Indy native has background in law, politics

Michael McRobbie unveiled his mystery man Tuesday.

Fred Glass, an Indianapolis lawyer and IU graduate, seemed to have come out of nowhere to become the next IU Director of Athletics. Nevertheless, there he stood behind a press conference podium, shaking hands with the IU president, beaming with pride.

Professionally, Glass is known as “The Closer,” for his ability to get things done. He laid the groundwork for the Super Bowl to come to Indianapolis in 2012 and oversaw the construction of Lucas Oil Stadium. He’s made sure Indianapolis will be a staple of the NCAA Final Four and has also worked extensively with Big Ten Tournament organizers.

    AUDIO: Fred Glass

As a politician, Glass has “always been apologetically a Democrat” and plans to vote for Sen. Barack Obama next week. He served as the chief of staff to former Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh and worked as the Indiana chairman for the Clinton/Gore campaign in 1996.

When he was in college, Glass described himself by a different name.

“I hope you guys don’t interview people I knew when I was in college because I was a knucklehead,” Glass said in an interview with the Indiana Daily Student on Tuesday. “I would be the last guy you’d think would be the athletic director.”

Glass told stories of sneaking into Memorial Stadium as a student and remembered former IU basketball star Randy Wittman coming over to his house on Eighth Street for parties. He couldn’t resist skipping school back in 1976 to greet Bob Knight and the U.S. national basketball team at the Indianapolis airport, and he even admitted to hitchhiking back when it was “more socially acceptable.”

“One day, Ralph Floyd picked me up, who was the (IU) athletic director at the time,” Glass told the audience in his press conference. “He said, ‘Son, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go, but we’re going to the football office first and you’re buying season tickets.”

Aware of IU’s struggling attendance, Glass half-jokingly warned student hitchhikers, “Watch out, I might pull a Ralph Floyd on you.”

Free rides aren’t the only thing Glass plans to give IU students. Glass said he wants to be as “transparent” and “accessible” as possible and plans to hold regular office hours.

Sitting up in his chair and speaking animatedly, Glass said he sensed the student body wants an athletics director who is accessible and said he plans to have his door open so students can “come in and see me and get to know me.”

While the new athletics director has two months to prepare before he takes over on Jan. 2, he didn’t have much time to prepare for the University’s announcement.

Glass’ wife, Barbara, said the process came together quickly over the last couple of days, and “the more Fred thought about it, the more we thought about it and the more we were excited.”

When word came Monday that Glass would replace standing director Rick Greenspan, many skeptics pointed to the elephant on his resume: the lack of experience as an athletics director. But Glass said a lot of qualities necessary at his old jobs are transferable to his new position.

In addition to fundraising, Glass said he has experience in creating and cutting budgets, hiring and firing people, evaluating executive talent and managing an operation – all things necessary to run an athletics department.

Glass isn’t the first lawyer to be recently hired as an athletics director. In fact, he isn’t even the first lawyer from his firm. Earlier this year, Notre Dame hired Jack Swarbrick, a fellow partner at Baker & Daniels with a similar pedigree. Glass said there are a lot of different people, including lawyers, who can be successful athletics directors.

“I think it’s one way to skin a cat and I think it’s a good way to skin a cat, but I don’t think it’s the only way to skin a cat,” Glass said.

After a long day of smiling, shaking hands and meeting new people, IU’s “goofy” new athletics director looked like he couldn’t get enough.

“For a guy like me, this is the pinnacle,” he said.