“This is a homecoming for our new director,” Knowles said in introducing Scalise at the press conference.

From 1974 to 1987, when Scalise coached the team, men’s lacrosse amassed a combined 98-79 record. He led Harvard to its first NCAA tournament appearance—and an Ivy League championship—in 1980.

He served as the first coach of Harvard’s women’s soccer team, heading up the team from 1977 to 1986. He agreed to help start a women’s soccer program at Harvard in 1976 after being approached by several interested players.

In his ten years as head coach, his women’s soccer teams had a combined record of 113-38-11 and won three Ivy League championships. Scalise was the nation’s first collegiate women’s soccer coach to record 100 victories—a mark he reached in 1985.

While a search committee, headed by Harvard Alumni Association Executive Director and former Harvard Athletics Director Jack P. Reardon ’60, conducted interviews and screened candidates, Summers had the ultimate responsibility of making the appointment.

Reardon said that in the end the committee gave Summers the names of four candidates and that Summers had individual discussions with all four.

Over the six-month search, the committee interviewed 15 candidates for the position, according to a statement released by the athletic department on Monday.

“We went through a rather lengthy process,” Reardon said. The committee had two formal meetings with the coaching and administrative staff of the athletics department, who were not directly represented on the committee.