Fundraising has been an area of success recently for the Iowa State Athletic Department, and the hiring of Chuck Beddingfield as the new assistant athletic director should help even more.

Beddingfield comes to ISU from conference rival Oklahoma State, where he held the same position. At OSU, he was involved with fundraising efforts, corporate sponsorship and athletic concessions.

“I’m in this business because I feel I am part of an important collegiate experience for the student-athletes,” he said.

Beddingfield said he is “extremely excited” about joining the Cyclone staff. “ISU is a great university. I am very excited about working under one of the brightest, most talented ADs in the country. Gene Smith really has the program going in the right direction,” he said.

Smith was equally enthusiastic about working with Beddingfield. “Chuck had everything we were looking for in a development director. He has Division 1A experience, is intimately familiar with the Big 12 Conference and has demonstrated his ability as a fundraiser and a marketing administrator,” Smith said.

Beddingield is a former bank official from North Carolina.

A 1974 graduate of Appalachian State in health and physical education, Beddingfield is now working on his master’s degree in higher education administration.

Beddingfield expressed satisfaction about his tenure at Oklahoma State.

“I have put in a lot of work at OSU. When I came, the program had really suffered from the late ’80s probation, and now we can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

“We have made great progress. I feel both personally and professionally satisfied,” he said.

He said his move within the conference should help him at ISU.

“I am familiar with the Big 12 Conference, and I think it would be much harder on me to move across the country to a conference like the ACC or PAC-10 where I would not be familiar with the conference,” he said.

Beddingfield said his duties will be similar to those he did at OSU.

“Initially I think Gene will have me work on fundraising. I’ll also be working on corporate sponsorship, an area I am very familiar with,” he said.

When asked about his feelings about the result of the Aug. 30 football game between OSU and ISU, Beddingfield said, “That’s not a fair question, is it?

“I know the kids at OSU. It’s very hard to pull against them. On the other hand, it was difficult to watch ISU go down, knowing I was going to be part of the program.”