CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, April 24, 1984
Page 8
Johnson
continued from D. 1
emotion and sentiment get in the way of good management. Any strong, tough administrator
Johnson is a family man, friends say, who doesn't drink or smoke. He often works 12-hour days, is sensitive to criticism and is driven, he says, by a strong work ethic and a love for the University. He describes his job as a "labor of hard work and as the last rung on the ladder of his career.
"I have an advantage in that I don't want to be the athletic director for anyone else's university."
Johnson represents a new breed of athletic director. He is a decision maker and a manager. Instead of backslapping and cheerleading, he must keep a multi-million dollar corporation afloat while trying to stay within NCAA and University regulations. At the same time, he has often the vice conflicting interests of students, alumni and the administration and faculty.
At the April 10 KUAC board meeting, Johnson the business man was at his best. He came well-dressed, prepared and professional. When questions on the budget arose, he had the figures in his head or close at hand. When a board member asked that Johnson slipped aside to thank him and say goodbye.
"I've never known him to let anything slip through the cracks. He's thorough." Brinkman said. "He's not perceived as a good-old-boy and is very shy and mindful and so tales about the old days of athletics.
"If he has a tough decision to make, he can do it."
Two tough decisions
Johnson illustrated this just one week after he was hired when, although he insisted he had no preconceived plans, he fired head football coach Don Fambrough.
Fambrough, a popular figure among KU alumni and players, had just led the KU football team through a disappointing 2-7 season. The year before, Fambrough guided KU to an 8-4 season and a trip to the Hame of Fame Bowl in Ala. Ala — KU's first bowl appearance since 1976.
If Johnson received criticism for firing Fambrough, it was mild in comparison to the storm that followed his ousting of basketball coach Ted Owens on March 21, 1983.
Although Owens had just completed a disappointing 13-16 season, his 18 years as head coach and his 348-182 record caused many to criticize Johnson's decision.
Sid Wilson, who had resigned as KU's sports information director weeks before Owens was fired, summed up the criticism saying, "I think it's a shame. He has a great national reputation. Ted is a classy person — one of the classier persons I we've worked with."
When contacted earlier this month, Owens
However, Wilson, now an assistant athletic director for media relations at the University of South Carolina, said that he still thought that firing Owens was unfair.
declined to comment, saying it would not be appropriate.
He said that Johnson looked at the bottom line — money — when he chose to fire Owens.
"You have to walk a fine line as an athletic director," Wilson said. "There is still room for that human quality. It's big business but it's still very important, the loyalty and dedication to the University."
Johnson said that firing Owens and Fambrough was difficult.
"In my case it was extremely painful, because I cared about those people just like I would about one of my friends," he said. "I think the only thing that probably allows you to survive something like that is that you have to believe what you are doing is right.
With the hiring of Larry Brown, a coach with a national reputation, the criticism died down. Now, after a successful season, in which KU finished 22-10 and earned a berth in the NCAA tournament, criticism of Johnson's action has faded.
"There's still emotion involved in it. There's still frustration involved in it and there's still
going on. I have a vested interest in the athletic department. I'm sensitive to criticism. It's tough
The right stuff
Johnson came to KU with impressive credentials. He was a native KanSA, a former vice president of the Fourth National Bank of Wichita — the largest bank in Kansas — and he was a KU graduate who played on the team Wilt Chamblead led to the NCAA championship game in 1986.
According to classmates and coaches who recalled Johnson's days as a KU student, he was a good student, an active member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and a hustling, but slow.
He has the ability to go out and ask for money, and not everyone can do that. It's a unique talent. You need someone you can't say no to. You can't say no to Monte. Jerry Waugh Vice president of operations Alvamar Country Club
mixed reaction to it, but I just have to go ahead and put my head on the bed at night and say I made the most conscientious decision I could make. I will tell you that nobody will give you total credit for that."
Jerry Waugh, vice president of operations at Alvamar Golf and Country Club and an active KU alumnus said, "When he made the coaching changes, that was a difficult thing to do. He was sensitive to that. But as an administrator, you have to be able to look at the big picture and avoid the barking dogs. And in athletics there are always a lot of barking dogs."
Getting accustomed to these barking dogs has been one of the challenges Johnson, a former banker, has had to face in making the transition from businessman to athletic director.
As a University official, however, Johnson's decisions are open to public scrutiny. And sometimes he wonders how people can criticize him for not giving them the hard at it and they don't know perhaps what is
Johnson said, "The biggest difference and the part I probably have the most difficulty with is the visibility, because you can make a decision about it. Usually it's not so knew about it are those most directly affected."
forward on the basketball team.
Dick Harp, KU's head basketball coach when Johnson was a player, recalled, "As he would tell you himself, he wasn't the most talented player, but he played a varsity player only because he worked at it."
Johnson first came to KU on an academic scholarship. He worked his way onto the basketball team, earned an athletic scholarship and lettered for three years.
"I'd throw my body in front of anything if I thought I could play more." Johnson said. "I think that carries over to my work philosophy. I like to work hard."
He served the athletic department in several positions in the 1960s, including academic advisor and business manager. He even wrote a book on basketball management of business management in collegiate athletics.
University Archives
In 1969 he left the athletic department and a work for the Wichita bank. He continued to manage KU.
Monte Johnson has a shot blocked in a game against the University of Washington during the 1957-58 season. Wilt Chamberlain, right, waits for the rebound. Johnson's coaches described him as a hard-working forward.
Brinkman and Wilson both served on the search committee that hired Johnson. They agreed that Johnson's background as a banker and businessman helped him get the job.
Another factor in Johnson's favor was his proven ability as a fund-raiser.
Under Johnson and Bob Frederick, director of the Williams Fund, the athletic department has automated its fund-raising operations by using a central store information and keep track of contributors.
Donations have increased from $942,072 in fiscal year 1982 to $1,270,000 this year — a 35 percent increase. Next year donations are expected to increase another 22 percent.
The biggest fund-raising coup, however, was obtaining the donation for the $3.5 million Anschutz Sports Pavilion, which is being built next to Allen Field House.
Waugh said Johnson was a master at obtaining donations
"He has the ability to go out and ask for money and not everyone can do that," said Waugh, who also served as an assistant basketball coach at KU when Johnson was a player.
"It's a unique talent. You need someone you can't say no to," Waugh said. "You can't say no to Monte."
Despite his success, Johnson still draws criticism from some quarters.
Some criticism remains
Young, the student representative to the KSAC, sat at times Johnson ignored students' interests.
As an example, Young noted the recent restructuring of the KUAC board, which cut student representation on the board from four to three members.
Though the plan was proposed by the Long Range Planning Committee, Young said it couldn't have reached the floor without Johnson's approval.
"Students have great reservations about this plan." Young said. "This is our only means of influencing the athletic department. And the board does whatever the athletic director tells it to."
Tony Redwood, chairman of the planning committee and a professor of business, said the plan was fair because it cut one representative from each constituency – students, faculty and alumni. The total number of voting members was 154, with 107 of the athletic director was made a voting member.
Young also protested the Student Sports Council's recent recommendation that students pay a $3 activity fee each semester to help support the athletic department. Students currently pay $4.50 a semester to support women's and non-revenue sports.
Besides being unfair, Young said the fee increase was inappropriate because Johnson's daughter, Jackie, had proposed it to the council. Jackie is a member of the School of Business, is a member of the council.
Put together, the cutting of student representation on the board and the proposed fee increase constitute asking students for more money while they are still in school. The influence in the athletic department, Young said
KUAC EXPENSES
Athletic budget figures from the past 10 years
"I think the athletic director is skillful at saying the right thing at the right time." Young said. "But like any athletic director, when push comes to show, when students' interests compete against those of the alumni, the students will always lose."
On Thursday, the council withdrew the proposal and put off any fee increase until a later date.
Young said he thought the increase in the budget in the past two year was a sign that Johnson was leading KU toward an unprecedented build-up in athletes. He said he supported KU athletics, but was worried what the risks of such an increase would be.
Year Athletic Director Expenses Percent Increase
1975 Clyde Walker $1,930,985 15.2
1976 Clyde Walker $2,225,400
1977 Clyde Walker $2,358,800 6.0
1978 Clyde Walker $2,658,700 11.6
1979 Bob Marcum $2,857,340 7.5
1980 Bob Marcum $3,351,600 17.2
1981 Bob Marcum $3,312,159 -1.2
1982 Bob Marcum $3,912,804 18.1
1983 Bob Marcum $4,229,265 8.1
1984 Monte Johnson $5,144,115 21.6
1985 Monte Johnson $5,636,680 9.6
Johnson, however disagreed and said the budget increases were necessary to improve the athletic programs at KU.
"I don't have a problem in my mind that KU will ever get athletics out of perspective," he said. "But to have a better program in terms of quality and a chance for consistent success you'll probably spend a little more money percentage- wise in the first two or three years in catching up in some areas."
The athletic department has done some catching up, and more is being planned. Johnson said the athletic department was in the process of drawing up a long-range plan to determine how each sport could become more competitive in the Big Eight Conference.
The plan will also map out the present obstacles to each program's success and the course of action.
"My business orientation is that you're better off knowing where you are going, or hope to go, than you are just reacting to crisis," Johnson said. "Somebody said 'If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.' And I think that's true."
ATTENTION SOFTBALL MANAGERS
CASH REFUNDS
9-12 & 1-4 Rob, 208
No Checks issued through mail as previously announced
FREE WEEK-END SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT
Fri., April 27, Sat. April 28, Sun., April 29 DEADLINE IS TODAY, p.5. p.m. Rob. 208
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AN INTRODUCTION TO TRUE BUDDHISM
"WORLD PEACE THROUGH INDIVIDUAL HAPPINESS"
April 28 Sat., 2 p.m.
Memorial Union Kansas Rm.
. . Buddhist Students for Culture and Peace .
For Information Phone: 842-8436 (Tatsu)
841-5299 (Cathy)
African Student Association General Meeting
Sat., April 28th, 5 p.m.
Council Room
Kansas Union