Notes and Quotes from Fred Glass's Retirement Announcement

Image: 247Sports

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Notes:

- Glass will retire from his position as director of athletics at the end of the academic year in 2020.

- Glass was named Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics by President Michael McRobbie on January 1, 2009.

- During his tenure as AD IU Football posted a record of 53-73 under three head coaches (Bill Lynch, Kevin Wilson and Tom Allen). Three of IU’s 12 bowl appearances have occurred under Glass’s watch including this year’s trip to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.

- For a list of all of Glass’s accomplishments at IU visit his page at IUHoosiers.com

Fred Glass Quotes:

Opening Statement:

“As you all know, every day is a great day to be a Hoosier, but today is a particularly great day for this Hoosier. As I announced earlier today, at the end of this year, this academic year, the bicentennial year, I'll be retiring as the AD at Indiana. I won't be retiring totally. I'm just retiring from Indiana and as an athletic director.
Like I said in the comments in the release, it's just time, and being time doesn't mean that I don't love it anymore because I do, still love it, and it doesn't mean that there's nothing left to be accomplished because there's plenty left to be accomplished. It just means that it's time. It will have been almost 12 years for me, and it's an all in, all consuming, every day, all the time job, which is part of the reason I really love it, but now I'm ready to step back and do something a little more flexible, spend a little more time with my four granddaughters and another grandchild on the way in January.
So that's what I'll be doing. At the end, I don't know exactly what I'll be doing, but I know something will come up, and it will be great fun.
So I came here to try to establish a strong foundation for Indiana University Athletics. I really feel like we have done that, and it's time for me to exit stage left. So I will be doing that. With that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.”

On what steps he took to make the decision to retire:

“I've been thinking about it for a while. The bicentennial year seemed like a natural bookend. We've been pointing a lot of our efforts and using, in some ways, the bicentennial as a hook to get things done. We'll complete a record shattering bicentennial capital campaign soon. We will complete our bicentennial capital campaign, which has invested, just in the last decade, over a quarter of a billion dollars in our facilities.
So things came together, and I think it was a natural time to reflect on it. I've been thinking about it for a while and talking to my wife Barbara. I think it's sort of a thing to settle yourself with a decision and see how it feels, and this felt really right. I have no regrets and feel really positive about the decision, but giving that some time to stew with me was good.
In terms of timing, my hand got a little forced by the Tom Allen contract extension because I felt it was only right to let Tom know that -- of what my intentions were. I hadn't told anybody until that point. In fact, he actually asked me during those conversations about what my plans were and an interest in me being around. I couldn't quite tell him about my plans until I told the president. So I actually scrambled a late evening meeting with President McRobbie on the Wednesday before the Allen announcement. I think that would be like the 4th of December. So I told Michael that night, and then I told Tom the next day.
I also had a regularly scheduled weekday meeting with Archie. So I told him that day too. So that would be the Thursday before the announcement for Tom. The president told the trustees because, as a matter of happenstance, they were meeting in Columbus. Then we sort of went radio silent until the roll out today.”

On his favorite moments as IU’s AD:

“I'm thankful and fortunate that I really have a chockfull memory cabinet of fun things and cool things. Most of them involve interacting directly with the students, which is day in and day out my favorite part. I'll say the eighth National Championship in men's soccer was a highlight, especially with Todd was my first hire as a coach, and to have that success was gratifying.
The watch shot was just an instantaneous phenomenon that kind of galvanized the whole campus and was a very exciting moment, and even though it didn't reflect us being all the way back to where we wanted to go, it really reflected Indiana University basketball being relevant again nationally after essentially being wiped out and sort of de facto meted out the death penalty to come back that way. That was a great tribute to Tom Crean, by the way. But very few times is there a moment in time where you were back, maybe not ultimately where you want to be, but back relevant, and that was big.
Then more recently, the win at Nebraska was very gratifying, to go into that environment, beat them for the first time in 60 years was -- standing on that sideline was a really great thing. And then every time we beat Purdue, which has been five times in the last seven years, by the way, that's been gratifying as well.”

On where he thinks football is right now:

“It's funny you mention that, Jeff, because I was just talking to someone on the search committee, and part of my pitch to the search committee was Indiana's got to get football right. There's a lot of other things we needed to do.
But for a variety of reasons, we needed to get football to be excellent, like the overall Indiana University brand because, number one, I think it's important for football's sake. Football reflects disproportionately on your school whether you like it or not. Wells said, if we're going to participate in something, we should be excellent at it, and we had not been excellent at football.
I think football is also important for the department because it can be a huge revenue generator not only to reinvest in football, but to reinvest in our other sports as well, and we have inventory. We have opportunity to generate more money. I've often said that, if we just filled the small stadium that we have, we'd get $7 million or $8 million to drop to our bottom line, which really makes a difference on our budget. So it is really important for the department.
Finally, beyond being important for football and being important for the department, it's important for the university because I believe that, if as an undergrad, going to games as part of your experience, you're more likely to be connected to the university, and maybe you make a gateway contribution to the foundation, or maybe you're on the dean's advisory council of whatever school you were in. So I think the stakes are very high, and that's why we really have focused, and I think not at the expense of neglecting other important sports, all of our sports, but we've really focused on the football investment and closing in the two end zones, and most recently, the Terry Tallen Indiana Football Complex and investing in an unprecedented rate in coaches, assistant coaches, offensive coordinators, strength and conditioning coaches, et cetera, I think is really important, but you've got to slog at it every day and have consistency.
As you know, Jeff, my thing was football will improve, and we have consistently excellent leadership and consistent investments in the program. You keep chipping at that rock, and eventually it cracks, and I think we had a little bit of a crack this year, which was sort of like an overnight sensation ten years in the making.”

On the satisfaction that his gamble on Tom Allen has paid off:

“I'm glad for the kids, and I'm glad for Indiana football. Validation is sort of like criticism. It's a phantom thing to have somebody else tell you to do a good job or have somebody else tell you you're doing a bad job. I think you've got to kind of judge it yourself.
If the ball had bounced the wrong way a few times and we ended up at 5-7 this year, I think I'd still think Tom is the right guy because he's the same guy in terms of recruiting and building and all that. Thank God he's 8-4. That's awesome. Makes the day a lot better. But I'm not sure the fundamentals would have been different in a few things had changed.
But I believed in him from the beginning, and I'm really not surprised that we are where we are with him.”