Life balance beats World Series rings for University of Iowa lecturer

IOWA CITY — You can't look at Dan Matheson's resume and not be a little curious — four World Series rings with the New York Yankees, his name on the entry sign at Wrigley Field in Chicago and an investigator with the NCAA.

It begs the question, how does one go from the peak of big time athletics to teaching in a classroom at the University of Iowa?

'Why would I?' asks Matheson, 46, about leaving behind major sports, a passion that drove him since childhood. 'I now have a lifestyle a lot of my colleagues in sports envy.'

Perseverance and ingenuity allowed Matheson to chase down a dream of being in the sports world. But returning home brought life balance that would make him happy.

After graduating from Iowa City West High in 1987, where he played second base for the baseball squad, Matheson enrolled at Iowa State University to study sports management. (The program was dropped in 2005.)

During a 10-month media relations internship with the Chicago Cubs his junior year, he met then-Cubs general counsel Geoff Anderson, who helped bring outfielder Andre Dawson to Chicago. Anderson was a mentor and illustrated how law and sports could play together.

That spurred Matheson into law school at University of Minnesota.

'I didn't have a grand plan, but I knew I wanted something related to sports, something I'd get out of bed excited about,' Matheson said.

Near the end of law school, Matheson began a letter-writing campaign to each Major League Baseball club seeking a few minutes on the phone in hopes of working the upcoming spring training. He struck gold with the Yankees, who invited him to camp in Tampa.

No pay, but he could stay in the team hotel and eat at team meals. His job was to manage the fields, including setting up activities and keeping players on schedule.

He also volunteered for front-office tasks, including a statistics project.

'They appreciated my attention to detail,' Matheson said. 'The camp went well. I started hearing upper management noticing I was hustling and working hard. My philosophy was nobody would out work me. I would do whatever was asked.

'The last week down there, Mr. (George) Steinbrenner came up to me and said, 'So I hear you are the lawyer from Minnesota,'' he recalled the late Yankees owner said.

Matheson, then 25, wanted to make an impression but figured the internship would lead to a job elsewhere. Instead, the Yankees hired him. From 1996 to 2001, he climbed to baseball operations director for the Yankees farm system, which included 140 players under contract.

The Pinstripes claimed four World Series titles in five years — 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 — and Matheson received a ring for each for his contributions.

It came at a price. Matheson worked 350 days a year. He needed a change of pace.

The resignation was submitted before even interviewing for another job so to avoid 'going behind his back,' Matheson said of Steinbrenner.

Six months later he landed in Indianapolis at the NCAA headquarters, investigating major rules violations in college athletics. His legal chops and sports experience were a logical fit for conducting depositions and enforcing rules.

'I learned I can be pretty comfortable in an environment that could become confrontational,' he said. 'I could diffuse potentially volatile situations by keeping my cool.'

The travel schedule was grueling, though. By 2011, his parents were aging and he was, too, and he wanted to establish roots. Iowa made sense as his family lives here. He'd already been a guest lecturer at UI, and the school was hiring for its sport and recreation management program.

Now, Matheson teaches full time, but does he miss the limelight?

'I keep loose tabs on the Yankees, but I'm more interested in seeing how my former students are doing ...

I was never going to be satisfied working 350 days a year for the rest of my life,' he said. 'I didn't want to look back 30 years later, and the only thing I had was work.'