Dandy at Vandy
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – David Price couldn’t help himself.
The Vanderbilt pitcher peeked inside the Houston Astros’ locker room in February to see what kind of comfort major leaguers enjoy. What the left-hander saw made him feel pretty good – about what he works with every day with the Commodores.
“I think we have the No. 1 facility in the nation. Our locker room, it’s the nicest locker room I’ve ever been in, just as nice as Houston’s. We have everything they have. Our batting cages are right outside our locker room. We have six cages. A weight room on top of the batting cages,” Price said. “It’s nicer than anywhere else I’ve been.”
Well, a program ranked No. 1 most of this season by Baseball America deserves quality. Even though Vanderbilt has played in one NCAA Super Regional (2004), the Commodores are targeting Omaha and the College World Series.
Not bad for a university that eliminated its athletic department and athletic director nearly four years ago.
“Everyone wrote our obituary but us and the coaches and the kids who stayed with us,” Vanderbilt chancellor Gordon Gee said.
“The obit was Vanderbilt will have to leave the Southeastern Conference. All the coaches are leaving, and all the students are transferring. At that time, that was the general consensus. Fast forward three-and-a-half years later, we’re having more success than Vanderbilt has ever had in its history.”
The baseball team’s No. 1 ranking is not the school’s only success. The women’s bowling team brought home Vandy’s first national title in any team sport last weekend, winning the NCAA tournament in its third year of existence. Women’s lacrosse, women’s tennis and women’s golf all have ranked nationally.
The men’s basketball team lost 66-65 to Georgetown in the NCAA regional semifinals, and the women’s basketball team won the Southeastern Conference tournament and ranked No. 7 in the country.
The athletes don’t care that Vandy lacks an athletic director.
“To be honest, no one told me there wasn’t one,” sophomore shortstop Ryan Flaherty said. “I wouldn’t even know the difference other than people telling me there isn’t. It’s the same as it is everywhere. It’s just who’s in charge of what, and who’s responsible.”
Gee made the bold move in September 2003, deciding the only private university in the powerful Southeastern Conference needed to compete in its own way.
He fired athletic director Todd Turner and said athletics would work better if athletes got the chance to be students, too. He put vice chancellor David Williams in charge of Vanderbilt athletics, with four directors overseeing 15 teams.
Williams has not had to fire a coach, and Vandy’s only replacement hire was a men’s tennis coach let go by Florida for not winning enough. LSU talked to baseball coach Tim Corbin last year about the Tigers’ job after he led Vandy to a 38-27 record.
“I’m a very lucky person,” said Corbin, who also talked to Auburn in 2004. “My kids are very lucky to have what we have. They’ve allowed me to keep my coaches, grow the facilities. This is a great university. They could easily put that money somewhere else. … I’m very appreciative for that and very appreciative of them hiring me and allowing me to do what I do here.”
He has a 2,027-seat brick stadium, with the most recent addition a two-story field house with lockers, offices and weight room. The batting cages are next door in Memorial Gym, home of the basketball teams.
Williams proudly points out coaches aren’t pressured on a daily basis.
Vanderbilt gave football coach Bobby Johnson a 10-year extension after consecutive 2-9 seasons, and it took him two more years before rewarding that faith with a 5-6 record in 2005 and the first victory over instate rival Tennessee since 1982.
When Stallings’ team lost at home to Furman last November as part of a 1-3 start, Williams had a talk with his basketball coach. His message? Don’t worry, despite the angry fans filling sports talk radio shows. Stallings responded with a trip to the Sweet 16.
“We don’t treat coaches as sort of commodities that are going to come and go, and we’ll judge how many times you’ll take us to the tournament,” Williams said. “We’d be hypocrites if we pulled a string just because we lose a game or have a bad season.”
Eliminating the athletic department and director, Gee said, added flexibility by reducing bureaucracy. He also believes the move plays into Vanderbilt’s strengths as a small school with an enrollment of 6,378 by pulling athletes into college life.
Gee believes college athletics is at a crisis point needing immediate attention and discussion.
“I can’t make that point if I’m not at an institution that’s living by the rules … and no one is going to take us seriously unless we also have teams that perform very well,” he said.