling Committee (1997-2001, 2008-12, 2019-23)
• Chairman of the Ivy League Athletic Directors Committee on Administration
• Cornell President’s Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs
• Cornell President’s Council of Mental Health and Welfare
• Wells College Board of Trustees (2006-13)
Coaching Experience
• Head Coach, Cornell University (1974-88)
• Teams won four Ivy League championships
• Coached 10 NCAA qualifiers, an All-American and three Eastern champions
• Had a 108-82-1 career dual meet record
• Member of EIWA, Franklin & Marshall Athletics, New York State Wrestling Coaches and New York chapter of the National Wrestling Halls of Fame.
• Assistant Coach, Colgate University (1973-74)
• Assistant Coach, Franklin & Marshall College (1972-73)
Education
• B.A., History, Franklin & Marshall (1972)
• M.A., Counseling and Guidance, Colgate (1973)
At Cornell
Since taking over as Cornell University’s director of athletics and physical education in 1999, Andy Noel has led the Big Red athletics program to unprecedented success while setting a course for his vision of continued prosperity.
His position was endowed in December 2003 by Scott Smith ’79 and Jack ’58 and Diane ’61 Meakem. Jack is a former oarsman and member of Cornell’s Athletic Hall of Fame, while Scott wrestled under Noel during his time on East Hill.
The Big Red teams have parlayed Noel’s accomplishments into success on and off the playing field. Cornell’s athletic teams have won 105 Ivy League team titles and 35 national championships (17 team, 18 individual) during his tenure. The program captured 31 Ivy titles during a four-year span from 2002-03 through 2005-06, setting a Cornell record dating back to the inception of the Ivy League, including a record nine in 2005-06. Cornell has won at least six Ivy titles in 12 different seasons dating back to 2002-03 after hitting that mark just three times in the first 46 years of Ancient Eight competition.
Since becoming director, Noel has continued to hire top coaches and successfully upgrade a number of department facilities (including renovating Schoellkopf Hall, Lynah Rink, Hoy Field and Niemand*Robison Field and building the Friedman Wrestling Center and Marsha Dodson Field). During his tenure, he has also been a member of the team that raised more than $70 million in support of capital projects and endowment, helping secure the financial future of the department. During the campaign, 21 coaching and staff positions were endowed, bringing the total number of endowed positions within the department to 30, the most of any school in the country. He also added women’s sailing to become the department’s 37th varsity sport.
Cornell’s teams have won, on average, 53 percent of their contests during his tenure and have surpassed .500 in Ivy League competition eight times since 2004-05 – a mark it had hit just one other time since 1980.
Noel has built a program that is nationally competitive across the board. In 16 of the last 17 seasons, Cornell has ranked among the top 100 programs in the NACDA Director's Cup standings with a high of 52nd in 2009-10. It has finished in the top half of the Ivy standings by that measure in 11 of the last 14 seasons, including holding down the top spot among Ancient Eight schools in 2006-07.
Prior to Serving As Athletics Director
After serving as head wrestling coach for 14 years, Noel spent two years as an assistant director in the department’s public affairs office, implementing the athletic department’s annual giving program. After six years in the private sector, Noel returned to Cornell in 1996 as an Associate Director of Athletics. Three years later, Noel was tapped to take over the Big Red’s athletics program.
Coaching Career
Noel was the Big Red’s head wrestling coach from 1974-88, helping his teams to four Ivy League championships and four runner-up finishes. Under Noel’s direction, the wrestling team established a strong network of support from alumni and friends. In 1990, he was recognized at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships for his distinguished coaching career at Cornell, and in 1992 he was inducted into the New York State Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the New York chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2014.
Noel coached 10 NCAA qualifiers, three EIWA champions and an All-American and guided his teams to a 108-82-1 dual meet record, including 56-22 against Ivy League foes. His teams claimed four unbeaten conference titles in his final six seasons on the sidelines, and with wrestlers he recruited and developed, the teams went unbeaten in Ivy play for the next five years.
Prior to taking over the Cornell program, Noel spent one season each at Franklin & Marshall and Colgate as an assistant coach.
Regional and National Involvement in Athletics
In addition to his coaching and administrative career, Noel served on the wrestling committee of the National Collegiate Athletic Association from 1997-2001 and was reappointed for a four-year term in 2008. He was a member of the NCAA Championships Cabinet from 2003-06 and served on both the Misconduct Appeals Subcommittee and the Playing Rules Oversight Panel. Noel is a past chairman of the Ivy League athletic directors’ committee on administration and serves on the Cornell President’s Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs and the Council of Mental Health and Welfare. In 2006, he was named to the Wells College Board of Trustees and was named to a second term that ended in 2013.
Wrestling Career
A three-year starter and two-year captain at Franklin & Marshall after an unbeaten, unscored-upon season on the freshman team, Noel finished his varsity career unbeaten in home duals. He posted a 31-5 total dual meet record and never lost to an Ivy League opponent. The Franklin & Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame selection caped his senior year with a second place finish at the EIWA championships, falling to eventual world champion Lloyd Keaser of Navy. Noel was selected as the team's Most Valuable Wrestler of 1972 and received the Uncle Charlie Mayser Award.
Prior to attending F&M, Noel starred at Lancaster Catholic HS. He was the 1968 state champion, posting a 22-0 record that year and a 38-4 overall mark for his career.
Education
A native of Lancaster, Pa., he graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1972 with a bachelor of arts degree in history and received his master of arts degree in counseling and guidance from Colgate University in 1973.
Personal
Noel has a son Jonathan ‘04 and two daughters, Amanda ‘07 and Amelie.
Updated October 2022
