Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 13, 1995 TAG: 9505150079
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The short note there opined that the University of Virginia should hire Terry Holland as its athletic director. It wasn't anything Harmon, the vice president of student affairs, hadn't seen before.
Then, Harmon walked to his car. A crouching student was just about to afix a sticker supporting Holland to Harmon's bumper.
``I told the student,'' Harmon said Friday, ``that it probably wouldn't be very appropriate for the chairman of the search committee [for the athletic director] to be riding around town like that.''
Some were given sticker shock, but most here gladly wore their feelings on their sleeves. Holland was interested in the job that Jim Copeland resigned in early December. Thousands more were interested for him.
That's what scared Holland.
He actually phoned a friend in the UVa administration one day and asked that President John Casteen be told that Holland had ``absolutely nothing'' to do with the overwhelming outpouring of support.
Turns out flattery can get you somewhere. It took five months, but Casteen made the only move he could, and it was the correct one for more than political reasons.
Holland, in the arena where he coached the Cavaliers to basketball greatness, was anointed as UVa's eighth athletic director Friday. University Hall was decked out for graduation next weekend. First, it housed a coronation.
The smooth, respected former coach with two NCAA Final Four trips will be paid $155,000 annually. There is no truth to the rumor, however, that the new athletic director has been given the keys to Monticello.
``I think the committee was objective,'' Harmon said. ``However, it was clear there are those on the committee who had a preference, but were willing to give others a chance.''
One of those was women's basketball coach Debbie Ryan. She remembered that Holland, during his 16 years as the Cavs' coach, ``believed in gender equity before anyone else really talked about it,'' during her superb program's formative years.
``I tried to be open-minded, but it was hard,'' Ryan said of her committee assignment. ``Terry has an awful lot of attributes.''
Of 165 candidates, the committee spoke to more than 10 in person and presented five finalists - unranked - to Casteen. And what if the UVa president hadn't chosen the man who has been a Wahoo hero since guiding the 1976 Cavaliers to what is still the school's only ACC tournament title?
``In the short term there would have been a lot of disappointment and sadness, I think,'' Ryan said. ``In the long term, we would have had to accept it and move on.''
Besides the obvious fund-raising, Holland. 53, has much fence-mending to do. Although the UVa program has emerged as successful as before from a loan scandal, Copeland's demise - a move south in more ways than one to SMU - was hastened by bickering that had its genesis when Holland left for his alma mater in 1990.
``I had to be concerned about that,'' said Holland when asked if he felt his rocky relationship with Copeland - who has strong Casteen support - would affect his desired candidacy. ``There was some animosity there, but it wasn't a factor.''
The divisiveness in the athletic department, with boosters and board members taking sides, will be salved by Casteen's choice. Holland's backing - Harmon said he's ``never seen an odds-on favorite with the consistency and intensity of support he had'' - had to be one of the ex-coach's selling points.
Still, although the search ends where so many figured it should have started and ended months ago, many questions were left unanswered.
Did Casteen really want Holland? Did he hire Holland to enhance his own popularity? Was he as anti-Holland as portrayed in the media? How much did the UVa Board of Visitors have to do with Holland's selection? Did it order it?
``That's a silly idea,'' Casteen said when asked if he hadn't warmed to Holland until pressured.
If there were so many great candidates, who were they? Why did UVa tarry in hiring Terry? Was Holland's Davidson hiring of fired Virginia Student Aid officer Joe Mark - who has sued Casteen and UVa - a issue of debate between the president and candidate?
And how much of this quizzical speculation is a product no more than the differences that have rooted themselves among UVa's board, adminstration, coaches, staff and boosters in the past few years?
None of that matters much now. Whether Casteen answered a multiple-choice question with help isn't the point.
That he heard everyone screaming the right answer is most important.
by CNB