Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 1, 1990 TAG: 9005010077
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"After what happened at Tech, there's no way I would have thought I'd be in this situation again, definitely not," said Baughman, who was hired as Oregon State's athletic director.
Baughman, 41, will take over the Beavers' program no later than July 1. Baughman has been Oregon State's senior associate athletic director for seven months. He will replace the man who hired him, Lynn Snyder, whose contract has not been renewed. Snyder's demise came after a rift with administrators at the Corvallis school.
Baughman, who will be paid $80,268 annually, inherits a program with a $2.5 million deficit.
Baughman took over as the Hokies' athletic director on Jan. 1, 1987, succeeding Bill Dooley, who filed a $3.5 million breach-of-contract lawsuit, which was settled out of court. Baughman was only the Hokies' athletic boss until June 4, 1987, when he resigned.
Baughman said he was not told the extent of the Hokies' athletic problems, including the severity of the charges in an NCAA investigation into the football program. An in-house investigation of the basketball program was started by campus police and continued for nine days under the guidance of the administration before Baughman was informed.
When Baughman left Tech, he turned toward his avocation, ranching, and returned to a graduate program at Texas Christian in management. In 1989, he was a finalist for a couple of conference commissioner jobs and the athletic director's job at Washington and Lee.
"For about a year-and-a-half after I left Tech, I didn't think I wanted to be involved in college athletics again," Baughman said Monday from Corvallis. "I wasn't working to be involved. Then, after a lot of hard thought, it occurred to me that the uneasiness I felt didn't have to do with athletics and coaches, student-athletes and campus life, but with a few people who I had had problems with.
"Once I got through that, I felt if I had another chance to lead an athletic staff again, I'd be delighted."
Since leaving Tech, Baughman said he "has learned humility and learned people can have a second chance."
When asked to compare the Tech and Oregon State programs, he said, "The conference affiliation in the Pacific 10 is a tremendous difference." He said Oregon State "has some of the same financial difficulties we had at Tech.
"The common thread between here and Tech that I've seen is the quality of people in the athletic department," Baughman said. "We have the same type attitude here that I saw in my short time in Blacksburg, people who want to do things right, people who care about positive leadership."
by CNB