Former EHS associate principal and coach, Joel Maturi, honored by University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota will name its 5,000-seat volleyball, wrestling and gymnastics pavillion after former athletic director Joel Maturi, who retired from the position in 2012, after an 11-year tenure.

When Maturi left Edgewood, he entered collegiate athletic administration at the University of Wisconsin (1987-1996), where he served nearly a decade before accepting his first head athletic director position at the University of Denver (1996-98). From 1998-2002 he was the director of athletics at Miami University in Ohio until he was named the director of athletics at the University of Minnesota in July of 2002.

Gopher sports teams won seven national championships while Joel was at the University of Minnesota. He helped merge the men’s and women’s athletics departments into one unit and was instrumental in bringing Gopher football back to campus at TCF Bank Stadium.

The pavillion naming was revealed on WCCO Radio’s Sports Huddle with Sid Hartman and Dave Mona, and covered by CBS Minnesota.