Barbour steps into challenging job at Cal

From the Napa Valley Register Newspaper:
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Sandy Barbour, the University of California athletic director, was attending an alumni association event before the Golden Bears' football game against Oregon State last fall when she got a reminder of just how popular and respected Jeff Tedford is on the Berkeley campus.It came in the form of a note that was given to her by Oski, the school's official mascot."Oski had these little playing cards that he was handing out," Barbour recalled. "So, I said, 'Oski will you autograph it for me?' He nods yes. He brings it back and hands it to me, and it says, 'Keep Jeff. Love Oski.'"I certainly knew what one of the tasks at hand was."Barbour, the special guest of a Napa Valley Cal Alumni Club lunch last week at Napa Valley Country Club, is proud of the work Tedford is doing as the head football coach. But she is also proud of the fact that Cal finished the 2004-05 school year ranked 15th in the country for the U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup standings, which measures the best overall sports programs in the country and awards points based on final national standings."Being an athletic director at an institution with the prestige and notoriety of a Cal is just a dream come true," said Barbour. "It really is. It's a fabulous place with very, very passionate people in a wonderful community."But it's a very challenging job. You've got a lot of balls in the air and we've got a lot going on from fund-raising to facing the challenges of keeping the great coaches that we have, recruiting the best student-athletes not only in the country, but in the world. There's a lot going on."Tedford is obviously one of the best at Cal. He was voted as the Pacific-10 Conference Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons and led the Bears last year to a 10-2 record, which included a second-place Pac-10 finish. They lost to Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl but still finished ninth in the country in the final polls and were ranked as high as fourth during the season."There is so much positive going on with our football program right now," said Barbour. "Jeff Tedford and his staff have just done a fabulous job of building the program and restoring the excellence. We certainly have high, high hopes for the 2005 season."Cal had a record eight players who were named First-Team All-Pac-10 and tailback J.J. Arrington, who rushed for 2,018 yards, was a consensus First-Team All-American.One of the biggest projects for Barbour, the former deputy director of athletics at Notre Dame and a former athletic director at Tulane University, is the renovation of Cal's Memorial Stadium. No timetable has been set on when work will begin."This is not a five-day-a-week, 9-to-5 job," said Barbour, who was named as Cal's AD on Sept. 15, 2004. "It really can be all consuming, and for the most part that's a great thing. It's a passion."We were able to take care of the furthering of moving the Memorial Stadium project down the line with the support of Chancellor (Robert) Birgeneau. That's starting to come together. We've got a long ways to go. We've got a lot of money to raise. But the project is becoming a reality, which is very exciting and very gratifying."Barbour, who oversees Cal's 27 intercollegiate sports programs, said her job is rewarding and challenging all at the same time."High-quality places attract high-quality people, so I'm very, very fortunate to get to work in and amongst and with just fabulous people," she said. "You have to be very, very passionate about the cause, about the mission of the institution and the mission of your department. You have to be dedicated."Barbour's appearance was organized by Saanen Kerson, the president of the Napa Valley Cal Alumni Club who set the state record for most wins in a season during her junior year of softball at Vintage High School. Kerson, unfortunately, suffered a career-ending overuse injury to her pitching shoulder while playing at Cal. Kerson coached two years of softball at Vintage (2000 and 2001) and was named as the Monticello Empire League Coach of the Year while directing the Crushers to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.There are 1,650 Cal alums in Napa County. The Napa Valley Cal Alumni Club, a social club, is planning events later this year ranging from a bus trip to the Big Game at Stanford and a pre-game luncheon jointly with Stanford's local alumni club."It's been a real thrill for me to represent the university and to work toward really achieving some things for us athletically," said Barbour, who has over 22 years of experience in intercollegiate athletic administration. "I look forward to keeping after it."Barbour, who was Notre Dame's senior athletic administrator, added: "There's still an awful lot that I need to learn about Cal and I need to learn about our community and our institution. But also I recognize that people need to get to know me."I think the wonderful thing for the chancellor and I for our first fall on campus was to see the power of what a highly successful athletic program can be. That was a rallying point for the entire institution."