Good Article From The Houston Chronicle

UNTLifer · December 28, 2006

The areas I highlighted sure seem similar.

Richard Justice: Columnist

Dec. 28, 2006, 12:52AM

Maggard ready to ask the $62 million question

Richard Justice

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Dave Maggard didn't know whether to laugh or cry or run and hide after that first day on the University of Houston campus.

I'll let him tell that portion of this story before we get to the part where he needs $62 million to finish what he started. That's when you'll be asked to participate.

''I came in and walked around the campus," he said. ''I talked to everyone I could find. It was unbelievable."

UH had just gone 0-11 in football. There wasn't much interest in basketball, either. If UH dropped sports altogether, a lot of people might not have noticed.

''What do you think of the football team?" Maggard would ask random students and faculty remembers. He remembers three variations on the same answer.

It stinks.

It's terrible.

No, I don't go to the games.

''I said, 'There is something really wrong with this place,' " he said. ''There's no reason this place should be at the bottom of the conference."

He had a similar conversation with former UH president Arthur Smith.

''I told him, 'Everybody is passive; everybody is complacent,' " he said. '' 'No one cares if you win or lose. I don't know how long it's going to take, but it has to change.' Some of the old-timers who were running this place, five or six guys, they don't like that kind of talk."

Forgotten Cougars

UH hadn't been relevant in so long that it had perhaps forgotten that sports can raise a university's profile as well as its enrollment applications and donations. When people think of the University of Texas, the business school isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

In the five years since that first day, Maggard has hired, fired, cajoled, browbeat and threatened UH to a better place. He has stepped on toes and hurt some feelings along the way.

He also has been the best thing to happen to sports at UH since Bill Yeoman and Guy Lewis. He promised to change the expectations and the culture, and he has succeeded.

Winning the Conference USA football championship in front of a packed house at Robertson Stadium four weeks ago stands as Maggard's crowning achievement. If he's ready for a new challenge — and it appears he is — this week's Liberty Bowl will be a victory lap, of sorts.

''The push sometimes becomes uncomfortable," he said. ''I said from the beginning that I want to walk away someday and feel the place is better. I want to be someplace reading the paper and seeing the Cougars up there all the time. We've got to get back to a national stature. I didn't come here with the idea of staying for the rest of my life. I came with the idea of really trying to change the thing."

Wanted: ambition

And to think big. Kevin Kolb for Heisman? If he was going to make mistakes, he was going to make them by reaching too far.

''There were things that had to be done immediately," he said. ''Like improving the graduation rate. It was pathetic. We had to get an internal fundraising program. We had to make people feel we were working toward a championship. This is why I was attracted to Tom Penders. I don't know what we're going to do in basketball, but I can tell you his expectations are high. I like that."

Maggard's UH contract includes a golf-club membership he has never used.

''I was not going to be out (playing golf) at 2 o'clock in the afternoon," he said. ''With this program being in the financial straits it was in, there was no way I was going to be on a golf course."

Before he goes, he has one last thing on his to-do list. If you've got money, especially if you've got money and a UH degree, you're going to be hearing from Dave Maggard again.

And this time, it's the big one. That $500,000 weight room and the new baseball scoreboard were mere appetizers.

His final vision is for a $15 million complex in the north end zone of Robertson Stadium. It would include suites, club seats, offices and an eating area.

For Hofheinz, he'd like a complete makeover. Cost: around $47 million. In the last five years, he has heard the same excuse from dozens of prominent UH alums: ''If you guys start winning, I'll be back."

''OK," Maggard told one guy a few weeks ago, ''you're going to be hearing from me."

When he pays his next visit to that guy, he might bring Art Briles, Kolb and the C-USA trophy.

''I don't have anyone who wants to do a really big donation," he said, ''but I'm trying to get positioned to see if we can piece it together."

One last wish

Throughout our conversation, he has dropped hints that his time at UH is almost up. As he begins to discuss the new facilities and their impact on the school, his face brightens and his voice gets excited.

''This," he said, ''is the thing that makes me want to stay here. I'm trying to get this place back where it belongs."

He has already brought UH further than almost anyone imagined he could. What's another $62 million?

I sure hope RV stays around for the long haul and sees his vision through to completion. Maggard is in his mid to late 60's and is close to retirement. I also would like to see the changes at NT occur in the near future. I would like NT to become a place hard to leave and not a quick stepping stone to the next level. Do I expect TD, if successful, to be here forever? No, but then again who really knows if this program reaches its potential he may never want to leave.

Edited December 28, 2006 by UNTLifer

DeepGreen · December 28, 2006

''I don't have anyone who wants to do a really big donation," he said, ''but I'm trying to get positioned to see if we can piece it together."

I hope everyone understands what he is saying here and how it applies to North Texas. The big donor is not going to single-handedly build a new football stadium for us. Tens of thousands of small donors can.