Tribute to University of Louisville Athletic Director Tom Jurich
TRIBUTE TO UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE ATHLETIC DIRECTOR TOM JURICH
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, November 5, 2003, brought many reasons for celebration in Kentucky. First, my friend, Ernie Fletcher was celebrating his victory in the gubernatorial election, making him the first Republican to hold that office in 32 years. The same day, the University of Louisville, my alma mater, was celebrating its acceptance into the Big East Conference. On that day, my local paper, The Courier-Journal, highlighted both of these achievements on the front page-a great day to be a Republican and a Cardinal.
The man who orchestrated U of L's rise to the Big East is my friend, Tom Jurich, the university's athletic director. Since his arrival in 1997, Tom has worked diligently to improve Louisville's athletic department. In recent years, he has hired two outstanding coaches, football coach Bobby Petrino and basketball coach Rick Pitino. He also has secured U of L's place as one of the top athletic programs in the country. Tom's hard work and dedication should be commended.
I close by quoting Tom from the November 5, 2003 edition of The Courier-Journal. He said:
It's a wonderful day to be a U of L fan. And it's a wonderful day to be a Cardinal student-athlete. But it's a hell of a great day to be the athletic director at the University of Louisville. This has been a six-year work in progress This puts us on a level playing field.
This U of L alum is one happy fan, and I thank my friend for all he has done for the University of Louisville Athletic Department. I ask unanimous consent that the following article from The Courier-Journal be printed in the Congressional Record to document this historic day: "Under Tom Jurich, Louisville's star has risen in the East."
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
[From the Courier-Journal, Nov. 5, 2003]
UNDER TOM JURICH, LOUISVILLE'S STAR HAS RISEN IN THE EAST
(By Pat Forde)
At 10 o'clock yesterday morning, a wrinkled Big East Conference banner was stretched across a table in Kenny Klein's office at the University of Louisville.
The worst-kept secret in college athletics was literally-and finally-on the table. Welcome to a banner day on Planet Red.
Klein, the associate athletic director for media relations, is in his 21st year at U of L. He has been a loyal soldier through the glory and the gory-from an NCAA championship to NCAA probation, from the Fiesta Bowl to 1-10. He ranks yesterday among his very proudest days on the job.
"For the whole, encompassing factor of the athletic department and university, it's as big as anything we've done," Klein said. "We're poised to make an absolute leap, I think.
"It's really neat because you work so hard to build something, a total department, and to see it come to fruition is just a great feeling. Until now you've had that little stigma, even though we knew we can compete. The stigma's gone."
After six years of unwavering effort by athletic director Tom Jurich, the stigma is gone. After some of the most skillful, steely and inspired personnel moves in recent college sports history reinvigorated football and men's basketball, the stigma is gone. After a committed campaign to improve U of L's shady NCAA-compliance image, low-budget facilities and neglected non-revenue sports, the stigma is gone.
The news that U of L will leave Conference USA in 2005 (at the latest) for the Big East did not pack the focused emotional wallop of beating UCLA in Indianapolis in 1980, Kentucky in Knoxville in '83, Duke in Dallas in '86 or Alabama in Tempe in '91. But those were ephemeral moments, followed (eventually) by hard times. This victory could have a permanent effect on exposure, recruiting, finances and winning-if the Bowl Championship Series situation works itself out.
That's a significant "if," but Jurich expressed confidence that the new Big East won't lose its place at the big table. And if there is one thing Cards fans have learned to do, it's to trust Jurich's vision.
"He really had to change the culture for six years to make this happen," said senior associate athletic director Julie Hermann. "This is a benchmark, a defining moment."
The defining moments keep piling up for Jurich. The man who hired John L. Smith, Rick Pitino and Bobby Petrino now has brought the entire athletic department up to a level it has strived to reach forever.
Jurich took over on Oct. 21, 1997. Yesterday he jokingly said his first call to Big East headquarters came the following day. In reality he took a few months getting a grip on the U of L program, then put in a call to see where the Cardinals stood.
"It fell on deaf ears," he said.
There is a cure for deafness: persistence, a plan and the power of Pitino.
"We just kept at it and kept at it," Jurich said. "And when we got Rick, I think the possibilities became a lot clearer."
The possibilities could become crystal-clear probabilities by 2005. Pitino is pointing for a Final Four-level season in 2004-05 and could move the Cards immediately to the top of a 16-team Big East megaheap. Football coach Bobby Petrino will be in his third year, with a number of today's young talents in starring roles. If the non-revenue sports step up-most notably women's basketball-U of L could enter the Big East on a serious roll.
The trajectory of Louisville's climb grew steeper in recent years, but the gradual ascent began decades before. This is a school that once was a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, just another regional athletic program in a state owned by Big Blue. This is a school that once gave away football tickets with a tank of gas at convenience stores, a school that once had non-revenue facilities that would embarrass some high schools.
"It's been a slow progression, but this is a great day for the athletic department," U of L trustee and 1970s basketball hero Junior Bridgeman said. "It's not a culmination, just the next step. But it's a great time, and everyone should share in the joy."
Said Charlie Tyra, a basketball star from the 1950s: "This is another step in the direction they want to get. Hopefully, this is the big step."
It's big enough to say that Louisville is now officially Big. Big enough for the Big East. Big enough for the big boys of college athletics. Big enough to have something Big Brother in Lexington lacks: membership in what will be the best basketball conference going.
This is a league big enough to find on every map. Trips to Hattiesburg, Birmingham and Greenville are out. Philadelphia, Washington and the Big Apple are in.
It's big enough to find every March. As recently as 1994, Louisville was playing in the Metro Conference Tournament in the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi. Now it has signed on to play its league tourney on the most famous hardwood in the world at Madison Square Garden.
It's big enough to keep a football coach happy. U of L lost the two best it ever had-Howard Schnellenberger and John L. Smith-because of conference affiliation. Today Petrino, a star-in-the-making, believes he has everything he needs to chase what had been unattainable: a national championship.
Schnellenberger, Denny Crum and Bill Olsen vaulted Louisville athletics forward dramatically in the 1980s and early '90s. That shouldn't be forgotten today when measuring how far the Cards have come. But by the time Jurich arrived, the school's isolationist athletic stance had outlived its usefulness.
As the conference landscape had begun to change, U of L hadn't changed with it. Hogging TV and postseason revenue and pipe-dreaming of football independent status wasn't helping make the Cards an attractive modern program. In fact, it nearly cost them membership in C-USA at a time when, as Jurich pointed out, "Louisville needed Conference USA much more than Conference USA needed Louisville."
Today Louisville is easily the most vibrant, viable and attractive school in the league. And in 2005 it will commence aiming even higher.
You want billboard material? You've got it. Louisville might not be the Best College Sports Town in America, but it's a better one today than it ever has been.
Before the official announcement yesterday, Klein stood at a podium in the U of L football complex, preparing to make introductions. Someone flipped a switch, and behind him a projection screen rolled up.
Behind the screen was the Big East banner that had been sitting on the table in his office earlier in the day. The symbolic wrinkles had been ironed out. And as the screen rolled up, Klein couldn't help but smile.