His fiscal leadership helped Arizona remain one of the lone black-ink athletics programs among a small handful of institutions that rely exclusively on generated funds and do not receive state-appropriated monies. During his time in Tucson, he served as the Pacific-10 Conference president, chair of the Pac-10 Athletic Directors Revenue Sharing Committee and a member of the conference’s Bowl Committee and Basketball Tournament Subcommittee. He also was a member of the Rose Bowl Management Committee, the NCAA Fellows program, NACDA President, and chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, on which he served five years.

His work at Arizona and its extension on the national level earned him an Athletic Director of the Year Award from the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics in 2006 for Division I-A.

Livengood initiated Campaign Arizona, which raised more than $130 million for athletic facility improvements and endowments while the Wildcats maintained a top-25 competitive record in the NACDA Directors’ Cup (formerly Sears Cup), including high rankings of sixth in 1993-94, fourth in 1994-95, seventh in 1995-96, sixth in both 1996-97 and 1997-98 and ninth in 2001-02.

That record reflects success throughout Arizona’s broad-based program, highlighted by participation in the 1994 and 2001 NCAA Men’s Final Four and champions of the 1997 NCAA Men’s National Basketball Tournament. Arizona also won the 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2006 and 2007 NCAA Women’s Softball College World Series titles, the 1996 and 2000 NCAA Women’s Golf title and the 2008 men’s and women’s NCAA Swimming Championships.

UA’s student-athlete graduation rate continued to be historically higher than that of the general student body rate during his tenure at UA. Nearly 100 student-athletes earned conference or regional all-academic honors, and 20 percent of UA student-athletes attained honors-level cumulative grade point averages.

Livengood is a member of the NCAA Fellows Program to mentor new athletic directors, has served as a member of the NCAA Peer Review Team from 1994-99, the NCAA Gender Equity Task Force, and the Women’s Committee on Athletics. He has been a member of the NACDA Preseason Football Games Committee since 2000 and was a member of the NACDA Strategic Planning
Committee from 1999-2001. He served as NACDA president in 1998-1999, and in 1999 was named Division I-A Athletic Director of the Year. He is also a member of the Division 1-A Athletic Directors Association, having served as president of that association in 1998.

Livengood spent six years as the Athletics Director at Washington State University from 1988-93 where he developed what is still widely regarded as a model gender equity program. In addition he laid the groundwork for a student-athlete wellness center that is regarded as one of the finest in the nation. Livengood began his administrative career in 1980 as the Associate Director for Development and Public Relations at Washington State before becoming the Athletics Director at Southern Illinois, a position he held until returning to Washington State.

Born March 28, 1945, in Walla Walla, Wash., he received his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in 1968 and completed his fifth-year education requirement for teaching certification at Central Washington University in 1972. He taught and served as an assistant football coach and track coach at Moses Lake High School in Washington in 1968-69, and as head football and basketball coach and counselor at Ephrata High School in Washington from 1972-80 before moving into athletics administration.

Jim and his wife, Linda, have two grown children, Michelle, a lawyer in Memphis, and Jeremy, who resides in Phoenix. Both children are University of Arizona graduates. Michelle earned her law degree in May 2000 and Jeremy graduated in December1999.

The Livengoods are the proud grandparents of twin daughters, Emma and Isabella, born to Michelle and husband, Jack Murphy, in March 2009.