When Robert Glidden became the Ohio University president in 1994, the basketball team won the preseason National Invitation Tournament.
The team's regular season didn't follow that same path, losing in the second round of the postseason NIT. It has faced a decade of inconsistency since - failing to make either an NCAA or NIT tournament.
For many of Glidden's critics, his tenure has been marked with the same inconsistencies. A statewide tuition cap last year handcuffed the funding of the university.
The critics don't understand anything about university finances
Glidden said. The only way to raise money for athletics that makes a real difference is private funding or self-generated revenues. The latter comes from huge stadiums that are filled five or six Saturdays in the fall at $40 a ticket. With our size and financing we don't have that option.
While critics might not know what it takes to finance a winning program, they have not been short on opinion. A group has funded ads in The Post calling for Glidden to clean out The Convo. Most notably the ire is aimed at Director of Athletics Thomas Boeh and his hires in the two major sports, football's Brian Knorr and basketball's Tim O'Shea.
Glidden said, however, that he has been impressed with the integrity of these men. He already extended Boeh's contract through 2007.
Both Knorr and O'Shea are good men with solid values and people of whom Ohio University can be very proud Glidden said. I would be very disappointed if my successor does not give them a chance.
Fans have looked past character and seen that Knorr has won seven games in his three seasons, following a 7-4 season by coach Jim Grobe in 2000 before he left for Wake Forest.
O'Shea has faced similar criticism's going 41-43 in his three seasons after former coach Larry Hunter was fired.
Despite the rash of athletic criticism that has hit the administration this season, Glidden said he hoped his legacy would be based on the programs' integrity.
Glidden, who once served as director of Mid-American Conference athletics, points to continued success by the Olympic sports, like the volleyball team, which won its first MAC Championship this season.
I'd like my legacy to be one of insisting upon achieving honesty fairness and a good character among our athletes
including good citizenship
he said
Glidden has built goodwill with the school's Title IX compliance and also has been unyielding in his demand for academic performance in his athletes, as Boeh reported to the Student Senate on Wednesday that 191 of Ohio's athletes reported a GPA over 3.0 last year, with an average GPA of 2.91.
With the success of these programs marked against the inconsistencies of the major programs, Glidden's legacy is hard to crystallize.
Fans at Ohio have looked to other MAC programs, like rival Miami's, which finished ninth in the nation in football in 2003, and see that winning is possible from a mid-major school. Glidden, however, said that the major sports would never be able to build a dynasty at this level.
Once a MAC team enjoys three to four good seasons in succession that coaching staff will be gone to some place that can and will pay them four or five times the salary - like when Grobe went to Wake Forest. We can't generate the revenues to pay a coach $500K
and that's just as well.
With Glidden's tenure near its end, he said he is confident that he has advanced Ohio athletics, even if the fans disagree.
Our athletics program today is light years ahead of where it was in 1994. Although not in football and basketball win-loss record
and that's all that seems to matter to some people.
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Mike Cottrill
