Jorge Iber, Ph.D.

Associate Dean for Student Affairs

Jorge Iber, Ph.D., is Associate Dean in the Student Division of the College of Arts & Sciences.  In this administrative capacity, he is responsible for supervising the degree auditing process for the college, serving as a liaison to various student service offices throughout campus.

Iber manages advising issues for the college, certifies the academic progress of student athletes, assists in various recruitment and retention activities, serves on Academic Council, Associate Deans Council, handles the processing of grade appeals and oversees the management of commencement exercises.

In his role as faculty member, Iber is a full professor in the Department of History with research interests focusing on the social significance of the history of Latinos/Latinas in US sport. He teaches a variety of courses, such as US Sports and Recreation, basic US history surveys, Texas History, and Mexican American History. 

Among his 19 authored/co-authored/edited/coedited works are the following: Latinos in American Football: Pathbreakers on the Gridiron (co-authored with Mario Longoria-McFarland Publishers, 2020); an edited collection entitled Latinos and Latinas in American Sport: Stories Beyond Peloteros (Texas Tech University Press, 2019). He also published: Senor Sack: The Life of Gabe Rivera in July of 2021 with Texas Tech University Press, which tells about the life and career of a Mexican American Texas Tech football legend. He and his wife Raquel have also just completed a junior-high level biography on the life and career of Dallas Cowboys great, Tony Romo for the Texas Tech University Press series, Texas Sport Heroes (which Dr. Iber also edits). (See more titles in adjacent article.)

Dr. Iber recently finalized two new projects: 1) Based on the work he did on Eduardo Ortega, he served as co-editor of an anthology that includes around 20 essays on the life and careers of Spanish-language MLB broadcasters. In addition to his editing work, Dr. Iber contributed to the introduction, as well as essays on four of these individuals. He generated this work in conjunction with Anthony Salazar of the University of Washington and SABR.; and 2) The essay on the Sanchez family noted below served as the basis for a book manuscript on this family's history.

He is also the author of more than thirty scholarly and encyclopedia articles as well as more than 50 scholarly book reviews.  Recent works include: “Beisbol as Part of “Una Vida en Comun en la Frontera”: The Career and Significance of Eduardo Ortega, the Voz of the San Diego Padres,” appeared in the journal NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture in the Fall-Spring 2017-2018 issue (Volume 26, Numbers 1-2) and an article entitled “The Sanchezes of Cheyenne, Wyoming: The First Generation of a Family of Wrestlers on the Local, State, and National Stage,: in the Autumn 2020-Winter 2021 issue (Volume 92, Number 4) of The Annals of Wyoming.

Iber has published in electronic media as well, with Latino American Wrestling Experience: Over 100 Years of Wrestling Heritage in the United States, an e-book for the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2014. 

Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Raquel, and their son, Matthew. He loves reading, watching old movies, cheering for the Red Raiders and his alma mater (University of Utah Utes).

Iber is a lifelong (and long suffering) fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates and, after 20 consecutive years of losing records, was absolutely thrilled to see his beloved Buccos in the playoffs in 2013. Of course, as all true Pirate fans are painfully aware, the good times in Pittsburgh do not last for long. Now that the club is rebuilding yet again, Dr. Iber continues to hope for better times at PNC Park in the near future.

DR. JORGE IBER
Associate Dean for Student Affairs
College of Arts & Sciences
Texas Tech University

Fields:

• Mexican American History
• Latinos in U.S. Sports History

Published Works:

• "Béisbol on the Air" (McFarland, March 2023)

• "Tony Romo: A Texas Sports Hero" (Texas Tech University Press, September 2022)

• "Señor Sack: The Life of Gabe Rivera" (Texas Tech University Press, September 2021) 

• "All About Mariano Rivera" (Blue River, October 2019)

• "Latinos and Latinas in American Sport: Stories Beyond Peloteros" (June 2019)

• "Latinos in American Football: Pathbreakers on the Gridiron, 1927 to the Present" (McFarland, August 2019) 

• "Moments of Joy and Heartbreak: 66 Significant Episodes in the History of the Pittsburgh Pirates" (Society for American Baseball Research, March 2018)

• Mexican American Baseball in El Paso (Mount Pleasant, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing 2017)

• Mike Torrez: A Baseball Biography (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishers, 2016

• Mexican American Baseball in the Alamo Region (Mount Pleasant, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing 2015)

• More than Just Peloteros: Sport and U.S. Latino Communities (Texas Tech University Press, 2015)

• Latino American Wrestling Experience: Over 100 Years of Wrestling Heritage in the United States, with Lee Maril (National Wrestling Hall of Fame, e-book 2014)

Other Titles:

• Latinos in U.S. Sports: A History of Isolation, Cultural Identity, and Acceptance, with Samuel Regalado, Jose Alamillo, Arnoldo DeLeon (Human Kinetics 2011)

• Mexican Americans and Sports: A Reader on Athletics and Barrio Life, with Samuel O. Regalado (Texas A&M University Press 2006)

• Hispanics in the American West, with Arnoldo DeLeon (ABC-CLIO 2005)

• Hispanics in the Mormon Zion, 1912-1999 (Texas A&M University Press 2002)