Oct. 1, 1999
The following appeared in the Sept. 28 issue of USC Report and was written by editor Matt Deringer. The story runs here with his permission.
Mike Garrett jogs the Pasadena streets several times a week, three to four miles a run, which is fitting considering how much ground USC has made up since he's been Athletic Director.
Like it or not, like him or not, there's nothing not to like about Garrett's bottom line -- the box scores of USC's 16 team sports. Since ascending to his post in 1993, Garrett's Trojans have included the NCAA individual titleist in women's golf, the NCAA individual titleist in men's tennis, the NCAA women's 100-meter winner, and the NCAA men's 400-meter winner. USC has won national championships in baseball, men's tennis (twice), men's and women's water polo, and women's swimming in that time, established itself as a title contender in track and field, women's soccer, women's rowing, and men's and women's volleyball, and finished in the top ten of the Sears Director Cup standings every year Garrett has been in charge.
But instead of being canonized, he's been chastised.
"People remember me for the negative things that I had to do after coming in," Garrett, a thoughtful and articulate man who bears no resemblance to the one that has been vilified in the media the last several years, said. "I had to relieve people. And when I made changes, some of those people went to the press."
One of them, John Robinson, Garrett doesn't mention by name, but then again, he doesn't have to. Robinson, who surely knew what was going on and played his part in the firing and its fallout to the hilt, was the galvanizing decision of Garrett's career. Emotions aside, though, it was one of his better decisions, too.
Make no mistake. I was, and continue to be, one of Robinson's biggest fans. But ask anybody in Heritage Hall, on the record or off, and they'll tell you that the football program is now moving in the right direction, direction it didn't have under the venerable ex-coach.
After reloading the talent level and re-enthusing the boosters, Robinson's second tenure was a little listless, from recruiting -- Quincy Woods was signed as much to boost that class' ranking as anything else -- to practicing -- what day of the week did the Trojans work on special teams? -- and staffing -- son David didn't belong in Div. I-A.
Successor Paul Hackett isn't as personable as the fan-friendly Robinson, but he has the Trojans closer to a national title. Even after Oregon, do the math, and it says his players are a year away.
Or ask Garrett and he'll tell you. He might not mention football specifically -- other than alluding to the fact that the Trojans won't be back until they actually beat UCLA -- but he sees his goal of nine national titles in one athletic year on the horizon.
"I can honestly say to you that there is not one team right now that is not competitive," Garrett said. "This spring we can knock your socks off -- our track and baseball programs are both top five in the country, our women's tennis team will be top five and the best one since (Richard) Gallien got here, and a championship there is very possible."
Therein lies the secret to USC's recent, and imminent, success -- people. Hackett has been given the resources to hire the best football assistants here since at least the late '80s, and it's gone overlooked that Garrett made one of the best moves in athletic history by bringing in Ron Allice to direct the track and field teams.
His reach also stretches to the women's soccer program, a top 10 team now under Jim Millinder, and the water polo program, where Jovan Vavic has helped win two national titles in the past year.
Head hoopster Chris Gobrecht can coach and is a great link to the Women of Troy's tradition, Henry Bibby, despite being a Bruin, is exactly what the men's program needed three years ago, and women's volleyball will contend for the Pac-10 again while waiting for U.S. National team director Mick Haley to arrive next fall.
"When you get great people and they recruit great people, it makes it pretty easy," Garrett said.
"What's really impressive to me is that you're naming people who I know are really good. The first thing I told the president when I became athletics director is that I needed to hire good coaches ...
"I think what happened when we came off probation (in the 1980s) was that Dr. Zumberge wanted to get the school on a more "moral" ground, and he looked for coaches who would educate kids and stress academics over athletics.
"I'm of the generation, and I think USC has always believed, that academics and athletics are equally important," Garrett said, pausing for a moment before continuing on. "But we had people who came in and took over the academic side, and weren't treating them as equally important.
"But I thought we could excel at both -- and we're getting closer each year."
They're racing along academically.
USC recently was named "College of the Year" by Time/Princeton Review, the average academic requirements for entering freshmen continue to climb, to a 3.8 GPA and 1380 SAT this year, and gifts to the film school (Kelly Preston hasn't joined fellow alums "Forrest Gump" director Robert Zemeckis and "Star Wars" brainchild George Lucas, and DreamWorks founders Steven Spielberg and David Geffen in donating, but she did shoot some of her latest hit, "For Love of the Game," at Dedeaux Field last year), as well as the medical school and the biomedical engineering program, are coming at a record rate. Not to mention gifts to the athletic department.
"All that is important because it enables us to get better students, and better student-athletes," Garrett said.
"We might use Stanford and some of the Ivy League schools as guides for academics, and we can use ourselves and our own history for athletics.
"Either way, we're really starting to flower."
So has campus. Besides putting premier people in place, Garrett can point to a new weight room and training table, a new soccer field, a new track stadium, a refurbished baseball stadium, and a new practice football field for the next few years.
Meaning the Trojans can now impress recruits with their facilities, something they couldn't do a couple years ago.
And with the area to the south of campus already cleaned up, from the potted palms opposite the Coliseum to the California Science Center in Exposition Park, it's easy to see Garrett's vision of a new home basketball arena, at several blocks south from the soon-to-be opened Staples Center, anchoring the "Figueroa Corridor" in the next millennium.
"I think our strength as an inner city campus is one people keep neglecting," Garrett said. "I foresee a time when people are coming downtown and shopping, going to basketball and hockey games and concerts, spending the night in hotels, and infusing money into the economy."
Just as USC has done with its women's programs. There still might be a gender gap in numbers and funding, but the Trojans are narrowing that as you read this.
"The reality is we're compliant," Garrett said, disputing claims to the contrary. "We have an OCR review in the near future, but compare us to any university in a like situation, and we're in great shape."
Truly, poke and prod and examine their charts, and the diagnosis for the athletic department and university might never have been better.
"Right now, we're still on a mission," Garrett said, summoning up his best Dan Aykroyd. "We're not there quite yet, but you'll know and I'll know when we are."
And soon.
