Cassell’s Fate at TAC Top Item at Meetings

Ollan Cassell’s status with The Athletics Congress will be the leading item on the agenda today in a meeting in Denver of the U.S. track and field governing body’s executive committee.

After hearing a report from a subcommittee formed earlier this year to evaluate Cassell, executive director for all 14 years of the organization’s existence, the 22-member executive committee is expected to vote on whether to recommend to TAC’s board of directors that his contract be renewed next March.

Although it appeared earlier this year that Cassell did not have support from the majority of executive committee members, TAC’s president, Frank Greenberg of Philadelphia, said this week that he believes the controversial executive director has improved his position enough to win a vote of confidence.

“I haven’t been counting noses, but all the signs indicate that Ollan will do OK and that he will withstand the vote and get a recommendation,” Greenberg said.

But he added that the executive board’s vote will be only one of several factors that the board of directors, which numbers more than 100, will consider when determining Cassell’s future.

Cassell, who was president of the Amateur Athletic Union before moving to TAC when it was formed 14 years ago, has been criticized for a lack of creativity in promoting a sport that has suffered in the United States in recent years because of dwindling interest among television audiences, spectators and participants.

Although track and field’s popularity has increased in other parts of the world, the sport receives significant attention in most parts of this country only once every four years, during the Summer Olympics.

Aware of the problems, TAC recently reorganized, hiring two administrators for the governing body’s Indianapolis headquarters, in a move intended to free Cassell to deal with improving the sport’s visibility.

“I think he has not had a tool to be effectively evaluated upon,” said Herman Frazier of Tempe, Ariz, who suggested Cassell’s contract be extended for two years. “He needs some time to work within this system.”

Cassell’s supporters emphasize his influence internationally on behalf of TAC. He is a vice president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, which governs the sport. Cassell has been at odds in recent months with the IAAF’s president, Primo Nebiolo of Italy, but Greenberg said that might work in Cassell’s favor with TAC because it suggests he is independent.