Northwestern, 1986
• 1985 Academic All-America First Team
• 1986 Academic All-America First Team
Joe Girardi was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 2007.
Illinois native Joe Girardi’s baseball career has taken him from behind the plate to the dugout. The former standout catcher at Northwestern University had a successful career in Major League Baseball before going on to become one of the great managers in the sport.
Born on October 14, 1964 in Peoria, Illinois, Girardi attended high school at the Spaulding Institute. He was an impressive two-sport athlete, playing quarterback for the football team and catcher for the baseball team. Girardi continued his baseball career at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from NU and was also a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.
After graduating from Northwestern, Girardi entered the MLB and played catcher for the Chicago Cubs and the Colorado Rockies. The best years of his professional career began when he was traded to the New York Yankees in 1995. He was part of the World Series Championship teams in 1996, 1998, and 1999, and was the catcher for Dwight Gooden’s no-hitter in 1996 and David Cone’s perfect game in 1999.
Girardi retired from the MLB in 2003 and then began a brief career in broadcasting with the YES Network. He became the Yankees’ bench coach in 2005 and then was named the manager of the Florida Marlins in 2006, going on to win the National League Manager of the Year Award and The Sporting News Manager of the Year Award for the National league. After taking a year off from managing to work for FOX Saturday Baseball as an in-studio analyst, Girardi was hired as the manager of the New York Yankees for the 2007-08 season.
Girardi and his wife, Kimberly, have three children, Serena, Dante, and Lena.