Longevity

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Frank Broyles, who has been with the Razor-backs for 44 years, is now in his 28th year as athletic director, and the accolades continue to pour in.

Recent awards include the Bobby Jones Award by the Atlanta Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the John L. Toner Award, given annually by the National Football Foundation and the College Hall of Fame to the athletics director who has demonstrated superior administrative abilities and shown outstanding dedication to college athletics and particularly college football. In fact, Broyles' accomplishments have been so outstanding that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette named him the state's "most influential figure in athletics" for the 20th century.

Years ago under Broyles' tutelage, the Razorback football team captured seven Southwest Conference championships, played in 10 bowl games, and strung together a 22-game win streak that included the entire 1964 season (11-0) and a Cotton Bowl victory over Nebraska. Now as an athletics director, Broyles has compiled an impressive list of coaches, all of whom continue to stamp their indelible mark on Razorback athletics. While football coach Houston Nutt has had the shortest tenure at the school (four years), basketball coach Nolan Richardson (16 years), golf coach Bill Woodley (15 years), tennis coach Robert Cox (14 years), baseball coach Norm DeBriyn (31 years) and legendary cross country and track coach John McDonnell (28 years) have all been long-time fixtures of Razorback athletics. There success and longevity speak volumes of the man that hired them - and been there each step of the way.

How much day-to-day interaction do you have with head football coach Houston Nutt or with other members of his staff?

Well, we're in the same building, but during this time of year (late April or early May) we'll spend probably two minutes a day together. But during recruiting or during football season probably a little more than that. I try to stay out of his way and don't interfere at all. When he needs me, he'll come up to my office and we'll discuss the (particular) issues that have surfaced. Regardless, we have some contact nearly every day.

How would you define your management style?

My management style is not to micro-manage at all. I like to delegate. As a result, I don't have many staff meetings. Each day, I go by and see each of my associates and see if they need me - I guess they call that a one-minute or a two-minute manager. When I go by each day, if they need me then I'll take the time so we can go over some things. If there comes a time when I don't know exactly what (decision to make), then I'll call a staff meeting with our associate athletic directors to get their input before I make a decision.

As an athletic director, what do you feel is your role in setting the philosophical tone for the athletic department or more specifically for the football program?

The philosophical tone that has been established by our university and our athletic department - which includes football - is that we're going to have a vastly competitive program in all our sports. We're going to do it with the emphasis on academics first. And honesty and integrity will also be a part of our mission. We do everything that we can to hire individuals who believe in academic success, and then persist that honesty and integrity be a part of their personality. We talk continuously about the reputation of this institution and about abiding by the rules and still having a nationally competitive program in every sport.

On the two websites that promote Razorback football - www.hogwired.com and coach Nutt's website www.CoachHoustonNutt.com - there are references to a "First Class" program. What does this mean and how do you ensure this mentality gets translated to the coaches, staff and/or players?

By first class, we mean that we have fully funded the sport, the coach is paid a competitive salary, our facilities are competitive, our schedule is competitive. So that the coach has the tools... and that's my job to provide the coach with the tools he or she is going to need to be successful. My job is to provide a type of program that has the facilities, the budget and also be able to have an outreach program or the support groups that know and understand how to work with young people today. The support staff is a major thing today - it's probably the key to any school's success. Whether we're talking about the academic support staff, the career support staff, or the outreach support staff - we spend well over $1 million per year on support staff who help teach, supervise, encourage and provide leadership so our athletes will be able to compete academically, athletically and be able to succeed when they get out of school.

When you hired Houston Nutt as head football coach at Arkansas, what traits or characteristics set him apart and made him the best coach for the position?

There were multiple reasons, but what set him apart was his salesmanship ability. He's a very optimistic, positive salesperson that goes out of his way to sell the program to the fans and everybody. About the only difference in coaches today, because every coach has to have the facilities, the coaching staff, and the academic support staff, is you've got to have a coach who has outstanding personal skills and is a great salesman, one who can recruit and sell your (football) product to the fans. I have often said that a coach has certain responsibilities that he needs to do, and Houston does about four times what the average coach would do under the circumstances in public relations and reaching out (to the fans) and building the program.

From an athletic director's perspective, what are some things that an assistant coach can do to make themselves a more attractive head coaching candidate?

Assistant coaches have to be at the right place at the right time. There's no pattern or formula a coach can follow to become a head coach. There are thousands of good assistant coaches in this country in college football that could be a good head coach if they got the opportunity, but only about two percent of them will get the opportunity. That's a tragic thing. But because the hiring procedures at colleges and universities vary, people that make these decisions sometimes are not in the athletic business and so they hire on certain recommendations or certain abilities that may not make the head coach successful.

In my judgment, for an assistant coach to be at the right place at the right time is the key, but he also needs a network. Meaning he needs contacts with various head coaches that he's worked with or talked to. But the (No. 1) key to getting a head coaching job in my judgment is your past record. The past record you've had as an assistant coach. When I recommend a person to become a head coach, I don't talk about the football side of it, I talk about what kind of team player he is going to be. Is he going to support all the sports at the university? Is he going to support the women's athletic program ... is he going to support the academics ... is he going to support the community ... is he a good recruiter... does he have a great personality that is going to allow him to do all these things? The boards that interview coaches want to see all of these qualities rather than just what they have done on the field. I believe strongly that past performance is the best indicator of future achievements, and that's the reason that coaches need to do more than just coach. They need to develop some outside responsibilities that help train them to meet with the public, the boosters and the faculty and also be able to sell themselves to the athletic director or board that is doing the hiring that they know how to be a team player.

You seem to have a knack for hiring coaches that have a high degree of staying power. How have you managed to hire so successfully?

Let me just tell you how proud we are. Houston is in his fourth year, but the next coach (in terms of tenure) is fourteen years. Our tennis and our golf coach are fourteen and fifteen years, our track coach is 28 years, our baseball coach is 31years and our basketball coach is sixteen. So fourteen years is the least amount of tenure that we have.

You hire good people and pay them competitively. We've always paid more than competitive salaries. I believe that whatever you pay a good coach is not enough and what you pay a bad coach is too much. We've taken that philosophy and we've given our coaches the necessary tools, meaning facilities, budgets, assistant coaches' salaries and support, that they've just never wanted to leave. And they've been very successful.

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