Athletic director steps down at UNI
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By Doug Newhoff | Friday, January 18, 2008 |
Rick Hartzell, athletic director at the University of Northern Iowa for the past 8 1/2 years has submitted his resignation. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
UPDATED: CEDAR FALLS --- During his tenure as the University of Northern Iowa's director of athletics, Rick Hartzell has steered the Panthers to the front of the pack.
He won't get a chance to finish the ride.
Hartzell has resigned effective Jan. 31 because of philosophical differences with UNI's administration. The 56-year-old native of Klemme and UNI graduate spent 8 1/2 years as the patriarch of the Panther athletic family.
The university announced Hartzell's resignation in a press release this morning. An interim AD will be named by Feb. 1 with a national search for a successor beginning immediately.
"Under Rick's leadership and guidance, our athletic programs and student-athletes have set high standards, both on the field and in the classroom," UNI president Benjamin Allen said in a statement.
"Rick has helped build a strong foundation of Panther excellence. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors."
Since leaving Bucknell after 11 years to return to his alma mater, Hartzell has dealt with budget cuts and equity requirements, eliminated sports, brought back sports, added a sport, hired coaches, fired a coach, raised money for new facilities, upgraded old facilities, negotiated new radio and television broadcast agreements and taken over the UNI-Dome concession operation.
The 1974 UNI grad led efforts that raised nearly $30 million in private donations to build the McLeod Center and Human Performance Center. He hired coaches like Mark Farley, Greg McDermott and Bobbi Petersen and retained others like Chris Bucknam, who built nationally ranked programs.
"Everybody got along great, and that started with Rick," said McDermott, now the head basketball coach at Iowa State. "His charge was that we were going to be the Panther family, and we were going to act that way.
"Nobody wore his passion for UNI on his sleeve like Rick."
However, Hartzell had become increasingly disenchanted with the relationship between athletics and UNI's administration. He took his concerns to Allen.
"At the end of the fall (seasons) I went to the president and said I'd like to talk about a couple or three things that were important to me as a guy I think has performed pretty well here and helped us accomplish some things and helped UNI become a more prominent institution," Hartzell explained.
Hartzell asked for a three-year extension of his current contract, which was due to expire in June, 2009.
"I didn't ask for a change in salary," he said. "I just thought I deserved a contract similar to all the coaches I worked hard to help get long-term contracts."
Hartzell also asked that control of athletic facilities, tickets and parking be returned to his department. Those responsibilities were shifted from athletics to a newly created position approximately 18 months ago.
Finally, he requested that he be allowed to report directly to the president, which is standard procedure at eight of the Missouri Valley Conference's 10 schools and most other universities, rather than to a subordinate. Hartzell even provided two reports from compliance and athletic consultants suggesting a new reporting role be put into place.
"It's important to me because I think it changes the stature or perception of athletics," he explained. "I think it gives you a direct voice to the highest administrative authority. I think it puts ADs in a position where you can get some things done a little more quickly and a little more easily than you can with our current reporting role."
Allen, who was unavailable for comment Thursday night, denied all three requests and subsequent compromise proposals. On Dec. 16, Hartzell offered his letter of resignation. The two have spoken twice since then, including Monday, but have been unable to bridge the gap.
"At that point, it was pretty obvious to me that for my own health and well-being and the health and well-being of UNI athletics that I needed to step down," said Hartzell. "And that's where we are."
Tom Schellhardt, UNI's vice president for administration and finance, said the timing was wrong to negotiate a new contract, and he is satisfied the new arrangement regarding facilities, tickets and parking is working.
"I think we're a stronger organization because of the direction we have taken with that the last year and a half," he noted.
Allen reportedly told Hartzell that he is already juggling too many duties to take on the athletic director's reporting role.
So Hartzell is moving on.
"I've had a stomach ache for a couple of years about some of this," he noted. "At the same time, I respect president Allen and his responsibility to make the decisions he thinks are best to manage and oversee this university. Ultimately, this was my decision.
"It's been hard, but I know I'm right in what I'm doing. I really don't think I was left with much choice."
Hartzell will leave knowing that he has been part of something special at UNI.
"When Bob Koob and John Connor hired me, they said, 'We've got a problem here, and we want you to fix it,'" he related. "It really hasn't been that hard to fix.
"We've hired some good people, we've recruited great kids, we've built a family within our department, and people in the Cedar Valley fell back in love with UNI. I'm really proud of that.
"I've got the greatest wife (Jill) in the world. In the middle of December one night we were sitting by the fireplace and she looked at me and said, 'You've got so many people who care about you and you've got more friends than anybody I know. If you let that job do what it's doing to you and all those people lose you, shame on you.'
"She was right."
Hartzell isn't sure where the future will lead. He will continue to officiate NCAA basketball, tinker with stock cars and enjoy his extra hours with 1-year-old son, Jackson.
"The Cedar Valley is our home. We love it here, and this is where we want to be," he said. "The only thing that scares me is that I don't know how to do anything else.
"I'm going to trust that somehow there's a plan for me. I'll find something that works for me and try to do that with the same energy I've had for this thing. But it will be hard to duplicate the passion I've had for this place.
"I saw a quote the other day that said, 'Don't cry because it's over, smile because you were part of it.' I'm going to try to live it that way."
Contact Doug Newhoff at (319) 291-1467 or doug.newhoff@wcfcourier.com
Coaches react to Hartzell's resignation
By Matt Coss
CEDAR FALLS -- During the past 8 1/2 years, spectators saw Rick Hartzell's leadership in the Northern Iowa athletic department result in NCAA Tournament banners, conference championship trophies and facility upgrades.
But according to those that worked for him, Hartzell's legacy as UNI's director of athletics goes far beyond victories and defeats on the playing field or fund-raising dollars for the university.
"The hardest thing to replace will be Rick's passion for this school," men's basketball coach Ben Jacobson said Thursday. "You don't just gain that overnight. You don't just hire that.
"How much he cares for this place helps you become a better coach. When you see that from your boss everyday, that helps you do your job better. He cares more about this place than anybody."
Because of that, Hartzell's resignation, stemming from differences with the school's administration, stunned several coaches. Others were highly emotional.
"There's always issues in every job, but the sad and shocking part is the situation getting to this point," said Bobbi Petersen, who just completed her eighth season as head volleyball coach.
Former UNI basketball coach Greg McDermott, now at Iowa State, had multiple conversations with Hartzell about the situation in recent weeks before Hartzell came to a final decision Monday.
"I hurt for Rick and that's kind of where it starts and ends for me," McDermott said.
Jacobson admitted the resignation was difficult to stomach.
"Personally, it's hard because of the opportunities he's provided me and our family," he said. "From a school standpoint, Rick's greatest qualities are things you don't grab from here and there and then you have it. He's put most of his life into this place."
In addition to Jacobson and Petersen, Hartzell provided Mark Farley (football coach), Brad Penrith (wrestling coach) and Tanya Warren (women's basketball coach) an opportunity to be college head coaches for the first time after serving as long-time assistants.
He also gave McDermott a chance to return to his alma mater and turn around a dying men's basketball program seven years ago.
"First and foremost, I will always be indebted to Rick Hartzell," McDermott said. "He gave me an opportunity that most probably wouldn't have."
And when McDermott elected to leave for Iowa State nearly two years ago, he hired Jacobson -- McDermott's top assistant -- the next day.
"The feeling I had when Rick made the decision to say, 'OK, Jake, you're our next basketball coach and I'm not going to interview anybody else' was quite a feeling," Jacobson said. "For him to give me that opportunity, at this point in our basketball history, I can't thank him enough."
Hartzell also left an imprint on those whose programs were already successful before his arrival.
"With any leader, the first thing I look at is, do they inspire me? I want to be inspired just like my athletes want to be," director of running programs Chris Bucknam said. "I felt like he was my coach and I was one of the athletes. I wanted to do well for him."
Hartzell's influence also trickled down to the athletes.
Whether it was comforting quarterback Eric Sanders after a playoff loss to Delaware or taking in a mid-week practice, the student-athlete's interest was at the top of his priority list.
"On some of our conference tournament and NCAA trips, he would travel with us and shag volleyballs," Petersen said. "There's not too many athletic directors out there shagging volleyballs coming 80 miles per hour. It was quite a sight to see, but he's that kind of person where he's involved with coaches and student athletes.
"To even stop by practice, a lot of athletic directors don't take time to do that. Kids appreciate that."
As a result, coaches agreed his departure at the end of the month will leave a void in the athletic department.
"There's always issues with budgets and so forth, but if there was something we specifically needed to get our program to take those next steps, he found ways to do that for us," Petersen said.
In terms of the results on the field, McDermott said his record speaks for itself.
During his tenure, the football team has won four Gateway Conference titles and participated in the 2005 Football Championship Subdivision championship game. The men's basketball team qualified for three consecutive NCAA tournaments and the volleyball program reached three Sweet 16s.
Along with that, the men's track and field program finished a school-best ninth at last year's NCAA Indoor Championships, and the baseball squad made its first NCAA tournament showing in 2001.
"If you compare UNI athletics with where it was when he arrived and where it is today, it is a very different world," McDermott said, "and he deserves a lot of credit for that."
(Courier Sports Editor Doug Newhoff contributed to this article)
Northern Iowa athletic director quits
By The Associated Press
EARLIER STORY: DES MOINES — University of Northern Iowa athletic director Rick Hartzell has resigned, the school announced this morning.
Hartzell, who had been Northern Iowa's A.D. since 1999, said Thursday he's been trying to renegotiate certain parts of his contract.
Telephone messages left this morning by The Associated Press on Hartzell's cell phone and to Tom Schellhardt, Northern Iowa's vice president for administration and finance, were not immediately returned.
``I'd like to thank our great staff and coaches, and our terrific student-athletes, for all they've done to help make UNI one of the premier athletics programs in the country,'' Hartzell said in a statement released Friday. ``I'm very proud of what we've accomplished during the last eight and a half years.''
Schellhardt said in the statement that the school will name an interim athletic director by Feb. 1 and begin a national search for Hartzell's successor.
Hartzell was seeking a contract extension beyond June 2009. He also wanted to report directly to Northern Iowa President Ben Allen instead of Schellhardt, and sought for the athletic department to regain control of the ticket office and facilities management, according to published reports.
Hartzell, who has both a bachelor's and master's degree from Northern Iowa, oversaw tremendous growth in the school's athletic department, both on the field and in facility upgrades.
Under Hartzell's direction the school constructed the McLeod Center, a 6,100-seat basketball arena that opened in 2006, as well as a human performance center that opened this week. Hartzell also hired former men's basketball coach Greg McDermott, who led Northern Iowa to three straight NCAA tournaments before leaving for Iowa State, and football coach Mark Farley.
``Under Rick's leadership and guidance our athletic programs and student-athletes have set high standards, both on the field and in the classroom,'' Allen said. ``Rick has helped build a strong foundation of Panther excellence. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.''
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