Athletic Director Tom O'Connor Announces Retirement

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

I will miss TOC. One time I was on the radio with Bill and he said I did a nice job unlike the people on these boards who were mean to me and hurt my feelings.

He shakes my hand also every home game which is a lot better than most of my so-called "friends" who sit behind me and throw stuff at me and send their children over to torment me.

I can say without exaggeration that I like TOC better than everyone on the planet except for my old basset hound Floppy, who is dead.

 

[Pikapppatri8]

I will miss TOC. One time I was on the radio with Bill and he said I did a nice job unlike the people on these boards who were mean to me and hurt my feelings.

He shakes my hand also every home game which is a lot better than most of my so-called "friends" who sit behind me and throw stuff at me and send their children over to torment me.

I can say without exaggeration that I like TOC better than everyone on the planet except for my old basset hound Floppy, who is dead.

Take it easy Jollay - it isn't hard to like a guy who slowed danced with you under the DC street lights early in the AM while feeding you fried chicken wings and PBR because he felt bad you were "homeless". but we all must move on.

 

[GMURaider]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_I_athletic_directors

It is highly probable that our new AD will be a current AD. TOC was the AD with the Bonnies and Santa Clara before that.


Do any names stand out?

 

[Nick]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_I_athletic_directors

It is highly probable that our new AD will be a current AD. TOC was the AD with the Bonnies and Santa Clara before that.


Do any names stand out?

http://www.liberty.edu/flames/?PID=15172

 

[MasonCrew]

Someone talked about FCGU's AD. I was interested in seeing more about him. Seemed like a good fit: Youngish, talented, ambitious, and what seemed like a successful track record with a small budget.

 

[GSII]

Someone talked about FCGU's AD. I was interested in seeing more about him. Seemed like a good fit: Youngish, talented, ambitious, and what seemed like a successful track record with a small budget.

I'm not sure I feel great about him. I'm looking for someone who can build Rome. Fight to take advantage of our location and come out on top. One can assume this AD's hands won't be tied b/c of a building explosion.

 

[KAOriginal]

BOOM! Candidate #1 from my super secret source:

http://www.knsu.ac.kr/web/eng/about_b_02

 

[gmutom]

BOOM! Candidate #1 from my super secret source:

http://www.knsu.ac.kr/web/eng/about_b_02

So instead of cutting sports, we'll be adding ping pong?

 

[GMURaider]

Are you serious or joking? I suppose it could work if the guy has a vision. His Olympic management experience might translate?

BOOM! Candidate #1 from my super secret source:

http://www.knsu.ac.kr/web/eng/about_b_02

 

[KAOriginal]

So instead of cutting sports, we'll be adding ping pong?

And archery Tom.....complements trap and skeet.....

 

[GSII]

Why not Hewitt as AD?

 

[Walter]

Why not Hewitt as AD?

Why would you assume he would be a good AD? He would be a good spokesman but I am not sure he would be willing to fire an underperforming coach. He is too nice of a guy plus he would relate to a struggling coach so he would not be willing to pull the trigger.

 

[Bricker]

Looking forward to biathlon!

 

[KAOriginal]

Looking forward to biathlon!

Hey Mason will the leader in bringing Olympic sports back into the forefront of the NCAAs.

 

[Scythe]

Hey Mason will the leader in bringing Olympic sports back into the forefront of the NCAAs.

Woohoo....ooo...o.o.o

 

[mkaufman1]

Why not Hewitt as AD?

I feel like he'd actually be good as a member of an AD staff, but not as the AD in charge. I feel like he'd be really good helping with compliance, being a representative of the school, things like that IMO.

 

[GSII]

Hewitt would be good at helping recruit kids to Mason, writing & hugging trees. Dr. C should make the bold move of moving him to another position within the school. Then we get a new coach this year. #dreaming

 

[mason89]

Good article on O'Connor's retirement. Interesting quote towards the end:

"The plan is for O’Connor to continue as AD until June 24 and then do fundraising until February. “I want to help build the new baseball dugouts and possibly a new baseball stadium,” he says. “That’s a regret I have that we didn’t get that done. We got a lot of other things done. If I can help in any way to get that done, that would be important.”"

http://www.gomason.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=25200&ATCLID=209450885

 

[gmujim92]

Patrick's article makes me curious about how much of a say TOC had to actively address any of the issues we've complained about on this board.

Merten says TOC "had a major impact on our academics reputation because he did athletics the right way."

I suppose that's true if your philosophy is that big-time success in athletics should never, ever come at the expense of taking money away from a university's academic ambitions.

But Mason has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building dorms and other academic facilities over the past 10-15 years, while basically allocating table scraps to its athletic department.

I've been as critical of TOC as anyone -- 99.9 percent of which stems from the Hewitt hiring -- but I wonder how differently he would've done things if he had worked under a president who was truly committed to building both a respected university and successful athletics program.

I get that it's not realistic to expect Patrick to explore that dynamic in a story for which he was paid by the university ... and I doubt TOC wants to talk about any of that stuff on his way out the door, anyhow.

There are some really good questions just begging to be asked, though.

 

[Five Two]

I saw this buried in an article on the new Texas AD:

“and said it's essential to use athletics as a platform to tell the university's story.”

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10710069/texas-longhorns-ad-steve-patterson-not-interested-rivalry-texas-aggies

amen.