Harold Swanagan Men's Basketball Staff

Harold Swanagan, a forward on the University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team from 1998-02, served eleven seasons as the Director of Men’s Basketball Operations after being named to the position on July 15, 2009. Previously, Harold served as the athletic department’s coordinator of student welfare and development from 2005-09.

As director of basketball operations, Swanagan played an integral role in the overall day-to-day operations of the Irish basketball program. Swanagan also served as the director of the Notre Dame basketball summer camps. He worked closely with Notre Dame’s marketing department and student welfare and development office in coordinating the team’s community service efforts.

A four-year monogram winner, Swanagan served as a tri-captain for the Irish during his senior season in 2001-02. After graduation, he spend two years playing overseas. His first stint was with ENAD in Nicosia, Cyprus, during the 2002-03 season, followed by a year with Autun in Autun, France, in 2003-04.

Swanagan returned to Notre Dame in May 2004 and served as an intern with the strength and conditioning program during the 2004-05 school year before assuming his post in the student welfare and development office. He served as the strength and conditioning coach for the 2005 National Champion Notre Dame Fencing Team during his single year on the strength staff.

While playing forward for the Irish, the Hopkinsville, Kentucky, native, appeared in 127 contests and made 78 starts while averaging 6.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Swanagan also helped Notre Dame to a 78-52 overall record and 37-29 mark in BIG EAST play during his four seasons. In his senior season (2001-02), he averaged career bests of 8.1 points and 6.7 rebounds per game while leading the Irish to a 22-11 record (10-6 in BIG EAST play) and their second consecutive trip to the second round of the NCAA Championship. That year, he also earned a spot on the BIG EAST Academic All-Star Team.

A member of the 2000-01 Notre Dame team that won the school’s first BIG EAST regular-season title, Swanagan helped the Irish capture the conference’s West Division crown with an 11-5 record en route to a final 20-10 mark during Irish head coach Mike Brey’s first season. Swanagan and his teammates made their first NCAA Championship appearance in more than a decade in 2001 and advanced to the second round.

As a sophomore in 1999-2000, Swanagan helped Notre Dame to a 22-15 record and a berth in the championship game of the National Invitation Tournament.

Since returning to the South Bend area, Swanagan played professionally for the Elkhart Express (formerly of the International Basketball League) from 2005-07 and led that franchise to two IBL championships in 2006 and 2007. He also served as assistant varsity girls basketball coach at nearby Marian High School during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.

In his role with the student welfare and development department, Swanagan was part of the department’s award-winning Life Skills and student-athlete development programs.

Much of Swanagan’s job centered around career development and coordinating community service activities for the more than 700 student-athletes on the school’s 26 athletics teams. Swanagan earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters in May 2002 and received a master’s degree in education with an emphasis in educational leadership from Indiana University-South Bend in May 2009.

Swanagan and his wife, Andrea, reside in South Bend. She is a 2002 Notre Dame graduate and received her MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. She is a strategic planning program director in the Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Research.

The couple have two daughters, Elena and Vera, and a son, Xavier.