The calm and wisdom of Harold Wilkes. The goodness, decency and endearing Southern charm of Steve Sloan. The patience, work ethic, vision and appreciation of rules and laws of Rick Hart. The hiring genius and drive of David Blackburn.
Were I able to create my perfect athletic director for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, those are the traits I have admired most in those four former ADs, as well as the traits I hope the 12-person search committee announced last week will find in the next AD.
No offense to the Parker Executive Search, which will guide the process, but this is a business to the Atlanta-based firm. The company is paid a fee to both identify possible candidates and provide, if we’re being completely honest here, a bit of cover in case something goes wrong down the line.
In other words, if UTC hires Candidate A – whose name was first brought to the committee and UTC chancellor Steven Angle by Parker – and it turns out Candidate A’s real name is Convict C, and he or she is wanted in seven states and three countries by the FBI, CIA and INTERPOL, and he or she once holed up at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after plastic surgery to alter his or her appearance, well, that mistake would be on Parker rather than the search committee.
But for the vast majority of the search committee, UTC athletics is more a passion than a paycheck. Committee chair and UTC physical therapy department head Debbie Ingram seemingly wears navy blue and old gold more often than Scrappy, the school’s mascot.