Posted by SJSdude on 5/12/2008, 6:52 am
Link: http://www.mercurynews.com/sports/ci_9231306
198.246.227.2
SJSU president leaving; he made moves to save football
By Jon Wilner
Mercury News
The savior of San Jose State football played the sport himself. Some 50 years ago, Don Kassing was a hard-hitting defensive back and elusive running back for a small college in Kansas.
"I've always had a particular affection for kids that have the kind of talent to play at this level," Kassing said last week. "These are special kids, and I've thoroughly enjoyed being around all our athletes."
He has only a few weeks left. Kassing will retire July 1 after four years as president of SJSU - a tenure that began during the football program's darkest days, when the Spartans were losing games, hemorrhaging money and draining resources from the university at such a rate that faculty members wanted the program killed.
Spurred by personal experience and a deep affinity for the school, Kassing stepped in to save football and provide the foundering athletic department with the resources it needed to succeed.
"If we had failed at football, which is so big and visible, it would have had an institutional impact," he said.
Kassing did not back away after rescuing football; he has maintained a keen interest in all SJSU athletics. He helped Athletic Director Tom Bowen devise a marketing strategy and create a new business model. He added resources for academic counseling and provided advice on dealing with the faculty on sensitive issues.
Twice a month, Kassing has breakfast with football coach Dick Tomey - "His value to me personally is incalculable," Tomey said - and when Bowen's frustration with the state bureaucracy nears the boiling point, Kassing is always there with a reassuring phone call.
"He has been a phenomenal mentor to me," Bowen said. "He has never micromanaged me. He has trusted me. He's gotten mad at me, but he has never interfered. That's why it's tearing my heart out to think I won't be able to work with him anymore."
The list of Kassing's contributions to Spartans sports goes on and on. He raised student fees to provide a cash infusion for athletics, and gave Bowen control of Spartan Stadium. He signed off on the decision to terminate the contract of men's basketball coach Phil Johnson. He meets with athletes and interviews prospective coaches.
"When I first got here," George Nessman, the current men's basketball coach, said, "Don and Tom asked me, 'What's the most important thing we can do to help you?' I said, 'We need to get our office onto the main campus.' And they made it happen.
"Don has the courage of his convictions. He reassures his coaches and athletes, and then he stands on the sidelines and says, 'I'm with you.' It's a powerful statement."
But when it comes to SJSU athletics, Kassing's legacy will be pulling football back from the brink of elimination - a process that began in enemy territory: Stanford Stadium.
Before the schools met in September 2004, SJSU announced that six players were ineligible because of academic issues - an annual problem for the Spartans and one that prompted sharp criticism that day from Bill Walsh, a San Jose State alum who was working as a TV analyst.
After the 43-3 loss, Kassing sent word to Walsh - they didn't know each other well - that he would like to discuss the state of Spartans football. Walsh agreed, and a few days later they met in Kassing's office.
"We sat across the table from each other, and I said, 'Bill, I need to make some changes,' and he knew exactly what I meant," Kassing recalled. "He had such insight into that sort of thing.
"Then he told me what he thought about the team, and he was brutally honest. The meeting couldn't have lasted more than 10 minutes. When he got up, I said, 'I'd like to continue this conversation at a later date. Would you be willing?' "
Walsh agreed.
Two months later, SJSU's athletic director, Chuck Bell, announced his resignation - "Bill, I need to make some changes" - and Kassing asked Walsh to chair the search committee. Walsh, whose association had always been with Stanford, agreed.
"He brought immediate personal status to the process," Kassing said. "It showed people we were serious about fixing it."
Football coach Fitz Hill stepped down at Kassing's request. Kassing and Walsh hired Bowen. Bowen and Kassing hired Tomey (with an assist from former SJSU coach John Ralston), and the reclamation project was under way.
Football's on-field performance was only half the problem. The program also was losing about $1 million per year, forcing the athletic department to use 3.2 percent of the university's general fund money - considerably more than the 2 percent the faculty had agreed to years earlier.
Kassing quelled the academic senate's outrage by reducing the general-fund allotment to athletics. But football couldn't survive without replacing the lost funds, so Kassing took his case to the students and raised their fees to a level that would sustain the program.
Kassing's final act was to remove control of the stadium from Spartan Shops, a non-profit auxiliary arm of the university, and give it to the athletic department. The arrangement meant the Spartans no longer would have to sneak into their stadium to practice onside kicks.
"Don is the best college president I've ever worked for," Tomey said. "And he was exactly the right person for San Jose State because he's able to bridge the gaps."
Bowen agreed. "There are a lot of hidden agendas, and Don's secret is that he puts the university ahead of himself in every decision. He's never made a decision that put Don Kassing first. That's why nobody wants him to leave."
Contact Jon Wilner at jwilner@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5716.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread