For the last six years, Jamie Pollard has been the man in charge of running the athletics program at Iowa State as athletics director. When the Cyclone Sports Complex is complete in August, Pollard will have seen over $100 million worth of athletic facilities constructed in Ames.

In college, Pollard was a Division III champion in the 5,000-meter run. He is married and has four children.

It’s probably hard, but could you talk about a typical day on the job as athletics director?

There is no typical day — because these are short answers — so there is no typical day. (laughs)

It’s just interacting with people. Each day is different because there are different personalities to deal with and different problems — a lot of things that play out in the public, so a lot of problem solving.

What’s something about your job that maybe the general public or fans don’t know about?

One of the things I think most people would be surprised about would be the lack of time that I don’t get to spend with student-athletes. So much of my job involves the business aspects of college athletics that I spend very little time around the student-athletes.

When you do get a second away from the job, what are some of the things that you enjoy doing?

Spending time with my family at my kids’ events. I have four young kids and all of their athletic events. On a personal level I like to run, but a big part of our life is all of our kids are involved in youth track and youth sports. A lot of what we do is related to that; our summer vacations are tied to that.

Speaking of your family, at the Cyclone events you’re with your family. What is it like to share that with your family?

I’m grateful they do like athletics, because if they didn’t, I don’t know when I would spend time with them, because Cyclone athletics is an extension of our family, so a lot of our social time is spent as a family revolving around going to athletic events.

We plan our vacations that way, whether it’s going to Kansas City for the Big 12 tournament or a bowl game around Christmas or whatever is happening here around Thanksgiving break. We look at the Cyclone calendar, we look their sports calendars, and that’s how we set what we’re going to do.

When you were in Kansas City, the Big 12 did a nice thing for James with the ‘Beat Cancer’ shirts. What did that mean to have that support?

It’s special because at times you don’t always see your contemporaries in the conference as someone that’s your allies, because we compete against them. When you have a moment like that you realize that they’re human too and that they’re compassionate and that they care and are interested in you as a person and not just you as athletics director.

During your time at Iowa State is there anything that sticks out for you as a memory?

The Oklahoma State game was a big one because it happened here, and it happened here for our fans to get to experience it. The wins at Nebraska and Texas were neat because they were things that hadn’t been done, but when you do it here, it’s that much more special.

Watching Lisa Koll run was pretty cool. I still remember when David Zabriskie was a freshman, and he had to win the heavyweight match in the Big 12s for us to win the Big 12 Championship, and he won it.

Could you take me through the memory you have from your point of view of the Oklahoma State game?

I was sitting in Richard Stark’s suite watching the game, and when it went to overtime, I knew it was ending on a last play — either for you or against you. There was going to be a finite ending to the game; it’s not like there is a minute left and the clock was winding down.

I was with Dr. Fleming and with Richard, yet I wanted to be down in the locker room and on the field, but I was staying there because I wanted to be there for the last moment. It was exciting, but at the same time I didn’t just enjoy it at the moment because I had to get from there over here [at the Jacobson Building].

I fully enjoyed it when I got here and looked out at the mass of people and go, “Wow, what did we just do?”

It was a big year with ticket sales, what can you say about the excitement in the last 12 months or so of Cyclone athletics?

Well, we really felt it on the summer Tailgate Tour. The crowds — there were more people, and they were a lot more festive, and there were a lot more kids. You could sense that we’ve kind of crossed over a barrier, a barrier of people not hoping anymore that we can win, now they know that we can win.

You can feel the carryover [from the game] and now the expectation going into this fall of wanting to feel that again and not hoping to feel that. That’s a whole different mindset.

Are there any professional sports or teams that you like to follow?

I’m a huge Milwaukee Brewers fan; I watch Brewers [games] religiously. I’m really struggling this year to watch them because it’s hard, and they’re not good. Last year was really fun.

I’m a Packers fan, but more of a Milwaukee Brewers fan.

You mentioned you like to run — and in college you were a Division III champion in the 5,000-meter run — could you take me back to those memories?

It was a long time ago, I don’t remember them. (laughs)

All of my kids are running, but my son is in high school now, and it’s been fun to watch him now start to experience things that I can remember experiencing. It rekindles that flame that you had 30 years ago, because you watch him experience something that I know what he’s feeling and what he’s going through, and it makes me think back about what I thought and what I went through and what I can share to not make the same mistakes.