Phillips' aim is to take NIU to the next level

CHICAGO - Back in May, Jim Phillips decided to make the drive to DeKalb from South Bend. Monday became the homecoming culmination to that research trip when Northern Illinois University President Dr. John Peters formally introduced Phillips as the new NIU Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, initially in a morning press conference at Mike Ditka's Restaurant and again in the afternoon at the Convocation Center in DeKalb. In hiring the University of Notre Dame's Senior Associate Athletics Director, Phillips becomes the successor to Cary Groth, who left NIU in March in order to become the AD for the University of Nevada at Reno. It was Groth's departure that prompted Phillips to make that drive in order to assess the Northern Illinois campus