Fred Glass: ‘I want to do this for the rest of my career’

It’s just after 3:30 p.m. inside the Persimmon Room at the east end of the Indiana Memorial Union. Snow covers the ground outside, but warmer temperatures are slowly melting it into the soft ground.

Inside, another kind of thaw is taking place as a handful of students meet with IU’s newest administrator, Director of Athletics Fred Glass.

There’s nothing really remarkable about the scene, save this: In a university climate defined in recent years by closed-door decision-making that generally leaves students out, there is a new face in Bloomington interested in trying things differently.

Glass was in the room an hour early, equipped with little more than a pen and a yellow legal pad and without the entourage that sometimes accompanied his predecessor, Rick Greenspan.

Moreover, in stark contrast to the often private Greenspan – whom many believed was far too opaque in his operation – Glass has flung open the physical and proverbial doors of his office in his first month on the job.

Accessibility

When he was hired, Glass talked about three pillars upon which he wanted to build his program: compliance, athletic achievement and academic excellence. Directly below that comes accessibility: with coaches, with administrators, with the Bloomington community – and with students.

Glass said he plans to hold regular office hours and hopes to go to campus hot spots every so often to hear from students.

“Being present and hearing from the students directly is really important,” Glass said Wednesday during the IU-Iowa game. “I want to break down any perceived walls that are there between the athletic department and the University – and the athletic department and the community.”

In office little more than a month, Glass has met with representatives of prominent student groups twice, including leaders from the IU Student Association, the Residence Halls Association, the Student Athletic Board and the Student Alumni Association. It has paid dividends – IUSA President Luke Fields and RHA President Eric Gibson were both in attendance at Wednesday’s office hours.

Glass has also extended the same offer to his coaches, with whom IU baseball coach Tracy Smith said Glass holds an open-door policy – one that isn’t just for show.

“Fred wants everyone’s input,” said IU women’s tennis coach Lin Loring, the department’s longest-tenured coach,  in a statement. “He made it clear it was OK to disagree with him. He just wants our participation and ideas.”

Actions speak louder than words

When Greenspan took over the department in 2004, the major problems facing IU Athletics were almost too many to count. Greenspan brought the department back into the black and made several coaching hires lauded throughout the Big Ten.

So when Glass sat down in the director’s office for the first time Jan. 3, the table was set for the former Baker & Daniels partner to take control. He did.

Already, Glass has made himself visible at all sorts of athletic events, has undertaken a micro-marketing campaign that’s focused on getting people to basketball games in higher numbers (it’s worked) and has worked to honor facilities enhancements and construction, like the new academic support center and the new baseball and softball stadiums.

Glass also acknowledges his greatest shortcoming: his complete lack of collegiate athletics administration. His solution? Meet people in the days before taking office.

“I had 60 days to kind of hit the ground running and climb the learning curve,” Glass said. “In those 60 days, I met with like, 150 people.”

‘The perfect guy’ for the job

Those words are Jack Swarbrick’s. He is the athletics director at Notre Dame and a former Baker & Daniels partner with Glass. Swarbrick said Glass is the right man at the right time.
“He’s the perfect guy to be the athletic director at Indiana University right now, given the challenges the University is coming off of,” Swarbrick said, referring to IU’s recent checkered history that ultimately led to Glass’ hiring.
Swarbrick acknowledged Glass’ lack of experience in his new field, but emphasized how much more important it is that Glass has a strong, diverse resume.
That resume includes spearheading the effort to bring Lucas Oil Stadium into being and time spent as Evan Bayh’s chief of staff when Bayh was governor.
“It’s an increasingly complex business,” Swarbrick said by phone last month. “The days of athletic departments operating off the revenue that are produced by the core activities are long over. It takes a multitude of revenue sources to make a major program work ... It’s a quickly changing industry.”
Perhaps even more important, however, are Glass’ credentials as “an Indiana guy.” There were concerns, both public and private, from varied parties during the search urging the committee to find someone with Indiana roots, someone who might better understand what it means to be a Hoosier.
Glass – who has “Indiana Hoosiers” etched across the back of his office chair – said he believes it’s a strength he possesses, and that he’s in for the long haul.
“Nobody has to explain to me what Nick’s is, where HPER Court One is,” said Glass, who has two IU degrees. “This is the last job I want. I’m not trying to shine my credentials to get to Stanford or someplace else.
“I want to do this for the rest of my career.”