NU's Phillips climbs into the hot seat
Well into his effusive introduction of Jim Phillips as Northwestern's 21st athletic director, long-time school president Henry Bienen got to the point.
"We expect more fannies in the seats," said Bienen, turning to his left and grinning at Phillips, "under Jim's leadership."
Judging by how Phillips' family took time off from work and school to pack the Nicolet Center for his introductory news conference Tuesday morning, the fanny-to-seat ratio at Ryan Field and Welsh-Ryan Arena soon will be 1-to-1.
More than 60 people related to Phillips -- including all nine of his older brothers and sisters, his 92-year-old father and four of his wife Laura's siblings -- wore purple and beamed with pride as the 42-year-old baby of the family took the reins of a Big Ten athletic department.
"We couldn't have a better person coming in here to serve as athletic director than Jim Phillips," said Patrick Ryan, the chair of NU's board of trustees.
Phillips, who graduated from Illinois, worked as an assistant AD at Notre Dame and served as Northern Illinois' athletic director for the last four years, essentially completes his life's circle by succeeding Mark Murphy.
Growing up in Portage Park on Chicago's northwest side, Phillips frequently made the trip to Evanston to watch his favorite college play.
Now, as he works triple-time to familiarize himself with his new post, Phillips saves commuting time by spending his weeknights sleeping at his boyhood home -- in the same double bed he used to share with his brother.
"I haven't been in that bed since high school," he said.
Though he has moved to one of the nation's elite private schools, Phillips has retained many of the populist stylings that made him a fast-riser in college circles.
As at NIU, he promised to work to deliver "a world-class student-athlete experience" at Northwestern. He memorized the number of the school's student-athletes (471) on the Wildcats' 19 rosters and the staff members (161) under him.
In his first eight days on the job, he spoke to the majority of those people and has requested every staff member schedule a private 30-minute meeting so he can learn their take on the department.
"It'll take 6-8 weeks, but I feel it's so important," Phillips said.
That will help him when he delves into the crux of his immediate challenge.
If Bienen's straight talk about fannies wasn't enough to explain that mission, then Ryan's talk with Notre Dame AD Kevin White, Phillips' mentor, should fill in the blanks.
"I said, 'Kevin, tell me what I should know about Jim Phillips that I don't already know,' " Ryan said. "He said, 'I'll tell you two things that I think are really important for you to know'.
" 'The first one: He's the best young athletic director in the country. And he's a great leader, but he has a particularly great skill at marketing.' "
Pat Fitzgerald's football team averaged just 24,589 tickets sold for its seven home games last fall, and Bill Carmody's basketball squad averaged 4,578 fans for its 16 home games this winter. Both numbers ranked dead-last in the Big Ten. Every football program except Indiana drew as least twice as many fans, while every men's basketball team except Penn State drew at least twice as many fans.
That's a huge deficit, monetary and otherwise, with which to deal.
While the Wildcats have a solid television foothold with the Big Ten network, the school's long-term deal with WGN 720-AM runs out after the 2008-09 season.
"The marketing and promoting of Wildcat athletics will be a top priority," Phillips said. "Chicago is what I call the 'X-factor' for Northwestern in the Big Ten. Nobody (else) has the city of Chicago at its doorstep.
"There's over 8 million people in the MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) that love college athletics that don't have a closeness to any of the other Big Ten schools.
"That's the group that we have to capture. That's the group that we have to identify -- and encourage them and excite them to come out and support all of our teams."