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A final high five
Gary Strickler, longtime leader of athletics program, to retire
By Amy Dean
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Gary Strickler Photo by Fred Sway |
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Gary Strickler, BU's director of athletics since 1989, has announced that he is retiring, effective July 1. He will serve for one year as a consultant to his successor.
Strickler's tenure was marked by significant growth in programs and facilities. In 1988, when he was assistant athletics director, there were 16 varsity teams, 10 for men and 6 for women. There are now 23 — 12 for women and 11 for men. His fundraising efforts created the Elliot H. Cole Academic Center, the student-athlete academic support program, in 1993. Most recently, he has overseen improvement of the University's athletics facilities, including completed projects such as the DeWolfe Boathouse, renovation of a new grass softball facility, resurfacing of Nickerson Field for competitive soccer play, and a new indoor Track and Tennis Center, as well as the 6,200-seat multiuse Harry Agganis Arena, which is expected to be completed by January 2005.
In 1969, Strickler joined BU as an academic counselor in the School of Management. Over the next 19 years, he held two other positions at the school: assistant dean of the undergraduate program and associate dean of graduate programs. When he applied for the position of assistant athletics director, he says, the athletics department “recognized me, because I went to almost every football, basketball, and hockey game. People also knew me as a manager, and this was a management job and not a sports job.” After a year as assistant athletics director, he was named athletics director.
At that time, the University's varsity athletics program consisted of men's wrestling, tennis, baseball, football, hockey, and soccer, women's softball and field hockey teams, and men's and women's basketball, crew, track, and swimming. In order to increase the number of varsity offerings, “I had to make funding recommendations to the administration for programs and ensure they could be built up to full scholarships,” Strickler says. “We wanted them to be successful, not just existing.”
He also had to recommend which programs to scratch to comply with Title ix, which mandates equity in men's and women's sports. “We needed to build participation in women's athletics and wanted to add lacrosse and soccer,” he says. “In order to do that, we had to drop a men's sport. Baseball was the most logical choice because the team had no field, a part-time coach, and few resources.”
More controversial was the decision to drop football in 1997. That year, the Board of Trustees decided to terminate the University's football program after 91 years. “Football was different,” Strickler says, “because the decision was based on how much money we were putting into the sport and what we weren't getting back from fan support, ticket sales, and donations to the program. Very few people attended the games. At the time we wanted to build the financial support for other teams, and football was a big expensive thing.”
Educating the athlete
Strickler has always stressed the importance of academics for student-athletes. He was involved with defining the mission of the Cole Academic Center. The center helps student-athletes balance academics with athletics, providing tutors and offering a mentoring program that pairs graduate students with freshman student-athletes. “Gary's academic background is unique among athletic directors because most in his position have risen through the athletic ranks,” says Karen Plescia, coordinator of student-athlete support services at the center. “As a result, he has consistently focused on supporting our colleagues in the schools and colleges to ensure the academic progress and graduation of our student-athletes.” In 2002, BU joined the NCAA's CHAMPS/Life Skills program, which provides for the nonacademic education of student-athletes and, Plescia says, fosters their overall development.
“It's refreshing to be the athletics director at a university most known for its academics,” says Strickler. “However good your teams are, people still know that their achievements are within the context of an academically strong institution — not in some big athletic factory.”
Of course Strickler has helped make BU into an athletically strong institution. The men's and women's varsity teams are among the elite in the America East, Hockey East, the Colonial Athletic Conference, and the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges. For the past two years, BU has won America East's Stuart P. Haskell, Jr., Commissioner's Cup, awarded to the conference institution whose teams compile the strongest record during the year in all conference championships.
Strickler points to the team coaches and their staff as the reason for the University's athletic success. “The coaches are the experts in their field,” he says. “I let them plan for themselves and then work with them to achieve their goals.”
12
March 2004
Boston University
Office of University Relations