UH Athletics Director Dave Maggard retires

Given that he is 69 years old, it was clear that Dave Maggard's days at the helm of the University of Houston Athletics Department were growing short. But I don't think very many people expected his departure to occur as soon, or as suddenly, as it did when he announced his retirement at a hastily-called press conference last Wednesday. The abruptness with which the announcement occurred raises suspicion, as the Chronicle's Steve Campbell explains:

On the other hand, the timing is a bit of a head-scratcher. Just two days earlier, Maggard told the Chronicle of his desire to call an audible on his plan — approved last August by the board of regents — to build a $38 million end zone facility at the stadium. Maggard called for a more ambitious, expansive plan for the whole stadium that likely would have added another $10 million to the price tag.

Indeed, informed speculation on the various UH sports forums is that Maggard's retirement was forced by UH President Renu Khator after he went "over her head" and announced his desire to scrap the end zone facility plan with a more ambitious stadium renovation plan without first having her or the Board of Regents consider or vet the proposal. Furthermore, it was never a secret that not everybody - high-dollar alumni and administrators included - was happy with some of Maggard's other decisions, be it his refusal to fire head basketball coach Tom Penders (although the fact that Penders has three years remaining on his contract made such a move financially impractical) or his proclivities regarding fundraising.

In the end, though, the true story behind the reasons for Maggard's retirement doesn't really matter. What does matter is what Dave Maggard accomplished during his seven years as Athletics Director on Cullen Boulevard, and there can be no question that he is leaving the program in much better shape than it was when he inherited it:

When Maggard arrived in January 2002, the programs that make an athletic department go — football and men's basketball — were heading nowhere. He inherited a 0-11 football team and a men's basketball program that was in the middle of an 8-20 season. The football team had gone 31-79-1 in the 10 seasons before Maggard's arrival. The basketball team was in the middle of its third consecutive losing head coaching regime (Alvin Brooks, Clyde Drexler, Ray McCallum).

Look at UH now. Yes, the program is still stuck in Conference USA, but it's going to take more than an athletic director and some wishful thinking to change that. Maggard's first football coaching hire, Art Briles, led the team to three consecutive bowl games before taking off for Baylor. The next coaching hire, Kevin Sumlin, took the team to the postseason again last season, with a twist: The Cougars won bowl game for the first time since 1980.

Oh, and the graduation rate of the athletic program has gone from 27 percent to an all-time high 59 percent the past seven years. We do want to at least pretend that's an important part of intercollegiate athletics, right?

"I feel real good about what our staff has done here," Maggard said. "I think Kevin is going to be sensational. I think Tom is outstanding."

Well, I don't know if a guy whose team just lost to a team with a losing record in some cheesy, also-ran tournament can be considered "outstanding," but even then Maggard really can't be faulted for his original decision to hire Tom Penders. The basketball program is clearly better today than it was during the Brooks-Drexler-McCallum Era of Suckitude, even though Penders has probably taken the program as far as he can go with it.

Even on his way out the door, Maggard was lobbying on Wednesday for UH boosters to help with the effort to upgrade Robertson Stadium. His revised plan called for improvements throughout the stadium that would cost from $41-$48 million.

"Does that stop? Absolutely not," Maggard said. "This may have been my idea, but it's the University of Houston's project. This university needs it. To be in Division I-A, to do the things everyone wants to do ... I feel really good about it."

I was never clear as to the necessity of a $38 million endzone facility (Central Florida recently built an entire stadium for $55 million) that would duplicate many of the services already provided in the Athletics and Alumni Center (itself a relatively new structure), when the existing Robertson Stadium critically needs upgrades to its seating capacity, its press boxes, its restrooms, its concession stands and even its steep, non-ADA-compliant concourse ramps. In that regard, I sincerely hope that Maggard's vision for stadium-wide improvements does become a reality. But it's going to take some serious fundraising - the funds raised for the endzone facility had been stuck at $12 million for quite some time - and Maggard has apparently not made fundraising for capital projects a priority, focusing instead on soliciting donations for the Cougar Pride athletic scholarships program. Given the programs's capital facilities needs - Hofheinz Pavilion needs some upgrades as well - UH's next AD will probably be expected to put a stronger focus on capital facilities fundraising.

As to Maggard's eventual successor: many names are on the table but the search process has only just begun. One thing to consider during this process is the importance of finding somebody who plans to stick around for awhile: the fact that, at seven years, Dave Maggard was the second-longest-tenured AD at UH speaks volumes. After the departure of the legendary Harry Fouke in 1979, the AD position became a veritable revolving door; people used the University of Houston as a stepping stone, staying for only a few years and, in many instances, making decisions that were detrimental to the program while they were here. This instability led to the decline of UH's sports programs over the 80s and 90s, a decline that appears to have reversed under Maggard's leadership. The next AD needs to be somebody who wants to be at the University of Houston long enough to continue this rehabilitation and be accountable for his decisions. If the wrong hire is made, UH athletics could slip back to the abyss it found itself in before Maggard got here.

With that said, Dave Maggard did an excellent job at the helm. He deserves our thanks and our good wishes.

Fourth and Fifty's take is also worth a read.