[8] He was he was promoted to director of recreational sports in August 1992 and the following year was named interim vice president of student affairs.
Zwierlein also launched BGSU's women's soccer program and hired the school's first black head coach.
He took over a department that was marred by scandal due to the use of an ineligible player by the men's basketball team the previous season.
Coach Jan van Breda Kolff was fired, athletic director Gothard Lane and president Robert J. Wickenheiser resigned, and chairman of the school's trustees, William Swan, committed suicide.
[12][13] Zwierlein helped create and implement a five-year strategic plan for the athletic department and completed its NCAA Division I certification in 2005.
He retired in 2007, but returned to the school on an interim basis in 2014 after athletic director Steve Watson left to take the same job at Loyola University Chicago.