ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 25, 1997 TAG: 9703250088
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN THE ROANOKE TIMES
The 26-year-old assistant commissioner becomes the second commissioner in the league's history.
The Old Dominion Athletic Conference did something Monday it had done only once in its existence. It hired a commissioner.
Brad Bankston, 26, was introduced as the second commissioner in the league's 21 years of operation. He succeeds Dan Wooldridge, who will retire from his commissioner's post in June. Wooldridge will serve in a consultant's capacity for the next year.
``Certainly, he'll be a hard act to follow,'' Bankston said.
Bankston first met Wooldridge in the summer of 1992, when Bankston was working a summer job as a painter at Hampden-Sydney College. Knowing Bankston, a North Carolina graduate, was headed to Virginia Tech the next fall for graduate school, former Hampden-Sydney sports information director Dean Hybl suggested he work part-time for Wooldridge and the Salem-based ODAC. Wooldridge sat down with Bankston for an interview, albeit an informal one, considering the paint caked on Bankston's arms and face.
``He was very confident,'' said Bankston, who was raised in Keysville. ``I knew I'd like to work for him. Here I am now five years later.''
Bankston earned a master's degree in sports administration from Virginia Tech and immediately went to work for the ODAC as a sports information director. He was named assistant commissioner in 1995.
Although Wooldridge's post was a part-time position, Bankston's will be full-time. He will try to have a league sports information director, likely a 10-month employee, in place by July.
Some of the issues facing Bankston and the league include how to handle the possibility of expansion, allowing student-athletes a greater voice in offering their concerns, and making sure the league has a long- and short-term focus.
The search for Wooldridge's replacement began in November 1996 and involved presidents and athletic directors of the 13 ODAC member schools. It was the first time the league had to undertake such a search.
``We took a deep breath and a little shudder,'' said Lynda Calkins, the Hollins College athletic director and a member of the search committee. ``We searched high and low and the person was right in our backyard.''
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Bankston. color.by CNB