12A
Tuesday, May 3, 1994
2x1
SPORTS UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Bob Frederick
Frederick, who has been athletic director for seven years, played basketball at Kansas in 1958 as a walk-on. He earned his bachelor's degree in education in 1962 and chose a career
Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick has been involved in athletics for virtually his entire life and in almost every capacity. His goals and aspirations constantly have been evolving.
path in coaching.
Throughout the 1960's and 70's, he worked his way up the coaching ladder by taking positions at various high schools in Illinois and Kansas. He broke into Division I coaching as an assistant
Frederick's aspirations, goals fuel Kansas athletics
The job at Stanford changed Frederick's outlook. Perhaps more importantly, the experience gave him a new mission.
50 Red Owens at Kansas in 1971. In 1975, he landed at Stanford, again as an assistant.
"When I was an assistant coach at Stanford, which was my last college coaching job, I became very disillusioned with the direction I thought we were going in," Frederick said. "There was a lot of cheating going on. I wasn't comfortable with that, and I didn't want to be a part of it."
Frederick said that there was an unwritten understanding that student athletes would be "taken care of" once admitted to the university. In other words, some athletes received money for personal travel expenses.
— he worked at Lawrence High School as a basketball coach and chemistry teacher while he earned his doctorate degree in education.
Frederick left Stanford and returned to Kansas. To support his family — he has a wife and four sons
"I really enjoyed the coaching and I didn't want to get out of athletics," Frederick said. "At the same time, I decided maybe I could help change
what's going on rather than run away from it."
From 1981 to 1985, he served as Assistant Athletics Director at Kansas. By then, Frederick had a clearer vision of his professional future.
"If he leaves, I just hope we have someone that cares about student athletes as much as he does," Frederick said.
"Within a year I was thinking about becoming an athletic director," Frederick said. "Gene Budig sat me down and told me the five or six things I needed to do to get such a position."
No one, however, cares more about Kansas athletics than Frederick.
Budig's own goals could be changing just as Frederick's once did. Budig did not want to comment on potentially becoming the president of the American League in Major League Baseball, but his love for baseball is well known. His appointment to the job could happen early next month.
Frederick wrote those tips down on a legal pad and followed the advice. The advice worked; he served as athletic director at Illinois State from 1985 to 1987 before taking his current position at Kansas. Chancellor Gene Budig, who once served as chancellor at Illinois State, said that he knew Frederick would become an athletic director at a major university. He just didn't know it would be at Kansas.
"Today's athletic programs need more people like Bob Frederick," Budig said. "He's the prototype for tomorrow's athletic directors. I saw enormous potential in him, and he has proven me right."
Last season, Kansas became the first school in NCAA history to have a
"I decided maybe I could help change what's going on rather than run away from it."
Bob Frederick
Kansas athletic director
football team in a bowl game, a basketball team in the Final Four and a baseball team in the College World Series.
The successes delighted Frederick but his goals for Kansas athletics go far beyond the playing fields.
"I'm not satisfied with where we are now, and I don't think I ever will be." Frederick said. "We need to work on our graduation rate for student athletes and we have to have bigger attendance at our football games."
On the wall opposite Frederick's desk hangs a photograph of Memorial Stadium which was sold out and overflowing for the 1990 game against Kansas State. Frederick hopes the scene will occur for every home game.
His top priority, however, is attaining a graduation rate of 75 percent for student athletes. According to Frederick, the current rate for student athletes and all students hovered around 50 percent.
Frederick, who turned down a simi-
lar position at Michigan last summer,
has a three-year rollover contract
and said he enjoyed living in
Lawrence.
"I don't have any interest in leaving for any other athletic director job," Frederick said. "As long as people feel good about what I'm doing here, I'm happy."
If that's the case, Frederick could be here for a long time.
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