Doninger reflects on past

Monday was the first business day Clarence Doninger has been unemployed in over 41 years. For the last 10 of those years, Doninger has been at the helm of the IU athletics program. That all came to an end Saturday as Doninger stepped down when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 65. \nAt his Indianapolis home, Doninger took the time to reflect on his tenure at Indiana and what he sees in the future of IU athletics.\n"It's been a relaxing day," Doninger said while sitting in his living room Monday afternoon. "It is weird. I was just thinking, this is the first time I've been unemployed for 41 years."\nWhile Doninger said his time as AD has come to an end, it doesn't mean he is retiring from life.\n"I'm rejoining my old firm," he said. "I'm going to take a couple months off and then I'm joining my old firm, Stark, Doninger and Smith. It's a 20-lawyer law firm. We haven't decided what the roles of it will be, but it's part time."\nEven though Doninger hasn't been retired for even a week, he knew what he was going to miss the most from the athletics directors position.\n"I liked being around the students," he said. "I liked being around the campus. It keeps you pumped up. It keeps you interested and I'm going to miss that. But I also missed being around the lawyers and all that, so I'll get back to that. I'll just go back to my old ways."\nOne thing he isn't going to mind leaving behind in Bloomington is the difficulty that comes with such a high profile position.\n"Most people don't realize how tough being an AD at a Big Ten institution is," he said. "You're not only running, in effect, a major business, you also have all the personnel problems with the 24 sports. It's a very tough job with big problems, a multitude of small problems, everybody interested in athletics, everybody thinking they got the answer and that's a part of it."\nDoninger -- who is an IU alum -- said he never even pictured himself coming back to the University in the role of athletics director. He wanted to stay involved with IU, but merely in a volunteer role with such organizations like the Alumni Association, IU Foundation and the Varsity Club.\n"I was known to the school, people involved in the school, I knew a lot of people there, had been involved in athletics and had been involved as a volunteer in athletics, but never thought I would be a part of the administration," Doninger said. He also said his background in athletics, business and law helped in the selection 10 years ago that got him the biggest job in the athletics department.\n"They brought in a number of people like me who had an interest in the school and the athletics program, but also had a business or legal background, so I sort of fit that new mold," he said. "I just sort of fell into the job. It was not something that I had sought."\nOnce Doninger took the job, he said he was not aware of the policy that forced him to retire. While he said he understood retirement policies as a whole, he was "disappointed" when he found out he would have to end his tenure at IU prematurely.\n"I was not aware of it until a couple years ago," he said. "When I had done my inquiring back in the 90's I was told that there was no policy. I think the policy that is now in effect wasn't propagated until December of 1997. When the administration implemented it they added the athletics director and head coaches."\nEven though Doninger left sooner then he expected, he named several accomplishments such as the building of the Mellencamp Pavillion, the renovating of Armstrong Stadium and the indoor and outdoor tracks, the placing of grass on the football field, the building of the new pool in the SRSC and many others that made his time here a success.\n"You always have projects in mind and when I first came in I sat down and wrote out sort of a 10-year plan, some of which we accomplished and some of which we didn't," he said. The project that Doninger said slipped away from him, due to the price of the endeavor, was the building of a basketball practice facility.\n"We have a major basketball program with no real auxiliary gym," he said. "We got both men and women practicing, not just game time, but coordinating practices and games is very difficult without another good gym."\nLook for the second installment of the interview with Doninger in Monday's IDS as the former AD discusses the future of IU athletics and the pressures faced from the public and the media during one of the most controversial years for the athletics department.