Ford Targets UCI’s Red Ink

It is Tom Ford’s third day on the job and his office is still designed in Modern Cardboard, but behind the stacks of unpacked boxes, UC Irvine’s new athletic director is doing his best to get acclimated.

A ceramic Anteater pin is affixed to Ford’s coat lapel. His navy necktie is dotted with tiny yellow Anteaters.

But more than just wear them, Ford has done research.

“I checked a book out of the library, just to understand and learn more about anteaters,” Ford says. “Maybe we should get a live one.

“At Houston, we had a live Cougar. Baylor has their bear. Texas has Bevo (a longhorn steer) and the Aggies have their dogs.”

But Ford went by the book and the idea went by the wayside.

“I read that they’re quite destructive to land,” he says. “They’re going to dig up an acre real quick.

“So, we’re probably going to stick with the bronze statue in front of the Bren Center.”

Ford, they say, is thorough. Give him a problem and he’ll file a report on it, complete with three-ring binder and plastic dividers. Ask him about fund-raising and he’ll whip up a quick lecture on the athletic endowment program.

Name him athletic director and he’ll commission a personal study on the mascot.

This is a valuable quality, considering the close attention Irvine’s sports program presently needs. Irvine’s athletic teams have been operating in the red for at least the past six years--and for most years since the school turned Division I in 1977.

Ford was hired on April 16 to try and find a different color ink.

Fund-raising is Ford’s background. In addition to his two years as athletic director at the University of Houston, Ford also spent three years as the school’s associate athletic director in charge of fund development. Most recently, Ford ran a consulting firm known as Pacific Research Associates, which, basically, conducted inventory of major college sports programs.

“Most of the schools that we went to were undergoing a transition of athletic directors,” Ford says, “where an outside, unbiased group is needed to make some decisions.

“Generally, at those institutions, it was all financially driven, probably relative to revenues being a shortfall. In some cases, we’d make recommendations to the sports programs--maybe eliminate some sports, maybe make some suggestions about promotion and marketing.”

In short, Ford was an athletic department trouble-shooter. And, this spring, one name stood out at the top of his hit list.

UC Irvine.

Ford never got the chance to go in as an outside observer. At the same time, UCLA Athletic Director Peter Dalis contacted Ford about the AD vacancy at Irvine and nominated him to the board of chancellors.

By mid-April, Ford’s job had gone inside.

“The chancellor mentioned to me that he’d like this to be ‘the Berkeley of the South,’ where the emphasis is on academics first and athletics second,” Ford says. “Well, Berkeley’s athletic program is improving, especially in basketball. But I told the chancellor I’d prefer us to be ‘the Duke of the West.’ ”

Irvine has a ways to go. For one, Duke has students who enjoy going to basketball games.

“I recently sat down with a student representative,” Ford said, “and, basically, there’s not a lot of (student) interest there. . . . With all the UC schools, there’s a certain amount of apathy toward intercollegiate athletics. The students here are students first; their commitment to study time outside the classroom is high.

“This is where winning comes in. Our students are going to prudently decide where to spend their leisure time and dollars. We need to let them know who we’re playing and when we’re playing. And, we need to win.”

Basketball being the high-visibility sport at Irvine, Ford has made it a high priority. If you want to attract fans and sponsors and athletic endowments, Ford reasons, your bread-and-butter sport had better be better than 5-23.

“I think Bill (Mulligan) has done a good job recruiting this year and landed three impact players,” Ford says. “His contract was rolled over for another year just before I got here, which I think was the right thing to do.

“Even though he had a poor record this year, Bill has had good success in the past. He needs more resources to be successful on the Division I level--and he hasn’t had them.”

Translation: Ford needs to get Mulligan the money, and the schedule, to recruit on a national level.

“A few impact players are all you need in basketball,” Ford says. “The year Akeem Olajuwon stepped out of a taxicab in front of my office at Houston. That’s how we recruited him. Clyde Drexler. Scott Brooks and Kevin Magee here. It doesn’t take much in basketball.”

Ford is planning to look into it now that the riddle of the Anteater has been solved.

“You know,” Ford says, “we don’t even have the most unique nickname in college sports. No, it’s Scottsdale Community College. They’re the Artichokes. Their colors are pink and green. They’ve won a national championship in golf.”

Ford grins.

“I much prefer ‘Anteater.’ ”

At least from a marketing standpoint, it’s easier to swallow.