Written By: Mark Z. Mourer
Long before the new stands went up around the Lowdon Track and Field Complex, the track facility itself had to be repurposed, repositioned and replaced. Before TCU baseball players could navigate a concrete-free centerfield, a roadmap was needed to create a new diamond. And, for that matter, a surrounding athletic complex. Before Daniel-Meyer could realize its current renovation, the men's and women's basketball programs needed a practice facility and other support to increase their viability. Even long before suites and club seats could be sold out around a new Amon G. Carter Stadium, initiatives had to be put in place to drive an increase in attendance.
Eleven years before current TCU Director of Athletics Chris Del Conte was recognized as one of the 2015 Athletic Directors of the Year, Eric Hyman received the award for his leadership as TCU's AD. He established a 21st Century vision for TCU Athletics when he arrived in Fort Worth in 1998. And, while he may deflect pointed praise lauding his accomplishments, Hyman put down the tracks needed to drive the train of progress into the station on Stadium Drive. Much more than just a passenger on that train, Hyman was its conductor and engineer.
This weekend, albeit as a visitor (perhaps for the first time as a competitor), he returns to the baseball diamond he helped build and the program he helped re-establish.
Hyman, now director of Athletics at Texas A&M, has always professed how special TCU and Fort Worth are – sometimes in that order, sometimes synonymously. Before arriving in College Station to guide Kyle Field renovations and the Aggie athletic initiatives, Hyman spent several years working similar magic at the University of South Carolina. He was the athletic director at Miami of Ohio when he was selected to succeed retiring AD Frank Windegger at TCU. Growth, ranging from contributions to fan participation to facilities, has been the mark of Hyman's successful tenure throughout his career. Perhaps nowhere will that foundation stand out more than in the current facilities and successes being experienced today at TCU.
Del Conte has received well-deserved recognition for guiding TCU into the Big 12. But Hyman orchestrated many of the partnerships and called a majority of the plays needed to score big wins for TCU.
He recently reflected on his arrival at TCU and the state the athletic department was in when he got here. He talked about the friends and facilities he made in Fort Worth, the milestones the department achieved along the way, and the pride he still takes in watching the Horned Frogs win. He left TCU to become director of Athletics at South Carolina in 2005, but has always retained an interest in TCU's continued success, including the move to the Big 12.
“I'm not surprised,” Hyman said, regarding TCU's entry into a Power Five conference and success at the new level of competition. “The transition to the Big 12 has been pretty seamless. It's been relatively easy, which goes back to the job that Chris has done and Danny had done.”
Danny Morrison took the reigns when Hyman departed for South Carolina, and Del Conte took over in 2009 when Morrison left for the NFL. Neither was left to clean up the mess Hyman inherited after the Big 12 formed and began competition in 1996. The aftermath saw TCU relegated to a 16-team WAC, which would soon explode, and both sports fans and locals alike will recall the downward spiral into losing records and lowered expectations. A gut check occurred on campus in 1997, and a lot of work went into turning the program around, both internally and externally.
Identifying Hyman as the man to lead the department was the easiest part. Convincing him, and his wife Pauline, took considerably more effort. But nothing compares to the difficulty associated with taking the school that the Big 12 forgot and turning it into the school that is now winning Big 12 titles – all of which seems easier to reconcile when looking back over the past decade.
“We plowed a lot of ground, back then,” Hyman said, “and Danny and Chris have continued to plow that ground. But we wouldn't be where we are today without two people: Malcolm Louden and Bill Koehler.”
Louden is the former chairman of the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee on TCU's Board of Trustees. He and Koehler – TCU's former Provost – led the internal team that hired Hyman.
“They were like (former Heisman Trophy-winning running backs) Glenn Davis and Doc Blanchard. I called them ‘Mr. Inside' and ‘Mr. Outside.' They had the intestinal fortitude to get things done. They had made a commitment, but they also had a lot at stake.”
Hyman admitted to having little familiarity with TCU when he first started talking with Louden and Koehler in 1997. TCU had just completed an internal assessment regarding the viability of the Horned Frogs' athletic future. Following the breakup of the Southwest Conference, TCU was in a soul-searching mission that included all options, including a descent into the Division III ranks within the NCAA. Some speculation existed as to where they would continue to fall in competitive capability without a strong conference affiliation. And, since former conference brethren Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech had merged with the Big 8, morale at TCU was at an all-time low.
“Everybody felt like they had been left at the altar,” Hyman said. “But Bill (Koehler) shared an internal report called ‘Operation Leapfrog' with me, and it showed a sincere commitment through the self-evaluation to go full-throttle. I asked a lot of questions, because I had been told things at Miami of Ohio that wound up not being true. But I felt TCU was sincere about their commitment.”
The internal assessment may have sold Hyman, but getting he and his family to TCU took a small miracle in itself.
“I got contacted about the TCU job three times,” Hyman said. “My wife, Pauline, knew nothing about Texas other than stereotypes from TV shows like Dallas and that John F.Kennedy was shot in Dallas (along with JR). She wasn't that interested in my pursuing the job. But, after Bob Beaudine called me about it for the third time on a Sunday night, I asked Pauline if maybe we should at least talk with them since they were willing to fly to Cincinnati to meet us rather than our having to fly to DFW. She agreed we should at least listen to them since they were willing to come to us.”
An airport meeting was arranged in Cincinnati, which became comically riddled with mix-ups in direction and enough terminals to resemble an old-fashioned barnstorming tour. Given the state of TCU's athletic ineptitude at the time, this should surprise no one. Eventually, Eric and Pauline connected with Louden, Koehler, then-Chancellor Bill Tucker and Kristi Hoban, TCU's assistant vice chancellor for Alumni Affairs.
“There was a breakdown in communication, and we were driving to the airport in the snow,” Hyman recalled. “We went to the ConAir terminal, but they were at another ConAir private plane terminal waiting. Eventually we met in a dilapidated hangar, which had a spotlight, and it looked pretty shady. But, we hit it off. And Pauline loved Chancellor Tucker. They are both from eastern North Carolina, so that may have helped.”
The next meeting went a little more smoothly.
Eric and Pauline's circle expanded with the Fort Worth visit, and they met former Chairman of the Board of Trustees John Roach, Trustee Denny Alexander and other Trustees at La Piazza (now Pacific Table in University Park Village).
“When we left,” Hyman said, “Pauline said, ‘These are my kind of people.' ”
And, from there, fates were sealed. But the hard work was just beginning, perhaps closer to home than he expected. Hyman laughed about a time back in Oxford, Ohio, where his son Ryan became upset about his dad's new place of business. Watching TCU squeak by SMU on the last game of the season, Ryan stormed out of the room wondering how his dad could want to go to work for a school that was going to finish 1-10 in football. Ryan wasn't the only one. But Hyman had the university's commitment and his wife's support. The pair started their careers together coaching women's basketball at North Greenville University, and they have teamed for additional successes throughout their careers. At TCU, for example, Pauline taught in the NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills program, designed to impart personal development for student-athletes. She initiated the seminars for the student athletes on Dressing for Success and Dining Etiquette for Interviewing, in addition to expanding the networking seminar.
When Hyman arrived at TCU, the challenges were evident and consuming. But he asked hard questions of the university and its coaches, just like he had done when his playing days ended.
“When I coached, I asked the team ‘Who wants to be a conference champion?' ” Hyman said. “And every hand went up. Then, I asked them – without a show of hands – who has the will to be a champion. That's what TCU had: The will to be a champion.”
Louden and Koehler were the embodiment of that, Hyman said. And, while he often referenced Stephen Covey's phrase about “beginning with the end in mind,” Hyman recalled that the first few steps down that path were not always the easiest to take.
“When I got there, the record spoke for itself. The teams were really struggling, but the university had made a commitment,” Hyman said. “Still, it was like getting into a pool. You dip your toe in, and then your foot in and then your leg in. Both Malcolm and Bill had confidence, but were nervous because we had a lot at stake.”
Hyman recalled a meeting where he had to speak at a dilapidated podium, which was symbolic of the front the university would trot out to the public by the end of the 20th Century. And, while all were involved in turning the program around, Hyman said he had to have a meeting early on with Louden and Koehler to set expectations.
“We met separately and I had to tell them to give me some room to do my job,” Hyman said, indicating that change would happen. But, it was going to take some time. “An ocean liner doesn't change directions on a dime.”
Other supporters gave Hyman a little more leash. He talked about an important conversation he had with TCU Board of Trustees member Luther King, who recognized the opportunities for TCU. He also was very cognizant of the state the athletic department was in, and knew a strong jolt would be required to resuscitate it.
“Luther King offered the most profound statement when he said, ‘We needed this,'” Hyman said, referring to TCU's exclusion from the Big 12. “'We needed to build our self-esteem. We had to gather ourselves and do it right.' His thinking was so opposite from everyone else, who felt left at the altar. At TCU, we had to take a step backward and try to make every day a little bit better.
At first, it didn't feel like it was working. But, after a year, or after two years, we felt things were starting to fall into place.”
Hyman agreed that one of the most significant turning points in his early career at TCU was the win over USC in the 1998 Norwest Sun Bowl. But, he said the sun was starting to creep over the horizon even before that.
“I'd go back even further than the Sun Bowl,” Hyman said, “to the game against Iowa State.”
New Head Football Coach Dennis Franchione made his debut when the Horned Frogs traveled to Jack Trice Stadium and beat the Big 12's Iowa State Cyclones 31-21. From there, “we began to believe in ourselves,” Hyman said.
The road was certainly easier at some turns than others. Perhaps TCU's most significant accomplishment came when the invitation to join Conference USA arrived in the fall of 1999. Hyman might have been simultaneously at his highest and lowest point when the announcement was made. Having worked and networked through television and political circles, Hyman saw the move as the first step of many toward gaining national recognition. Not just for the games he was willing to play during any ESPN time slot, but for the pride associated with having a conference want you to compete with their teams. For the same reason TCU was not high on the list for high school recruits, TCU as a department was not high on the list of conferences that would afford better exposure, revenue and competition. TCU had no “wow” factor.
Regretfully, Conference USA had no “wow” factor upon announcement.
“We had to take bold steps and build our program up to where people wanted us,” Hyman said. “We had to get in to Conference USA. Other schools wanted to get in to Conference USA, but they wanted us. Keep in mind, this was the Conference USA that had Louisville and Marquette and East Carolina. And, when we made the announcement (at the Horned Frog Classic golf tournament in 1999), it fell flat. There was no recognition that this was the step we needed to take.”
Hyman recalled how, time and again, fans would ask him when “the old Southwest Conference would come back together,” and that mindset took time to change. Nobody could see the opportunity to rise from the ashes in a new conference, and what winning championships in that conference would produce. By comparison, Hyman said, getting into the Mountain West was considerably easier.
“It took a lot for us to get into Conference USA,” said Hyman. And, while the feelings of being scorned from the initial Big 12 snub were lingering, and the reality that the Southwest Conference (or any iteration of it) would ever return, TCU became a player in the evolving landscape of conference alignment. It may not have been the panacea that the fans had hoped for, but Hyman knew it was the most logical and most positive step they could take.
“Everyone was bitter (about the SWC breakup). Being bitter doesn't solve problems,” Hyman said. “Instead of being bitter, make yourself better. It goes back to what Luther King said about taking a step back to take a step forward,” he said.
One example of the politicking required to earn consideration required leveraging a relationship TCU had with their newfound partner ESPN.
“Pete Derzis (ESPN Senior Vice President of Events) really liked us at TCU. We were talking with (then Conference USA Commissioner) Mike Slive, and there was a dinner event. I got Pete to sit next to Mike Slive and gave him some talking points.”
From there, Slive offered Hyman and TCU a place in the conference. Increased television opportunities followed, and – upon winning the WAC on the way to the Mobile Bowl – TCU would eventually be able to boast conference championships in both en route to eventual crowns in the Mountain West. And, of course, now titles in the Big 12.
Other factors went into tearing the program down and literally building it back up. Hyman fondly recalls several donors who helped make that happen with capital and facility projects. Asked about some of the first influential donors, Hyman was quick to recall Bob Lansford.
“He gave us money when others wouldn't. They say success has 1,000 fathers and failure is an orphan, and we hadn't build up a war chest of credibility. Bob went against the current,” Hyman said.
“I went to go see a vice president at a bank for sponsorship and was laughed at,” Hyman recalled. “‘You're 1-10,' they said. ‘Come back to me when you're 10-1.' Of course, when we did go 10-1, I went back to that bank, and that person was no longer there.”
A large proponent of college graduation rates, Hyman has tied academic success into his growth plans at every stop. This was especially needed at TCU.
“The young people have to be your focus,” said Hyman regarding his student-athletes. “You have to make an investment in your young people. You have to reflect the values of your university and make the ‘main thing' the ‘main thing.' For us, the ‘main thing' was our young people.”
Having identified the need for academic support, Hyman and Franchione teamed on a call to another donor. They went to see TCU Board of Trustee member John Davis seeking support for an academic unit in the John Justin Athletic Center. The donation request was scheduled for $500,000. When Hyman and Franchione walked in, they were greeted with an enthusiastic Davis who opened the conversation with a quick “What do you want? What can I give you?” Thrown off guard by the upfront exuberance, Hyman reacted by asking for $750,000, to which Davis agreed.
He laughed when recalling the visit.
“Fran got on my case, after we left, saying I could have gotten a million dollars,” Hyman said. “I reminded him that he was in the conversation, too. He could have asked John for a million dollars.
“But those two guys (Lansford and Davis) were key for us,” Hyman said. “There were several along the way, but those guys bet on the come that we'd be successful.”
Hyman remembered lists of action items, meetings and tough decisions in those early days. At times, they piled up to a point of overwhelming inundation. He can laugh now, about the time he raced into the office around 7 a.m. and went out before noon to an important lunch appointment, only to find that he had left his car running when he got to the office.
“I was so preoccupied, that when I tried to find my keys, I couldn't. In a panic, I borrowed (former TCU Assoc. AD) Davis Babb's keys, and ran out into the parking lot to go my lunch appointment,” Hyman said. “There was my car, still running from when I left it to get into the office five hours earlier.”
Change is never easy, and it never can happen at the pace you want. But indicators along the way suggested to Hyman that they were turning corners. He heard that, during divorce proceedings, Frog Club parking places at Amon Carter Stadium were among the items – not unlike a house – to be listed in the settlement.
“Once I heard that, I knew we had arrived,” he said.
Even in Columbia, as he wept tears of joy during the Horned Frogs' win in the 2011 Rose Bowl, he felt a strong connection to the program he helped put back on the map.
“We were the little engine that could,” Hyman said. “We had the will to be a champion. In everything you do, you have to make the place better when you leave it.”
Now, when Hyman comes back, he'll be a participant in the midst of the most prolific era in Horned Frog athletic history. Once again, he'll be without the support of his son. Since staunchly opposing his dad taking the AD job at TCU, Ryan has graduated from TCU, along with his sister Corrine. And, they have made Fort Worth their home. Hyman said his daughter may be a little more willing to support his new place of employment, as she is married to an Aggie, but his son has come full circle. Like others who may have been skeptical when Hyman took over 15 years ago, he is now among the legions of fans that believe in TCU and its path. Perhaps the path that leads to its third trip to the College World Series.
“I told Chris (Del Conte) that Ryan was going to have to get his tickets to the games this weekend from him. They're not coming from me,” Hyman said, perhaps only half-kidding. “We are a house divided on this game.”
