One decade down ...

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

On a weekend marked by fireworks and fanfare to celebrate an anniversary, in an athletics department noted for over-the-top ways of calling attention to its achievements, it's notable how a landmark being reached this weekend at the University of Oregon will pass relatively without notice.

As calendars were turned to July, Bill Moos completed his 10th year as Oregon's director of athletics, a position that seems to wear out more of the officeholders on this campus or elsewhere than wear as well as it has on the 54-year-old Moos.

`An old friend in the profession once told me, `Bill, they're going to love you that first five years, they'll tolerate you the second five and they'll do everything they can to get rid of you in that third five,' ' Moos said in a self-deprecating review of his tenure. `Well, guess who's going into his 11th year?'

It is, for a director of athletics at a Division I university, a feat to last a decade. In the Pac-10, only three current directors have seniority on Moos, with the longest tenure belonging to Ted Leland, hired by Stanford in 1991. Three Pac-10 directors haven't finished their first 12 months on the job.

Since Moos first sat at the desk in the northwest corner office of the Casanova Center on July 1, 1995, California has had three different directors and Arizona State four. Up Highway 99, Oregon State has been headed by three different men.

At Oregon, the length of tenure for Moos in the position has only been surpassed by one man, Leo Harris.

`Pretty good company, me (being linked) with Leo Harris,' Moos mused.

The legendary Harris served as director from 1947, when the position was created to replace an athletic board that was administered by committee, until his retirement in 1967. In the 28 years between Harris and Moos, eight men held the position, three on an interim basis. Of the others, one retired, two were, in effect, fired and the other two found jobs more appealing in the Midwest.

The longest tenure in that time between Harris and Moos belonged to Bill Byrne, which earned him admittance to Oregon's athletic hall of fame, though his eight-year term would have been half that had he been successful in his pursuit of the same job at Illinois, four years before he left for Nebraska.

Other options

Moos, too, considered leaving Oregon. He described it as `gut wrenching' in 2000 when he turned down an offer from Washington State, his alma mater, to return to the Palouse, finally reasoning that while WSU hadn't even considered him a finalist for an opening in 1994, Oregon had chosen him to fill its job a year later.

Which school did he really owe more?

`We had unfinished business,' Moos said of a time when the Autzen Stadium expansion was on hold. `I felt that I couldn't walk away and look at myself in the mirror.'

It also came time for serious reflections in 2004 when he ignited a rabid response from UO supporters with his statement that he would have interest in the impending opening of the AD position at Washington. What Duck fan didn't feel repulsed by that? Moos heard boos when he was introduced at a function designed for boosters to celebrate a football recruiting class.

`I was very disappointed by people's reaction, actually astounded,' said Dan Williams, the UO vice president for administration who hired Moos and was his immediate supervisor until retiring, also this weekend. `It just seemed to me that somebody who had done as much for Oregon as Bill had done deserved a little slack on that question.'

Moos eventually withdrew his name from the search in Seattle, not that it entirely appeased all the angered UO supporters. Nor have all of them readily accepted the reasoning by Moos.

`My roots are in the state of Washington, and I felt I would have opportunities after athletics in business or whatever in the state where I intend to retire,' said Moos, raised on a wheat and cattle ranch in eastern Washington before spending his high school years in Olympia, where his father served on the governor's cabinet.

The outcry, Moos said, came largely as a result of his oft-stated belief Oregon should be `a destination, and not a stepping stone' to better jobs. He had preached it so often, he acknowledged, that he seemed more the hypocrite for not heeding his own words.

Moos said that in not hiding his initial interest in the UW position, `I feel good about the fact I was honest. I hope it hasn't tarnished my time at Oregon. When the dust is all settled, I'm here because I want to be.'

Facilities improve

In his time in the Casanova Center, his accomplishments are most evident in the $160 million that has been spent on facilities, most notably on the expansion of Autzen Stadium and the building of the Moshofsky Center. That indoor training center, while welcomed by UO athletes as the first facility of its kind on the West Coast, was the primary example used in citing Oregon as the poster child for overspending by universities on athletics, at least until the Ducks redesigned their football locker room.

To the equal dismay of his critics on the educational side of the university, and some in the community who question the value of Oregon's 18 intercollegiate teams, Oregon's annual budget for athletics has more than doubled, from $18 million to almost $40 million for this fiscal year. As that budget has risen, Moos has also succeeded in making his department self-sufficient, one of the few in the country that doesn't receive money from the university's general fund.

On the fields and arenas of their sporting endeavors, the Ducks have won nine conference championships in the Moos decade, and in one memorable academic year of 2001-02 the UO produced a football team that finished the season ranked second in the nation and a basketball team that reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, both claiming Pac-10 titles en route to their postseason successes. Only one other Pac-10 school in the past four decades can match Oregon's feat of winning outright football and men's basketball titles in the same academic year.

`We've been able to do some remarkable things, and I'm very proud to have my signature on one of the most successful decades in Oregon athletics,' Moos said.

That said, the past year has been less than a capper to highlight that decade. Beginning with the university administration's deciding in the winter of 2004 to put an indefinite hold on the plans for a new basketball arena, Moos has been as often engaged in crisis management as celebrating successes.

The football team was placed on NCAA probation a year ago for a major violation of recruiting rules, and then suffered through a 5-6 season, the first losing record at Oregon since 1993. The men's basketball team failed to reach the Pac-10 tournament, much less the NCAA or NIT.

The Ducks were dominated by rival OSU in the Civil War Cup, a compilation of results in all the sports in which both schools compete, and it is the Beavers proudly touting their improvement of facilities with the renovation and expansion of Reser Stadium.

In addition, the head coaches in two of Oregon's women's sports, volleyball and soccer, had to be replaced for lack of success. The storied Oregon track program went through the season without its head coach, who was forced to resign on the eve of the first outdoor meet, though even that desired result didn't seem to entirely appease Oregon's major financial benefactor, Nike founder Phil Knight.

As Moos said, nodding his head, `it's been a challenging year.'

If he hasn't borne the brunt of criticism from fans and boosters for the failures of some of his teams, he has at least been a recipient from seemingly every direction of the sporting compass to his e-mail or ear.

`We raised the bar, we raised expectations, that was all by design,' Moos said. `We worked hard to make people believers. ... Being criticized if we don't reach those levels comes with the territory, so that's OK.

`I may be my own worst critic. Even if we do this right and do that right, my thought is always `how can we improve to do it better?' '

Building on success

Moos was hired at Oregon in the wake of the Ducks making their first Rose Bowl appearance in 37 years and earning their first trip to the men's NCAA basketball tournament in 34 seasons. From his first interview with UO officials, the then 44-year-old director of athletics at Montana offered his plan for seizing that moment and building upon it, which ultimately led to his being offered the job over three other finalists.

`What we got with Bill was somebody with a lot of energy who was hungry to capitalize on the momentum from that year,' said Williams, who had for the year prior to the Moos hiring added the assignment of interim AD to his usual duties as a university vice president. `That really set him apart, in our minds, that he was the person who had to the skills to keep this going. As I reflect back on these 10 years, that's exactly what has happened.'

`I inherited a program that was having success, I was smart in that regard,' Moos said. `Our theme immediately was to reinvest in that success, to believe in ourselves, to not rest on our laurels ...'

Moos said his charge to the UO administration was to allow him to market aggressively -though who then knew he meant billboards from Los Angeles to New York? - and invest heavily in football, the sport that produces or leads to about 75 percent of the revenue that funds the department Moos runs. That meant better facilities were required, and stability primarily centered on keeping Mike Bellotti as the head coach of football, even as national powers such as USC and Ohio State pursued one of only two head coaches - along with Steve Nosler of men's golf - on the UO staff who weren't hired by Moos.

Along with that, Moos said he wanted to convince the UO constituency, from player to university president, from student to well-heeled alum, that the Ducks' `rightful place is at the top,' as Moos put it, contending regularly for the Pac-10 title, and not assume the 1994 run to the Rose Bowl was an experience for once in a lifetime, as it had come to be accepted.

If because of that, it has sometimes seemed as if Moos was primarily the director of football, he said `there was no hidden agenda' on the importance he placed on success in that sport. At the same time, those extra funds generated by football were not only used to enhance that sport, but to increase the salaries and budgets of non-revenue sports, making every coach and athlete in the department a football fan, Moos said.

What Moos, a three-year letterman as an offensive lineman at WSU, hasn't done is immerse himself as a de facto member of Bellotti's coaching staff, neither in the mostly good times nor even the ones lately when irate boosters might be suggesting strongly he do something as they scream in anger at his press box suite.

`He doesn't come around a lot, and if he did or didn't, it wouldn't matter to me,' Bellotti said. `I think he respects my decisions. He's always given me advice if I've asked him but rarely has he offered it other than, `Hey, anything you need, let me know.' '

It has been his method of operation with all of his coaches. If there were those supporters of non-revenue sports who felt Moos needed more of an intimate awareness of the operations of their favored activity, he demurs.

`I've always told my coaches that if they see me at practice a lot, they probably can figure they've got a problem,' Moos said. `They've been hired and entrusted with a job. ... They don't need me looking over their shoulders.

`They appreciate that. They know I'm here to provide the support and resources to make them competitive. All of my coaches have avenues to get answers through their immediate supervisors, and they always have access to me. We review the year when it concludes and make the necessary changes.'

Carl Ferreira, the UO volleyball coach until Moos replaced him last fall, said Moos, `despite the many hats he had to wear,' made time for the coach and his sport, citing as an example the availability of Moos to meet with volleyball recruits, as he might for football prospects.

`He pays every ounce of attention he can' to all of Oregon's sports, Ferreira said. Though football and men's basketball are overwhelmingly responsible for providing the department's revenue, Ferreira said Moos `didn't treat Mike Bellotti or Ernie Kent or Carl Ferreira any differently. I would definitely work for him again.'

The future

With a decade now behind him, how long does Moos stay at Oregon? A year ago, he signed a `rolling' three-year contract, which means it is typically extended annually to always have the length the same. He is currently compensated with a package that brings him $305,000 in yearly salary, with another $153,000 in deferred compensation.

Well-compensated and seemingly secure with his superiors, and those jobs in his native state interests of the past, he would seem to be in place at Oregon for at least the near future. Moos said there remain several projects he wants to see through to completion, at the top of that list a new basketball arena that would have several amenities, including an academic center for athletes.

`We've got a lot to still accomplish here at Oregon,' Moos said. `I'm excited about some of the things that are on the drawing board. I think we can be happy here for a long time.'

That said, Moos voiced mild angst about the fact `the university landscape is changing.' Williams, who hired him and mentored him through the decade, has retired though he will stay on part-time, housed in the Cas Center as a counselor to Moos. But other administrators are also retiring, and while Moos now reports directly to UO president Dave Frohnmayer, it's no secret retirement also looms for the CEO of the university, who has held that position throughout Moos' tenure.

`It would be pretty hard to beat what we have here, and yet I don't know what lies in store for the leadership of the university,' Moos said. `I'm going to continue to work hard and serve the institution as best I can and see how things lay out in the future. Ultimately, I'm going to go home.'

THE HEAD DUCK

The list of men who have been director of athletics at Oregon, since the job title and its duties were formalized:

Leo Harris 1948-1967

Len Casanova 1967-1970

Norv Ritchey 1970-1976

Pete Wingert 1975-1976

John Caine 1976-1981

Rick Bay 1981-1984

Bill Byrne 1984-1992

Rich Brooks 1992-1994

Dan Williams 1994-1995

Bill Moos 1995-now

Source: UO media guides

CAPTION(S):

Bill Moos is entering his 11th year as the University of Oregon's director of athletics, making him the longest-tenured Duck AD since Leo Harris held the post from 1948 to 1967. "We've been able to do some remarkable things, and I'm very proud to have my signature on one of the most successful decades in Oregon athletics." - BILL MOOS, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON ATHLETIC DIRECTOR U O a t h l e t i c s Kevin Clark / The Register-Guard Bill Moos has spearheaded a number of facilities projects since taking over at the University of Oregon's director of athletics in 1995. Among his successes were the expansion of Autzen Stadium, and the building of the Moshofsky Center and the indoor training center. `We raised the bar, we raised expectations, that was all by design. We worked hard to make people believers. ... Being criticized if we don't reach those levels comes with the territory, so that's OK." BILL MOOS UO DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS