The pull and the lure of anyone’s alma mater is great. I
don’t think it matters if it is your old high school or college, be it big or
small.
So Northwestern athletic director and Illinois alum Jim
Phillips has got to have a huge knot in the pit of his stomach, wondering about
the Illinois athletic director’s vacancy.
On Monday, Illinois AD Ron Guenther announced his retirement
after being in C-U for 19 years, the longest of any AD in the Big Ten. The
university has a search committee in place, headed by Larry DeBrock who is the
head of the university’s College of Business — and in a weird twist, DeBrock
was my Econ 101 professor my freshman year at Illinois.
All the rumors and stories on the Internet that Phillips is
probably Illinois’ top candidate to replace Guenther should be taken seriously.
Look at what Phillips has done in just three years at Northwestern:
* he put the football team on a huge national stage when
they played Illinois at Wrigley Field last November
* he’s locked up Pat Fitzgerald for the next 10 years with a
new contract extension, providing consistency for the program and for
Fitzgerald in recruiting
* he hired Mike Polisky to run the school’s first-ever
marketing division in the athletic department, helping to create a snappy and
memorable slogan in “Chicago’s Big Ten Team”
* he’s spearheaded a facilities study that will determine
which athletic facilities need either a major overhaul or to be replaced
altogether
* he inked a home-and-home football series with Notre Dame
and another with Stanford
* and he’s got this infectious enthusiasm — just like Fitz —
where he gets excited about all things NU.
Who wouldn’t want to have someone like Jim Phillips running
their athletic department?
Probably a lot of people, especially those who love orange
and blue.
