GopherLady
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These are my unedited notes. I gotta tell you, I have a feeling that this guy "gets" it. Very impressive with just a 1st impression:
Eric Kaler:
• Great pleasure to introduce you to Norwood Teague, the new AD, pending approval by Board or Regents
• He is the real deal and a true professional. Vast experience with athletics and marketing.
• Should make for a robust and
• Checklist was long, diverse and demanding. He has experience, commitment to academic excellence, fundraiser, marketing background, facilities development, commitment to gender equity, winning (he transformed VCU in this), He believes in winning and wining the right way, as do I - all of these were checked off the list with Norwood.
• Undergrad from UNC, one of the nation's top public research universities, and his degree was in Political Science.
• He has 20 years of experience, football is not new to Norwood. Most of those years were with football programs. I'm extremely confident that he is equipped.
• Facilities are a front door and window into universities.
• I want to express my sincere thanks to the 20 members of the search committee, and the 4 person search committee. I want to thank our coaches, and athletic staff. I'm excited Norwood is our leader. Thank you to Joel Maturi for his 10 years as our AD.
Norwood Teague:
• Thrilled to be part of the U of MN, and the state of Minnesota.
• I have big shoes to fill after Joel Maturi, who saw the University through some changing times. I look forward to being great friends with him. Congratulations to Joel for 10 years, and let's give him a big hand. He also tells me he runs everyday at 67 years old, I was impressed by that.
• Why was I so interested in this job? I think U of MN athletics has a lot of room for growht and the ceiling is very high. I do think that facilities will be a challenge, but I think there's a good base that has been put in place. We have outstanding coaches, that was a big interest to me.
• Most of all, I have detected a burning desire from Gopher fans for improvement to win at a higher level.
• I enjoy fundraising. We raised literally millions at VCU for a number of things.
• I wanted to get back to a football job, I have 13 years of experience with football. As I was getting ready to take my job at VCU, I was hesitant, because it was bball centric. I talked to Tim Delany about that, and he said I had been to 3 football schools, go for it, you can get to a football school after that.
• Also, another attractive part of this job, is it's part of a major metro area. It's great for fundraising.
• There's a lot of people that need to come to our games, that don't. There are a lot of people that need to financially support us, that aren't.
• I have MN connections and roots. 7 years ago, my father was widowed as my mother passed from Alzheimer's after being married 53 years. My father married a 73 year old Minnesotan, when he was 77, she was born in Dodge city, Dodge center. Her Dad played bball here at the U. His bro was a teammate of Bronco Nagurski.
• I do think sky is the limit here.
• Challenges in facilities - I know that there has been some. TCF bank is immaculate, but there are other issues. We're in the Big 10, so we need to have Big 10 facilities. Our facilities are high on our list. I'm going to evaluate that in the next 3-4 months. I'm going to start a master facility plan here, and set a vision in place for what we want, and how we want it.
• Sometimes you just have a feel, and that's what I had here. It fit my skill set as far as fundraising. I really enjoy the metro environment. This department is not broken, Joel has left a legacy to build on, be it in women's athletics or what not. I came up here on my own for a trip up here for 2 days, and I asked questions all over town about MN athletics, and it gave me a great feel of this place.
• 119% revenue increase at VCU, you have to have strong relationships with current donors, and donors you're going to cultivate. You have to be gregarious, and aggressive, put a program in place that people can feel good about.
• I think it's acknowledging that football is important, and that's 1/2 the battle. You need to market and fill seats, a lot of little things.
• Fundraising - 97% of the fundraising happened before the Final Four. It helped the basketball program in there.
• Shaka - he has some years left at VCU. This is the 1st time he has his full team there, plus, he was born in Madison WI, so there would be issues with him coming here.
Eric Kaler:
• Great pleasure to introduce you to Norwood Teague, the new AD, pending approval by Board or Regents
• He is the real deal and a true professional. Vast experience with athletics and marketing.
• Should make for a robust and
• Checklist was long, diverse and demanding. He has experience, commitment to academic excellence, fundraiser, marketing background, facilities development, commitment to gender equity, winning (he transformed VCU in this), He believes in winning and wining the right way, as do I - all of these were checked off the list with Norwood.
• Undergrad from UNC, one of the nation's top public research universities, and his degree was in Political Science.
• He has 20 years of experience, football is not new to Norwood. Most of those years were with football programs. I'm extremely confident that he is equipped.
• Facilities are a front door and window into universities.
• I want to express my sincere thanks to the 20 members of the search committee, and the 4 person search committee. I want to thank our coaches, and athletic staff. I'm excited Norwood is our leader. Thank you to Joel Maturi for his 10 years as our AD.
Norwood Teague:
• Thrilled to be part of the U of MN, and the state of Minnesota.
• I have big shoes to fill after Joel Maturi, who saw the University through some changing times. I look forward to being great friends with him. Congratulations to Joel for 10 years, and let's give him a big hand. He also tells me he runs everyday at 67 years old, I was impressed by that.
• Why was I so interested in this job? I think U of MN athletics has a lot of room for growht and the ceiling is very high. I do think that facilities will be a challenge, but I think there's a good base that has been put in place. We have outstanding coaches, that was a big interest to me.
• Most of all, I have detected a burning desire from Gopher fans for improvement to win at a higher level.
• I enjoy fundraising. We raised literally millions at VCU for a number of things.
• I wanted to get back to a football job, I have 13 years of experience with football. As I was getting ready to take my job at VCU, I was hesitant, because it was bball centric. I talked to Tim Delany about that, and he said I had been to 3 football schools, go for it, you can get to a football school after that.
• Also, another attractive part of this job, is it's part of a major metro area. It's great for fundraising.
• There's a lot of people that need to come to our games, that don't. There are a lot of people that need to financially support us, that aren't.
• I have MN connections and roots. 7 years ago, my father was widowed as my mother passed from Alzheimer's after being married 53 years. My father married a 73 year old Minnesotan, when he was 77, she was born in Dodge city, Dodge center. Her Dad played bball here at the U. His bro was a teammate of Bronco Nagurski.
• I do think sky is the limit here.
• Challenges in facilities - I know that there has been some. TCF bank is immaculate, but there are other issues. We're in the Big 10, so we need to have Big 10 facilities. Our facilities are high on our list. I'm going to evaluate that in the next 3-4 months. I'm going to start a master facility plan here, and set a vision in place for what we want, and how we want it.
• Sometimes you just have a feel, and that's what I had here. It fit my skill set as far as fundraising. I really enjoy the metro environment. This department is not broken, Joel has left a legacy to build on, be it in women's athletics or what not. I came up here on my own for a trip up here for 2 days, and I asked questions all over town about MN athletics, and it gave me a great feel of this place.
• 119% revenue increase at VCU, you have to have strong relationships with current donors, and donors you're going to cultivate. You have to be gregarious, and aggressive, put a program in place that people can feel good about.
• I think it's acknowledging that football is important, and that's 1/2 the battle. You need to market and fill seats, a lot of little things.
• Fundraising - 97% of the fundraising happened before the Final Four. It helped the basketball program in there.
• Shaka - he has some years left at VCU. This is the 1st time he has his full team there, plus, he was born in Madison WI, so there would be issues with him coming here.
