SDSU A.D. Mike Bohn's Press Conference Quotes
Oct. 6, 2003
SAN DIEGO -
President Weber's Introduction:
Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us. This is an important moment for Aztec athletics. I'm pleased to announce that Mike Bohn has accepted our offer to be athletics director at San Diego State.
As you know, Mike has served for over five years as athletic director at the University of Idaho where he has run a 15-sport, Division I-A intercollegiate athletic program. At Idaho, Mike raised money for a $13 million athletic facility, doubled football attendance, balanced the athletic budget, which had been in deficit, and established an impeccable record of integrity and academics and in compliance. Prior to Idaho, Mike served as the associate athletic director at Colorado State, the director of marketing for the College Football Association and the assistant athletic director at Air Force.
I want to express my thanks, personally, and on behalf of San Diego State University, to the members of the search committee who gave us three excellent candidates to consider and to the scores of campus and community people who met with and evaluated these candidates.
We chose Mike because he is dedicated to the success of coaches and student-athletes, because he has a strong record of community outreach, from kids' programs to working with major donors, and he has a great record of fiscal integrity founded on the principles of transparency and involvement. In short, Mike is a leader of vision and energy that can bring us together to achieve the greatness that students, coaches and fans deserve. Mike, it is a pleasure and honor to welcome you and Kim to the San Diego State family.
SDSU Athletic Director Mike Bohn's Opening Statement:
Thank you very much. Thank you president. Thank you everyone for coming. It's a great honor to be the new athletic director at San Diego State University. It is really a great honor, president, and thank you for the opportunity. I couldn't be more excited to have an opportunity to join a staff and an institution that knows, understands and appreciates a quality intercollegiate athletic program. We can't wait to go to work. Obviously, we've got some great coaches here to work with, a great conference and I'm really looking forward to it. As an athletic director, you're always looking for an opportunity to be in a situation where there's a great fit. When I talk about a great fit, it's about the people you work for -- from Sally Roush and the president and what their vision is for intercollegiate athletics along with the existing staff, and the donor base. Every constituent group that I met with talked about running the program the right way with a great deal of class and a great deal of integrity and that's important to me. When I saw how they take care of their student-athletes and the things they're doing, it's outstanding. It all started in the initial interview process when I walked into the first interview room and it was really hot. First, I was sitting in the lobby and the sea breeze was coming off and I thought this is a neat deal. This is pretty good. It was about 70 degrees. Then they came out, asked me to come into the interview room and I came in and it must have been 150 degrees in that room. I had my suit on and the sweat was just coming off my face and eyebrows. I turned to the group and asked, "Is anybody else hot in here?" Coach Fisher jumped up and said, "Yes, Mike, it's very hot in here. Let me turn on some air for you." And he got up and he personally turned on the air conditioner, two different units, and I survived. I don't think I would have made it out of that if it wasn't for coach. That was indicative of the type of people that are here and the type of people that you like to surround yourself with. Again, I'm thrilled, I'm excited, and I'm really proud to be here. You'll get tired of me saying, "Go Aztecs," but "Go Aztecs."
Bohn on avoiding past mistakes of the athletic department:
It's certainly not easy. It's a serious issue and it takes serious people to address it and be on top of it. It's something that we'll have to work real hard at. It's going to be an every-day thing and a situation where we're going to have to focus on it and let people know that it's important for us to do things the right way and do it with class. Obviously, having a background at the Air Force Academy, where that's imperative, certainly it's helpful. Being at Colorado State, another member of this league that's had some success, I really believe San Diego State can be at the top of this league. It's important for us to have that as our goal and to work toward that objective.
Bohn on fiscal integrity and transparency:
It's important for us to be honest and be upfront and let people know what we're doing. And when I talk about people I mean faculty, staff, the community, the alumni, every constituent group that makes up our base. When the president talks about building esprit de corps, a way to do that is to be honest and upfront. If we make a mistake, we need to describe what we did, fix it and move on as we constantly work toward being the class of the league and work towards what our vision is and what we're trying to do and not get wrapped up in the minutia of some of our shortcomings or issues that we have. I really believe that at Idaho when we addressed the league affiliation issue with the state board of education, our transparency was important in doing that and obviously they saw the honesty and the passion and the actual numbers of everything that we were doing. It's just the right way to do business.
Bohn on SDSU's reporting lines:
I am more than comfortable. I am excited about the reporting lines that the president has set up. Certainly Sally's leadership on campus and the understanding of the athletic enterprise is important for us. I can tell you right now the intercollegiate athletic program at San Diego State is not going to survive without the central administration's support. It certainly starts with the president and Sally and her staff and other vice presidents on this campus. It's imperative that we have all those individuals help us. The days of athletic programs being successful (by themselves), being their own shop on an island, are becoming obsolete. It's imperative for us to be able to go and put that together. I feel really good about that and I think it's important the community understands that and our fans, our boosters, and our staff have comfort in that. I'm comfortable with that, otherwise, I wouldn't have accepted the job.
Bohn on Vanderbilt model:
The Vanderbilt model obviously is a little bit on the other end of the spectrum but clearly is based on the financial aspects of intercollegiate athletics as expensive as it is. It takes everybody working together to make that happen. That's why when I just talked to our staff a little bit about our program, it's everybody, it's San Diego State University. That's all of us coming together. Whether you're a professor on campus or a student and you have a San Diego State University sweatshirt on, you're a part of representing who we are and what we're doing. Clearly, it's a matter of pulling everybody together. It takes everybody to be successful. It isn't just the great coaches, like Coach Craft and the progress he's making, and Coach Fisher, and Tony and all of our coaches who are the marquee stars of our program. They need help and it is everybody working together to make sure we graduate our student-athletes, that we're fiscally sound and that we run a program that everybody can be proud of.
Bohn on his top objective:
It's got to be to establish the credibility of the department, on campus, in the community, with our boosters, with our donors, and with the president. Building some confidence so people understand that we're going to run a good shop, we're going to run it with a great deal of integrity, and we're going to work hard. We're going to reach out to this community like they've never been loved before. I really believe that. I think our staff is going to get tired of me talking about hustling and going out and being a friend first. As I talk to my kids when we've moved different places and they've grown up and sometimes they talk about, "It's hard and I don't know anybody," and I say, "You know what, it's important for you to be a friend first sometime." The Aztecs ought to be great friends of everybody in this community and do a great job of reaching out and we need to them know that it's a neat thing to have a great program and have a great institution right here and we need them to be a part of it. Starting with kids as they grow up all the way until they graduate from this institution, as they come here, do a great job, learn, go on, have great careers, retire, be great boosters, be great fans and send their grandkids here. Maybe that sounds a little bit like a simple process but that's what it's all about. We ought to be proud of what we have and be really excited about what's happening on campus and realize that winning isn't an entitlement. We need our fans and our boosters to help us build that and I think that's imperative. That's a monumental task. That's a big goal, but I believe that will be our first objective to gain credibility and hustle.
Bohn on SDSU personnel:
I really feel blessed that we've got some great coaches. We've got some real stars and I really feel fortunate to be an athletic director and come in and have some great coaches who are doing a good job. I also feel that the support staff has been through some tough times. It's time for them to feel free to go to work and hustle and have a great attitude and do what's right. I think we'll begin to assess where our weaknesses are and where we need some help. Obviously we have some openings and we'll look and find people who will come in here with a great work ethic and a great mentality and want to be passionate about this business and have fun.
Bohn on San Diego State being a lateral move:
Absolutely not. Let me tell you: I'm really proud of what we did at the University of Idaho. I said for the five years I was there that it would take a real special place for me to leave. Many of you maybe don't understand Idaho and what it means to be a Vandal and Vandal spirit, but it's special. It really is and that entire state understands the Vandals and what it's about as an institution. But clearly San Diego State has so much more to offer. Obviously, you start with one of the greatest cities in the country. You start with a president and central administration that know about intercollegiate athletics and understand the investment it takes to do that. The opportunity to be involved in a great sports town, and a great conference are obviously important. I really believe the Mountain West Conference ought to continue to do everything they can to push the BCS to be at the table. The opportunities to grow and to be successful on the national scene far exceeds Idaho's obviously. By no means do I want to take anything away from the Vandals. When you're geographically challenged and population-based challenged, it's very difficult for you to have some of those national goals in sight.
Bohn on balancing the budget:
That's going to be a challenge certainly. We'll bring the same principles that we had at Idaho that worked for us. First of all, we really hustled and did a great job of generating new external revenue. We sold more tickets, we generated some sponsorship revenue, we raised more money, we engaged more groups and we also were really good stewards with our money. We asked our coaches to be smart and to do some things that make sense. Those two things mixed together along with the efficiency we built in our staff made so we didn't have a lot of fat in our program. Everybody was working and had a job to do and it worked out well. Obviously, building efficiencies and managing additional resources that we have, but more importantly generating more revenues so that we have an opportunity to build the things that we need, similar to some of the great facilities that you have here. These (facilities) are outstanding, what a great asset.
Bohn on SDSU's role, if any, in development of new stadium:
You know what, I like to believe that San Diego State is a big part of this community and we're a player and we're helping support this great community in some way. Obviously, I don't know enough about that yet, but I'd like to see the Aztec family and the leadership on campus be a part of helping form this community and being a leader. What that means exactly I'm not sure, but I certainly believe that we should be a part of that.
Bohn on following Rick Bay as proponent of entering the BCS:
Clearly, that's the objective. Obviously, the exposure there is great. Having the experience of being at the Air Force Academy in 1985 when we were 4th-ranked in the country and were sent to the Blue Bonnet Bowl to play Texas obviously is a reflection, even in 1985, of seeing a WAC (Western Athletic Conference) team at that time ranked fourth in the country put in that bowl game. Obviously, we didn't feel slighted because we were proud of where we were going, but on the other hand we felt we should have been at a bigger table. When you look at Colorado State and what Sonny has done there and the accomplishments they've had and the games they've won, clearly the Mountain West has shown its competitiveness to be in the BCS. How does the Mountain West continue to move and work toward that objective? Doing great things like Coach Craft did, going into a hostile environment in Columbus and competing and doing a great job and giving credibility to the league.
Bohn on style of management:
I'd really like to say that I'm a user-friendly A.D. when I'm dealing with the media, boosters, and coaches. I'd also like to say that I'm real perceptive of what's going on and understand people and how they work and their sense of teamwork. I think it's probably a combination of both-sometimes I show up in places I'm not supposed to be and I see what's going on. Other times I'm in a different role in helping with the community outreach project or with some type of charity in town and having a completely different role. I think I kind of adapt to all those environments.
