Linda Dempsay Is Still a Trailblazer : UC Irvine: Former AD now working in the family paper products business will be inducted into the athletic directors’ hall of fame today.

When Linda Dempsay resigned as UC Irvine’s athletic director in 1983, she left a field in which she had been a pioneer and started a second career.

“In fact, I sometimes look back now. I wonder, what would it be like if I stayed with it?” said Dempsay, now general manager of Pak West Paper & Chemical, one of three Santa Ana-based paper products firms she owns with her husband and brother. “But I like variety and all kinds of opportunities and challenges. I think it’s probably good to have changes.”

Dempsay, 53, began her career at Irvine in 1965, the year the school was founded, and rose from coaching volleyball, tennis and swimming to the position of athletic director.

In 1978, when she was named to that post, no woman had ever headed a Division I athletic program.

Some men sought her out before she took the job to tell her she should. “You owe something to the women to do that,” they said.

Others were less enthusiastic.

“I’m sure there were men who were uneasy with a woman in that position,” Dempsay said.

In her five years at Irvine, she presided over the early years of the school’s Division I status, and counted recently retired basketball coach Bill Mulligan among her hires.

For her achievements, and in recognition of her service as the first woman appointed to the NCAA Committee on Infractions, Dempsay will be inducted today into the hall of fame of the National Assn. of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, which is holding its annual convention in San Diego.

The others being inducted are Dee Andros, former Oregon State football coach and athletic director; John Bridgers, former athletic director at New Mexico, Florida State and Baylor, where he also was head football coach; Rex Brumley, former athletic director at Broward (Fla.) Community College, and Milt Hunter, former athletic director at South Carolina State, Mississippi Valley State and Allen University (Columbia, S.C.).

It was never Dempsay’s plan to be a trailblazer.

“It really just evolved,” she said. “That happened due to a variety of factors, without me saying, ‘I want to do this or that in two or three years.’ ”

Dempsay is one of the links in a chain that includes Judith Sweet, who became the first woman to head a men’s and women’s collegiate athletic department when she took over at UC San Diego (not a Division I school) in 1975, and this year became the first woman to be elected president of the NCAA; Maryalyce Hill, the first to head a Division I program with football when she was named AD at San Diego State in 1983, and Barbara Hedges, who last month left USC to become AD at Washington.

Dempsay’s roots in athletics were her own college experience. She was a three-sport athlete at California at a time when women’s sports were still an afterthought.

“It was nothing compared to today,” said Dempsay, who played volleyball, field hockey and basketball. “If you were on the field hockey team and the team was going to play Mills College (in Oakland), you signed up if you could go. Some teams did practice together, but it was not required.”

When she became an athletic director, it was as if she had joined a fraternity.

“I remember the first few meetings with different individuals, they would ask, ‘What would I do if this happened, or that happened? What would I do being a woman?’

“Just if someone didn’t want to schedule you, or you needed more money or needed funds from the community, the whole gamut, how you would reach out to boosters or other ADs. It was a new thing to them since women had never done it.

“That was the disadvantage you had, that you hadn’t grown up within the system of athletics. You were not in the networking system that was basically men. (But) I found them very helpful when I would ask what do I do, or how do you do it.

“A lot of it, there was a natural way to do things. If you are intimidated or afraid to take risks, whether you (are) a man or a woman, that’s not the thing to be doing. Sports and athletics are about teamwork and risk-taking.”

Had Dempsay stayed in athletic administration, she might have risen to head one of the country’s most famous athletic departments. Instead, she decided at 44 to retire from the university.

When Dempsay left Irvine, it was with the praise of Chancellor David G. Aldrich, Jr.

Dempsay said she left not out of any disenchantment with the field, but to work in the family business.

“I had been involved as an owner, and as it grew, it came to the point where I was taking a look at becoming more involved,” she said. “It was too much for two people. I needed to spend time with the company, and I could feel good about leaving the university. With the (Bren) Events Center planned, I didn’t feel like I was walking out.”

Dempsay has found that women are rare in the upper levels of the paper products industry as well. She works in that environment using the same methods that helped her excel in sports administration.

“There are certain abilities and skills and understandings you have to take to business, no matter what you’re doing,” she said. “Even if you’re not an athlete or didn’t participate or didn’t make your reputation in football, (you can be an effective manager). You can have an outstanding football player who might not do a good job managing. I’ve found the same thing in industry.

“A man might say, ‘You don’t know our products.’ I’d say, ‘You’re right. We have five mops, and I can’t tell you which would be best for the job.’ But it doesn’t take that long to learn. You learn to manage people. You put together a staff that will complement whatever area you’re not strong in.”

Her transition to a different field also enhanced Dempsay’s life at home with her husband, John, and their three children, Suzanne, now 27, Janet, 24, and Jim, 21.

“I had seen coaches and athletic directors retire, and you have a real adjustment. When I left, I hadn’t been at it for 50 years. I did fine. It was a few years before you got out of that mode.

“I can sit and watch a game on TV on a Saturday, and don’t have to run out to watch the baseball team or the swim team. (As athletic director,) you’d have mixed emotions. You wanted to go watch volleyball compete, but you didn’t want to get up and go. Or you wanted to support them, but you didn’t have the energy. I guess what it is, is to be able to have your own time and not feel guilty.”

Still, some habits die hard.

“I still pick up the sports section first, business second,” she said.