By Dennis Read '85

"I had never been in a situation before where the president was supportive of athletics." -- Bob Deming

hen Bob Deming initially looked at taking the athletic director’s position at Ithaca College in 1980, he was most impressed by three things—its football coach, Jim Butterfield; its president, James J. Whalen; and its tradition. Nearly 20 years later, as Deming and Whalen prepare to join Butterfield in the ranks of the retired, all three are in the Ithaca College Sports Hall of Fame and Ithaca’s reputation has reached unparalleled heights.

"I had never been in a situation before where the president was supportive of athletics," says Deming, who had previously been a coach and administrator at Colgate University and the State University of New York at Buffalo. The support from Job Hall has helped the Bombers establish one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division III athletics. The Bombers have earned 11 national titles since Whalen came to the school in 1975; they have won almost two-thirds of their games (4,049-2,137-91, .652) and produced 505 all-Americans since Deming joined the program in 1980.

"It really makes it all worthwhile to know that [Whalen] will take on those who might not like athletics," Deming says. "I know he’s taken some heat for that, and he may be the only president I’ve been around to do that."

Presidents and athletic directors are like referees in one way—people only seem to notice them when things go wrong. When a school enjoys as much success as Ithaca has, the role of the president and the athletic director can sometimes be overlooked by the fans, but certainly not by the coaches.

The most visible sign of Whalen’s support is his presence. Whether it’s attending a baseball game on a warm spring day or taking in a field hockey game on a sharp October afternoon, Whalen gets to as many athletic contests as he can. "I like sports and I like watching sports," Whalen says. "So when a team includes me in a huddle or asks me to sit with them on the bench, that’s fun for me."

It’s more than fun for the players when Whalen and Deming attend games. "Their presence at an event gives you a real boost to do well," claims baseball coach George Valesente ’66, M.S. ’75. "It’s of the utmost importance to coaches and players that they are interested and that they want you to do well. It’s a wonderful thing for them to do, especially with their busy schedules."

People accustomed to seeing Whalen at Ithaca games may not realize it’s not the same at every school. "Many presidents have an active disinterest in athletics, and some others deal with athletics only as an act of duty," says Ellen Staurowsky, M.S. ’79, an associate professor of exercise and sports sciences at Ithaca and former athletic director at William Smith College. "It’s rare to have a president as visible as he is in terms of athletics. And I certainly get the sense he does not do it out of duty but because he sincerely cares about the students and the athletic programs."

Whalen’s support has stemmed from a basic belief about the benefits of athletics. "There are some presidents who feel they have to placate the academic aspect of the institution by denying the value of athletics. I feel just the opposite," Whalen declares. "I think intercollegiate athletics, as long it’s kept within reasonable balance, is a very important aspect of collegiate education. It certainly provides students with opportunities to learn and play together and to vie to be the very best."

The benefits of college athletics are a two-way street, with the institution benefiting as much as the student-athlete. Some of the benefits come in the form of increased alumni participation. "Anyone who has a good experience will come back to help," says Deming, whose first football coach, the late Ken Patrick, was a 1935 Ithaca graduate. "I can’t help thinking that will continue to play out favorably, both for the athletic department and the whole institution."

Then there’s the image presented outside the campus community. "When students come to Ithaca and participate in intercollegiate athletics, their friends can become interested in the institution because of that and the word spreads," Whalen says. "It’s a recruitment device, whether you’re on national television or not. Most importantly, there are the grace and class and style that have been a hallmark of the Ithaca College athletic tradition, that tradition of excellence."

To help maintain that style, Whalen has made sure the athletic department has the financial support it needed to dress the part. "I like them to look good," he says. "I want them to have good uniforms and good jackets and to dress well when they travel, because they’re representatives of the school. I always loved it when someone would say, ‘Those Ithaca College teams always look good when they come to town.’ "

But clothing only provides the appearance of class. Whalen and Deming know that first-class, top-flight coaches are the key to maintaining a successful athletic department. With 23 full-time coaches, along with a support staff that matches any in the country, it’s obvious that the institution’s commitment goes well beyond appearances. "Full-time coaches are always available to the student-athletes," Deming says. "That’s very important to the type of experience a student-athlete has here."

Coaching tenures at Ithaca have historically been long. Before the retirement of Butterfield in 1994 and that of Doris Kostrinsky, the longtime field hockey coach, last year, coaches had been at the school an average of nearly 10 years. "[We’ve been given] the opportunity for success and there aren’t any better Division III programs," Valesente declares. "In Division III there’s not the same pressure to be successful in order to keep your job as there is in Division I, but I think every coach at Ithaca College puts pressure on themselves to be successful. It’s not a bad pressure, but the kind that comes from trying to excel and be as good we can be at any sport."

Whalen agrees with that assessment. "Being the best is in their blood—that’s why they’re coaches. However, that’s moderated by the recognition that they’re working with young student-athletes. At other [NCAA] levels, the priorities are different. They’re athletes first and students second because of the financial considerations."

Those two words—"financial considerations"—are an unfortunate reality in college sports. The Bombers recently dropped the men’s golf program along with some junior varsity teams, a step Deming and Whalen took reluctantly. "Every other institution has had to go through downsizing," says Whalen, "but nothing happens at Ithaca College without a lot of attention. The athletic programs have felt their share of the cuts and they don’t like it. I don’t blame them. No one likes it.

"Today Ithaca College is like other colleges were 20 years ago," he continues. "Those were our salad days, when we seemed to have whatever it took. Our enrollment was growing and growing and we had budget surpluses every year, so it was easier to give people what they wanted, and not just in athletics. Today we have to tighten our belts a little more."

A change in NCAA financial aid rules in the late 1980s also had an effect. Previously, Division III schools could give financial aid based on need. Athletic scholarships were forbidden, but schools could still consider athletic ability when determining financial aid packages. After 1989 athletic ability could no longer be considered. Combined with rising tuitions, this made it more difficult for Ithaca to compete on an even ground with publicly supported schools.

"We just can’t get some of the students that the state schools can," Whalen notes. "But that just means we have to coach the best out of our student-athletes."

Finances are just one of the major issues facing college athletics today, not just at Ithaca, but around the nation. One of the biggest concerns is gender equity, an issue Whalen knows very well. A charter member of the NCAA’s Presidents Commission, he served as cochair of the NCAA’s Task Force on Gender Equity (ICQ, winter 1994), which earned national headlines and the ire of some big-time college football coaches.

"When I took the spot on the task force, Bob [Deming] asked me how many friends I had, because once this was over I wouldn’t have many left," Whalen recalls. "And he was a bit of a prophet."

Whalen was at the forefront of a national debate about the role of women’s sports. A lot of college administrators and football coaches were threatened by the committee’s report. "It was frustrating because it was set up in a way that was bound to be controversial," Whalen says. "The whole question of what is ‘gender equity’ is really a higher moral issue so what we got down to was obeying the law. The NCAA had previously avoided mention of Title IX, so simply saying that all schools should obey the law was a big step in the right direction."

As gender equity suits work their way through the court system, the picture both clears and muddies at the same time. Each suit seems to refine the guidelines, but meeting those guidelines gets harder and harder. "I’ve always said this process is going to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary," Whalen says. "It’s going to take some time to move resources, and as long as you have football, there’s going to be an imbalance."

He admits that Ithaca is not yet in full compliance, but progress is being made: "We’ve looked very hard at our program here, and we’ve made some strides as far as salaries for coaches and travel squads. But there’s no question we’re going to have to continue to emphasize women’s sports."

The NCAA itself is also in a period of change, beginning to make the transition away from one big body governing all of college sports to smaller bodies controlling their own areas. "Things are changing so dramatically at the NCAA," says Deming, who worked closely with the NCAA and chaired the Division III Football Committee. "This will be the last year of a fully representative NCAA convention, and it will be very different after that. The restructuring of the NCAA will have a dramatic impact on Ithaca College. There are a lot of different proposals on how the whole thing will be structured in the future and we’re not sure where we’ll fit in yet."

Those changes, along with Whalen’s announced departure, were part of the reason Deming decided to step down after 17 years at the helm. "With all the changes coming, someone else may be better suited for the job," he says. "And hopefully the new president will be able to come in and pick someone of their own."

At least one former colleague feels there are few people better qualified than Deming. "His knowledge far exceeds what most athletic directors know," Staurowsky says. "From the issues facing a particular sport to the larger issues facing college athletics and all of higher education, Bob tried to learn all he could. And he carefully listened to as many opinions as possible before forming a policy."

Deming strongly hopes his successor will have a coaching background. "There’s been a real signal that the era of the coach becoming athletic director is ending, " he notes, "but I think it’s better for coaches to have a relationship with an athletic director who’s been there—who knows what it’s like. A lot of the athletic directors being hired now have no coaching experience or even playing experience. They have all the business management skills, but they don’t know what it’s like to be a coach."

Whoever steps into the president’s office and athletic director’s office will have big shoes to fill. "I’ve been here 19 years and probably have been spoiled by the cooperation from both Whalen and Deming," Valesente says. "We’ll certainly miss them both and they certainly should be proud, because they’ve built the most idolized program in Division III."