Sheehy Introduced as AD

Dartmouth's official press release can be found here.

By Bruce Wood
www.biggreenalert.com

HANOVER – “You had me at hello.”

That memorable line from Jerry Maguire – ironically a football movie – came to mind during Tuesday’s media gathering introducing Harry Sheehy as Dartmouth’s new director of athletics.

Frank Sinatra never worked a room any better than Sheehy did the smart classroom at Floren Varsity House as the former AD at Williams hit all the right notes after being introduced by Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim.

“I don’t come here pretending to know all things Green,” he said. “But I have discovered a couple of things. First and foremost, it’s easier to buy a green tie than it is to buy a purple one. When you find purple clothes you have to buy them. It doesn’t matter if it fits or not.”

A Team Decision
Sheehy told the audience that he and his wife, Connie, came to Hanover last Thursday to sit in on a talk by President Kim and weigh the offer to take over the Dartmouth athletic program.

“We listened to him speak for an hour and we walked out and I said to Connie, ‘What do you think?’ ” he said. “She goes, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘It really doesn’t matter what I think because if you don’t get in the car I can’t go there.’ ”

When the laughter died down, Sheehy continued.

“She said something that was very insightful and helped me actually sort through all this. And that was, ‘Harry, if you have an opportunity to work for a man like President Kim and you don’t take it, then shame on you.’ ”

The Right Move
Sheehy admitted it took the absolute right job and the absolute right president to pull him – and his wife – away from Williams, the school where he starred in basketball, had tremendous success as a basketball coach and then helped turn into the Stanford of Division III athletics.

“I told one of the groups of coaches I met today that there are still two heel prints in our back yard in Williamstown when I tried to drag (Connie) out of Williamstown to take a job at a Patriot League school,” he said. “She was actually clinging to a flagpole as I tried to get out of town. ... We’ve gone many places in the world together and we can’t think of a better place in the world to land than in this valley and Dartmouth College.”

But Why Dartmouth?
The committee, Sheehy said, asked that exact question.

“I thought it was a rhetorical question,” he started. “It’s obvious why Dartmouth. But as I thought about this for the last few days, I want to talk to you about why Dartmouth, because Williams College is just a wonderful place to work. A wonderful place to work. And I would be remiss if I didn’t say thanks to Williams, who allowed me to cut my teeth as a coach and as an athletic director down there. The people are like the people here. I’m leaving good colleagues and I’m going to really good colleagues. I really appreciate that.

“First of all is the challenge. There’s a wonderful challenge here. It’s a great institution. President Kim has such a nice, clear and concise vision for what this can be and how this piece of athletics can fit into the entire education along with physical education and recreation. And the general idea of a student body that leaves Dartmouth understanding fitness and what fitness is going to mean to their lives. ...

“Now, everybody needs to lose, every once in a while. All right? But we don’t want to get a PhD in losing. That’s not what we want. We are here to win. We are here to win Ivy League championships. And I’m happy to work with a wonderful group of coaching colleagues to move us toward that, and anything I can do for them, I will do.

“The tradition. I am leaving an institution that has an unbelievable athletic tradition and I am arriving at an institution that has an unbelievable athletic tradition. I like tradition. I told the coaches today, ‘Tradition never graduates. But unfortunately good players do.’ And so we need to continue to find really fine players that are going to wear green jerseys for us.

Pursuit of Excellence
“And finally," Sheehy said, "excellence. I really believe that the bar has has been set high here and I appreciate that. I like working at places where the bar is set high. This world has a ton of mediocrity. We have plenty of mediocrity. We don’t need any more. What we actually need is excellence. We have a group of students here that will commit to excellence at Dartmouth College and be excellent in everything they do. Each and every piece of what they do. That appeals greatly to me. Coaching is teaching. Some of the best teaching on this campus will happen at 4 o’clock and it’s called practice. ...

“Finally, people. Bricks and mortar are great. They are wonderful. You have good bricks and mortar here. You’ve done a lot of work. But it’s really about people. If bricks and mortar were the key to success we wouldn’t have had as much success at Williams as we’ve had. Because it’s really been about the people who are teaching and coaching our young people at Williams. And about the people we get to work with.”

He Got His Man
President Kim was effusive in his praise of the new AD.

“I think if you were to sit down and try to write on a piece of paper all the qualities that you would want in the next Dartmouth athletic director you would be hard-pressed to come up with a list of accomplishments that (is) as long and distinguished as those of Harry Sheehy," he said. "I spoke with President (Morton) Schapiro of Northwestern, who was president at Williams for most of the time that Harry was athletic director. And he said that he had never known anyone who could possibly have been as good as Harry at being athletic director. He told me the one thing he misses in Chicago is going from game to game with Harry on weekends.”

Added Kim later: “Just sitting down with Harry, you get the sense of the energy, the excitement, the extraordinary vision for how to integrate athletics and academics in a way that will benefit every single student on campus. For the athletes, no question. We want to prepare every single one of our athletes to compete at the very highest level. We have every expectation we are going to win as many ... titles as Harry did when he was at Williams.

“But more than that, we want to instill in every person on this campus just how important physical activity, but even competition is for helping one understand how life works and how to be successful.”

Teevens' Take
One of the people Sheehy will work with is Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens, who certainly liked what he heard at Floren.

“It comes from the top. You see the enthusiasm President Kim has for athletics specifically, and his goals and ambitions for the football program and I see the two as peas in a pod,” said Teevens. “(Sheehy is) optimistic, enthusiastic and excited. He strikes me as someone who works hard at what he’s done and his record at Williams speaks for itself. That degree of excellence, for that length of time is remarkable. He seems to be an athletic director that you can work very closely with.

“He understands from a ground level. He played the game at a high level. He was a successful coach for a long period of time. He’s built a program and seems to have a great grasp.

“I don’t know him well but people who do have been just glowing in their comments about him. They said, ‘You’ll be so excited. He’s a wonderful, wonderful individual with a great family.’ My reaction off the bat is it seems like he’s been here a long time. He seems very comfortable.”

Added Teevens: “I was excited to hear the athletic director is going to report directly to President Kim. I think that just re-emphasizes the role that athletics plays at Dartmouth. The president takes an active and personal interest and has someone he feels very comfortable working directly with. So I’m very excited and pleased. I probably echo the sentiments of all the people in the department. We didn’t know a lot – it was all very confidential – but hearing it today people are excited, for good reason.”