PSU Magazine Fall 1995

Big skies ahead im Sterk became Portland State's new athletic director Aug. 1 on the heels of PSU's inclusion in the Di vision 1 Big Sky Conference. The 39-year-old former linebacker and graduate from Western Washing– ton University was most recently senior associate athletic director at Tulane University in New O rleans. While there, he led a remarkable fund-raising campaign, bringing in 3,200 new donors and an additional $ 12 million. Since his arrival in Portland, he has hired Ritch ie McKay, an a · istant coach at the University ofWashington, to resur– rect the men's basketball program; and Kevin Bryant as P U's associate athletic director. Bryant was athletic director at Whitworth College in Spokane. Happy to be back in the Northwest, Sterk looks at the job ahead as PSU enters Divi"ion I. Q: How will you ra ise the additi onal $2.5 million needed to compete in the Big Sky Conference? A: Revenue will come from three streams: ticket sa les fo r footba ll and men's basketball, individual donations, and corporate support. Q: Which i more vital to your fund– rai ing efforts: alumni or priva te/corpo– rate support ? A: There are equal opportuni tie for both. There are 54,000 alumni in the Portland area alone, and there are people out there who want athletics to succeed. Three fo rmer PSU players– Loren Remy, Ne il Lomax, and Jeff Long-have sa id they will each head a team scholar ·hip drive to ge t five-year pledge . I started to do this at Tulane, where we got 15 alumni who each went out and got $50,000 in pledges. Jack Ga rrison (co-owner of Nautilus Plus) is also heading a spec ial Big Sky fund -raising project which already has 16 community leader pledging $ 10,000 annually over five years. Q: Where will P U teams play? A: I've received a proposa l, which is now in negotiations, to play every men's basketball home game in the Rose Garden and host some women 's basketball events there as well. There are some good things that can come out of that-some grea t advertising opportunities. If we can get corpora te upport, there' a possib ili ty we could put together a spec ial track meet and hold it in the Coliseum. As for foot– ba ll , we have a three-year agreement to play at C ivic Stadium. Q: As part of the Di vision I compli– ance period, PSU will not be eligible to participate in regional or national championship competition until 1998- 99. Will this negatively affect recruit– ing and fund raising? A: I don 't think it's going to hurt fund ra ising as such. People under– stand that we have this compliance period. When you recruit freshmen, they understand that they will be in a Jim Sterk, new PSU athletic director building proce sand they wouldn't partic ipate nationally during that period anyway. For basketball the period is longer-eight years-and that's being used aga inst us in the rec ruiting wars. But if you have a very successful team, you can rece ive an at– large bid from NCAA and be able to play nationally. D Conference stats • Portland State will begin competing in the Big Sky Conference in 1996-97. • The University is adding men's basketball, men' and women's indoor track, men's tennis, and possibly women's golf. • Current PSU sport' are football, wrestling, track and cross-coun– try, baseball, and golf for men; volleyball, basketball, track and cross-country, soccer, softball, and tennis for women. • Student athletes will have five years to play four years of sports-a slightly more rigid system than exist under Division II. • PSU will play against University of Montana, Montana State, Idaho State, Weber State, Northern Arizona, Eastern Washington, and possibly Cal tate Sacramento and Cal State Northridge. FALL 1995 PSU MAGAZINE 19