by Dennis Freeland
fter a tumultuous
basketball season in which he was booed by his own fans and vilified by
many as the hired gun brought to Memphis to fire Larry Finch, U of M athletic
director R.C. Johnson has discovered the light at the end of the tunnel.
He found it last month at the Blue-Gray spring game.
"When I looked in the stands and saw the enthusiasm of the people, I actually got a little bit emotional," Johnson said in a wide-ranging interview last week. "The last time I felt that excited was on that field November 9th, and I thought to myself that was a long time to go without feeling good about something."
November
9th, of course, was the day the University of Memphis beat Tennessee in
football for the first time. Almost exactly one month later, Johnson made
the decision to replace head basketball coach Larry Finch. During the next
four months, Johnson experienced a baptism of fire as he withstood the criticism
of Finch supporters followed by the loneliness of being a "search committee
of one" seeking a new head coach. "It was just such a tortuous
time," Johnson recalls.
Along the way, he may have lost some supporters, maybe even a couple of friends. Several Finch supporters who had been confidants of Johnson complain privately that the athletic director stopped calling them once he decided to fire the coach.
"I think there will be some die-hard supporters of Larry that are mad at me and will probably always be mad at me, but I think they will still support the program," Johnson says matter-of-factly. "There is no way I am going to please everybody. I just have to do what I think is best and move forward."
The energetic presence of Tic Price, the new basketball coach, is a major factor in Johnson's brightening mood. Price managed to salvage recruiting while infusing the Tiger fan base with new enthusiasm. Contributions to the athletic department are up by about $250,000 over the same period last year, and Johnson says he hopes to finish the year $2 million ahead of '96.
Some of the increase comes, no doubt, from Finch detractors who were happy to see Johnson fire the longtime coach. "That happens regardless of what coach you replace," Johnson responds. "That is not a reflection on Larry, but just on change per se. Change excites people."
In order to replace Finch with Price, Johnson had to raise nearly a million dollars in short time. The University of New Orleans would not release Price without restitution from the University of Memphis. That came on the heels of the Finch buyout, which was in excess of $400,000.
"I had a couple of people in the private sector who took that on as a task and did it," Johnson says. "Otherwise we couldn't have done it. These are tough fiscal times, and with our athletic budget we are in no position to do that."
Fund-raising is delegated to associate athletic director Kevin Grothe, but Johnson says no athletic director can remove himself from the process of raising money. He hopes to announce a major new donor this summer -- an announcement that could turn heads throughout the city.
"We are talking to a major donor on a major campaign project," he says. "We've been working awfully hard on it." The money would fund an expansion of the athletic offices at Southern and Normal and a new football facility on the South Campus.
On the conference front, Johnson admits he's unhappy with the Conference USA decision to form north-south basketball divisions, with Memphis joining Houston, Tulane, Southern Miss, UAB, and South Florida in the National Division.
"We lost the vote. We wanted east-west. In my world, we would have had Houston, Memphis, St. Louis, Louisville, Tulane, and DePaul. I would have liked to have Cincinnati, but I knew that wasn't possible."
Memphis will play one home game and one road game against the other teams in its division, but will only play a single game against the teams in the other division. Johnson says the league has promised that either Louisville or Cincinnati will visit The Pyramid every year.
With 16 conference games, basketball scheduling will be easier. Arkansas, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt will be on the Memphis schedule each year. Add three or four "buy games" ("I hate to call them that, but that's what they are," Johnson says.) against the likes of Jackson State, and only a handful of dates remain open on the Tiger schedule. Ole Miss is scheduled in 1998 and '99, but Johnson isn't sure he wants to play the Rebs every year in basketball.
"I know I'd like to play them in football, the first game of the year," he says. "In basketball, I don't know. There is a lot of reasons, all having to do with recruiting and exposure, that schools would like to come in here and play. And there are a lot of reasons for us not to go to the rural campuses because that doesn't do a lot of good for us."
Losing a conference vote or haggling with Ole Miss over schedules is child's play compared to the challenge of firing a hometown hero and hiring his replacement. For R.C. Johnson, the skies have cleared.