Sky president finds special connection

When smiley, bubbly, 9-year-old Lily Fox wasn't so smiley and bubbly one day, her dad, Adam, was concerned.

Fox asked his daughter why she was so down and she told him that she was having some real trouble at school.

One way to earn a prize in her class was to sink a shot at a small basket that was set up in the room. Other kids were making the shot, but Lily was not.

She was having the hardest time.

“After many tries, she just broke down. She just wasn't making it, Fox said. “I said, ‘Well, what do you think you should do now?'

“She said, ‘Well, you know, Dad, when Sylvia Fowles misses a shot, she just keeps shooting. Maybe I should just keep shooting too.'

Fox immediately took his daughter shopping for one of those mini, plastic, 6-foot hoops kids play on in the basement. Lily shot on it day after day, imitating Fowles, a star center for the Chicago Sky and one of her favorite players on the team.

Sure enough, Lily came home a few days later and happily told her dad that she had won a prize at school because she made a shot on the basket in her classroom.

Smiley, bubbly Lily was back.

It was at that moment that Fox knew his position as chief operating officer with the Chicago Sky was so much more than a job. Working for the Sky gave him the chance to connect with his daughter in a unique way, and it gave his daughter frequent opportunities to see women as strong, determined role models.

Now that the 43-year-old Fox has been promoted to president of the Chicago Sky, it's his goal, among many other things, to help more dads share a poignant moment like that with their daughters.

“That confirmed to me why I made the decision to come to the Sky, said Fox, a 1985 New Trier graduate who worked in management with the Chicago Wolves for more than a decade before taking a leap of faith in 2007 to help the fledgling Sky build steam. “It may not have been the driver for what brought me to the Sky, because I believe in this team and in this league (the WNBA) and in this product.

“But this thing with Lily certainly has been a neat by-product. She has a connection between Sylvia Fowles and working hard to achieve something, and not giving up. That's a valuable life lesson for her.

Likewise, all of the lessons that Fox has learned through a career's worth of sports administration will come in handy now.

When it was announced last week that Fox was taking over for Margaret Stender, who is shifting from president of the Sky to team chairwoman, Fox was more than ready to hit the ground running.

Becoming president of a professional sports team was the next logical step in his very long and comprehensive career.

Over his 13 years with the Wolves, he did everything from sell tickets to sell merchandise to coordinate game-day operations to serve as executive vice president of the franchise.

That was a role he held from 1998 to 2007.

“I loved my time with the Wolves, Fox said. “When the opportunity to go to the Sky came up, it was appealing to me on many levels. From a lifestyle standpoint, hockey season is very, very long and I had two very young daughters at the time.

“Also, it was a question of finding the next challenge. The thought was, I have been involved with a very successful team. To have the opportunity to help build another was very, very appealing to me.

Entering its sixth season next summer, the Sky is still trying to put the pieces together.

A move to centrally located Allstate Arena from the UIC Pavilion last summer increased overall attendance numbers 11 percent from 2009 to 2010. The second half of the season saw a 30 percent jump over the second half of 2009.

The emergence of Fowles as the best center in the WNBA also drove some corporate and community interest in the team.

Now, Fox must take the Sky to the next level.

He's looking to increase corporate sponsorship and add season-ticket holders en masse from a suburban market full of middle- and upper-class families, the WNBA's most targeted demographic.

Besides all that, Fox also has to find a new coach and general manager. Steven Key resigned at the conclusion of his third season in August after the Sky failed to make the playoffs.

“I'm really excited because I think this team can be successful, Fox said. “I'm a believer. I wouldn't have come here otherwise. I think we have some work to do, some areas to target. We're going to work harder on group sales and some other things to get our (attendance) numbers up.

“But I really love this team. I love that my daughters love it. It's really good basketball and it's a great entertainment option and this team is moving in the right direction. I think we're poised to have a really, really good year in 2011.

pbabcock@dailyherald.com