Staff Directory
- Title:
- Vice President and Director of Athletics
- Email:
- Phone:
- 289-8694
Since arriving at the University of Richmond in 2018, John Hardt has worked to reshape Spider Athletics around the central focus of maintaining and supporting the unrivaled student-athlete experience available at Richmond. Hardt has prioritized leadership and integrity, fairness and equity, fiscal responsibility, and academic and athletic excellence while leading Spider Athletics to a record of competitive and scholastic success.
Richmond Athletics has won 27 regular season and conference tournament championships during Hardt’s tenure while producing academic results that are unparalleled in school history and throughout most of the NCAA. In 2024-25, Richmond's women's basketball and men's lacrosse programs made history, registering their first NCAA Tournament wins and marking the third time in the 21st century that multiple Spider sports programs advanced past the first round of the NCAA Championships in the same school year. In addition to women's basketball (regular season) and men's lacrosse (regular season and conference tournament), the women's golf and football teams won conference championships during the year. Spider Football posted a perfect conference record of 8-0 in its final CAA season, recording the program's first unbeaten conference slate since 1968 as UR ended its membership in the CAA and joined the Patriot League on February 1. In November, Graduation Success Rate (GSR) data released by the NCAA showed 98 percent of Richmond student-athletes progressing towards their degrees, tied for the sixth highest rate in all of Division I.
During the 2023-24 school year, 10 of Richmond's 17 varsity programs finished either first or second in their conference, with women's basketball (regular season and tournament), men's basketball (regular season), women's lacrosse (tournament) and football winning conference championships. During the spring semester, every Spiders team posted a term GPA of 3.0 or greater, a first for Richmond Athletics in a semester not governed by COVID-19 grading policies.
In June 2023, Richmond finished first among all Atlantic 10 schools in the prestigious LEARFIELD Directors' Cup standings on the strength of NCAA Championship performances by women's lacrosse, men's lacrosse, football, and women's golf during the 2022-23 school year. It marked the first time UR placed first in the conference since 2006.
Upon arriving at Richmond on January 1, 2018, Hardt began the process of developing a vision for the future of Spider Athletics. His efforts culminated in the Richmond Athletics Strategic Plan, which was formally introduced in August 2021. The plan centers around student-athlete success and aligns with the University’s broader academic mission and institutional priorities.
At its core, the strategic plan is a road map to ensure that all Spider student-athletes are able to achieve their athletic, academic, and personal aspirations — regardless of background. It emphasizes the need for uncompromising standards of integrity and ethics. It recognizes Richmond’s role in developing the next generation of leaders for our campus community and beyond. It affirms the need to attract and manage the resources required to fulfill this mission. It represents a system that guides Spider Athletics in the present and secures a successful future for the University of Richmond in the ever-changing world of intercollegiate athletics.
Under Hardt’s direction and in support of the organization's strategic plan, Richmond Athletics launched its student-athlete success program in 2021. The effort, now known as Spider Performance or SP4, aims to enhance the student-athlete experience at Richmond by providing Spiders with the programs, resources, and support needed to achieve academic, athletic, personal, and professional success.
Early in his tenure, Hardt oversaw the transformation of the Spider Club into the Spider Athletic Fund, part of a new approach to advancement and development for Richmond Athletics that emphasized philanthropy and the benefits of backing the Spiders. The approach has resulted in record-breaking support for Richmond Athletics, as the department raised more than $1.28 million during #URHere Giving Day in 2025, a figure more than 10 times greater than the amount raised by Athletics during the inaugural Giving Day in 2019.
Contributions from fans, friends, family, and others have allowed Richmond Athletics to offer Spider student-athletes a suite of athletic facilities that have been ranked as high as fifth in the nation by The Princeton Review during Hardt's tenure.
In 2020, Richmond Athletics opened the Queally Athletics Center, a state-of-the-art practice facility that serves as the day-to-day home of the men’s and women’s basketball programs. At the same time, Millhiser Gymnasium, in service to Spider Athletics for more than a century, was transformed into the home of the Student-Athlete Development Center, housing the Academic Services, Leadership, and Development programs for Spider Athletics.
Other facilities that were built or renovated during Hardt’s tenure include the construction of a practice facility for Spider golf at Independence Golf Club, a new team facility including locker rooms, a press box, and broadcast spaces for field hockey at Crenshaw Field, an indoor hitting and pitching facility for Spider baseball as well as a new outfield fan plaza at Pitt Field, enhancements to President’s Field at River Road to make the facility the new home of Spider soccer, the creation of club level seating and the replacement of the videoboard and sound system at Robins Stadium, as well as upgrades to the competition surfaces, a complete renovation to the Westhampton Tennis Courts, and more.
Hardt also oversaw the completion of the Blandford-Everett Student-Athlete Performance Center on the ground floor of the Robins Center, a suite of spaces that includes the Congdon Sports Medicine Center, the Neuhoff Football Locker Room, the Willis Strength & Conditioning Room, and a Sports Performance Fueling Station.
Many times during Hardt’s tenure, Richmond Athletics has been honored for its record of scholastic achievement. In November 2024, Richmond posted a 98% Graduation Success Rate, tied for sixth highest in all of Division I. During the 2023-24 school year, Spider swimming & diving posted a 3.795 team GPA, the second-highest among all Division I swimming & diving teams, and the men’s golf team was crowned “Academic National Champions” in 2021 after posting the highest team GPA of the more than 1,000 men's college golf teams across all NCAA divisions, the NAIA, and the NJCAA.
Hardt remains a major figure in intercollegiate athletics leadership at the national and conference levels. In 2022, he was named chairman of the Atlantic 10 Sports Competition Committee. He has also served on the league’s Finance Committee.
Hardt has steered the Richmond Athletics program through changes that have fundamentally altered the foundations of intercollegiate athletics. His leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic enabled all Spider sports teams to complete their seasons during the 2020-21 school year while prioritizing the health and well-being of Richmond’s student-athletes and staff. In 2025, Richmond opted into the terms of the House v. NCAA settlement, beginning direct payments to men's and women's basketball players, with Hardt noting the decision was essential to continuing Spider Athletics' tradition of competitive excellence at the highest possible level.
In the era of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) regulations, Hardt has made certain that UR student-athletes are fully able to realize their value. The Spider NIL Initiative includes partnerships with the Robins School of Business and University of Richmond School of Law that offer NIL programming and resources for each student-athlete as well as the creation of the Richmond Spiders NIL Marketplace, which facilitates business connections between Spiders and organizations interested in working with UR student-athletes. Spider student-athletes can also benefit from the sale of custom Richmond Athletics apparel through a partnership with Athlete's Thread.
In the ever-changing and evolving world of intercollegiate sports, Hardt’s focus on providing Spiders with a premier student-athlete experience ensures that Richmond Athletics will continue to thrive.
Hardt came to Richmond following 18 years as the Director of Athletics at Bucknell University. During Hardt’s tenure, Bucknell Athletics orchestrated one of the nation’s most aggressive athletics facilities overhauls, built and expanded relationships with alumni and major donors, created an athletics environmental sustainability program, and launched a comprehensive athletics leadership program.
Hardt directed a 27-sport varsity athletics program at the forefront of the Patriot League, both on the playing fields and in the classroom. From Presidents’ Cups to Academic All-Americans to league championships to leading the nation in student-athlete graduation rate, Hardt built on the proud heritage of Bison Athletics.
Hardt received the Gen. Robert R. Neyland Outstanding Athletic Director Award in March 2008 at the All-American Football Foundation’s Banquet of Champions, in part for his leadership on issues of athletics governance at the national level. That includes serving as the Chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Committee in 2017-18, a body that he first joined in 2014. Hardt also chaired the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Committee in 2006-07, and served on the Division I Baseball Committee and the NCAA Division I Leadership Council.
Hardt’s experience also includes administrative stints at Michigan State University and Syracuse University. With the Spartans, he served four years as Associate Director of Athletics. While there, Hardt supervised the sports medicine staff, strength and conditioning program, equipment operations, computing and technology services and NCAA/Big Ten rules compliance. He also handled legal and contractual issues for the department.
Prior to his tenure at MSU, Hardt spent five years at Syracuse University as Director of Athletic Compliance. In addition, Hardt served four years with the NCAA’s national office as a Compliance Representative.
A native Iowan, Hardt is a 1984 honors graduate of the University of Iowa, where he was a member of the Hawkeyes 1982 Rose Bowl football team. He later earned his law degree from Iowa.
Hardt's Professional Career At A Glance
Vice President and Director of Athletics, University of Richmond. January 2018 — Present
Director of Athletics and Recreation, Bucknell University. February 2000 — December 2017
Associate Director of Athletics, Michigan State University. September 1996 — January 2000
Director of Athletic Compliance, Syracuse University. April 1992 — September 1996
NCAA Compliance Representative, NCAA. November 1988 — March 1992
Administrative Assistant/Counselor, University of Iowa. May 1986 — October 1988
