Longtime Augsburg athletic director Jeff Swenson to retire

Jeff Swenson, a constant in Augsburg athletics since 1975, will retire as athletic director after this school year. He wrestled for the Auggies from 1975 to ’79, coached wrestling for 25 years and started overseeing the athletic department in 2001. His title became AD in 2007.

Swenson won a national championship as a senior in 1979. His career record wrestling for the Auggies was 102-17.

He served as an assistant wrestling coach to John Grygelko in 1979-80, then became the head coach in 1980, and created a dynasty. The Auggies won 10 national titles in NCAA Division III in his 25 seasons, and have added five more (including the past two) with him as athletic director.

“This will be 50 years as an Auggie, and my love of this place has never wavered.” Swenson said. “I have talked to the president [Paul Pribbenow] and will have a role as a consultant when needed.”

Pribbenow said in a statement: “It’s hard to overstate Jeff Swenson’s impact on intercollegiate athletics at Augsburg over the past five decades. It can’t be measured solely in statistics or even championships, impressive as those numbers may be. Jeff’s true legacy is the generations of student-athletes who found identity, purpose, and belonging through athletics under his leadership.”

Swenson, 67, and his wife, Melissa, will need time to spend watching their sons compete — in wrestling, of course.

Brady was a standout at Mounds View High School and is now a freshman at Augsburg. Brett and Ethan are Mounds View senior twins, with Brett at the lower weights and Ethan at the higher weights.

Brett is being recruited by the Gophers and other Division I programs. Does that mean he won’t be an Auggie?

“Nothing official yet,” Jeff Swenson said Thursday.