My Sportsman Choice: Gordon Gee

By Mark Bechtel

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With his bowtie and his Coke bottle glasses, Gordon Gee doesn't look like much of an athlete. But the Vanderbilt chancellor gets my nod for Sportsman of the Year.

A little over a year ago Gee made headlines by announcing he was going to do away with the school's athletic department, folding it into the department of student affairs. There would be no more athletic director and no separate budget for sports. The message was simple: the school was going to treat its athletes like regular students. Granted, at Vanderbilt jocks long have been well integrated into campus life, but it was still a big step from a P.R. standpoint. Columnists speculated that the end of Vanderbilt's stay in the SEC was nigh, that by having the same department that handles intramural sports oversee varsity athletics, the basketball team would suddenly find itself fighting for court time with a freshman interhall hoops tournament, and that recruits would stay away in droves.

Well, it's a year later, and in that year the Commodores had an incredible run -- and not just by the deflated standards that schools like Vanderbilt historically hold themselves to. ("That's OK, they'll work for us one day.") The men's and women's basketball teams made the Sweet 16, and the baseball team advanced to the final 16 of the College World Series. Only Texas can make the same claim.

The men's tennis team was 16th in the country; the women were second. The women's lacrosse team made the Final Four and the women's golf team was fifth in the nation. That means of the school's 14 varsity programs, half were among the top 16 in the country. (And golfer Luke List finished second in the U.S. Amateur.)

The school finished 28th in the NACDA's Director's Cup standings -- which rates programs based on overall performance -- despite fielding only 14 varsity teams. In 2000 Vanderbilt was 138th, and in 2002 it was 56th. True, that jump can't be attributed solely to Gee, but it certainly showed that his move didn't result in the program's death.

As for Gee's desire to have his athletes integrate more fully into the student body, that seems to be working as well. Earlier this fall Gee pointed out to The Tennessean that "four or five of our athletes ran for student-body offices, or offices in their classes, and that was the first time that has happened. And they won, by the way."

As an alum, I'm glad Gee is running my school. And as a sports fan I'm glad there are people like Gee out there who have a vision of making intercollegiate sports a more respectable enterprise -- and who aren't afraid to act.

Sports Illustrated will announce the 2004 Sportsman of the Year winner on FOX on November 28. Check back every weekday until then to read more Sportsman picks from SI writers.