My take on Rick Hartzell, if in fact he's a finalist:

1. UNI had a lot of success under his tenure.
2. He hired McDermott.
3. He oversaw the building of their new basketball arena to get the team out of playing in the UNI Dome. No idea if he had anything to do with the fundraising.
4. Great ref and friendly guy. Spoke to him a couple times after I'd graduated and he was always complimentary.

Any other candidates been noticed? Don't get me wrong, Hartzell seems okay, but there's nothing about him that makes me say- woah, we need this guy? I've heard they've had a few candidates in the last few days.

I'll agree with 08 and add the question:

What is he going to do about continuing as a ref? He officiated 76 games last year, and from what I can tell was working around 30-40 games a year while at UNI. Basketball season starts at the end of next week, and we could use some thorough focus from a new AD.

Well, some of these questions are answered and some new information provided in this article from Charleston, Illinois, where Hartzell was considered earlier this year for AD at EIU.

http://jg-tc.com/sports/eastern/hartzel ... 854cb.html

You never know what a jury's gonna buy.

Seriously, after an 8 month wait you guys are willing to settle for a Farm Boy, Gear Head, Horn Dog Sexagenarian who has been away from college athletic administration for almost 7 years, who has already been rejected by New Mexico State, Boise, Cal Davis and Eastern Illinois, who may consider being the Athletic Director at Loyola a part time gig, and for whom there are, in my mind, unresolved questions about his truthfulness.

Seriously? This is what we waited 8 months for? Seriously? Hell, if we wanted him, we could have hired him in March, since he was available then.


How is this guy a good fit for Loyola? Loyola has built a well-deserved reputation for environmental responsibility. In fact, Loyola recently was named the 4th "greenest" college in the nation by the Sierra Club.

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/slides ... ols-2014#9

How does that square with Loyola hiring as its Athletic Director a guy who for the past several years has been in the business of stock car racing, and who publishes three magazines promoting the sport?

Here's an article about the direct environmental impacts of car racing. http://science.howstuffworks.com/enviro ... onment.htm

What the article doesn't describe is the indirect social effects the "sport" has on the environment by encouraging a car culture.

How is this guy a good fit for Loyola? One of the stated reasons for his resignation from UNI was he wanted to report directly to the school's president, but didn't get his way. Loyola has a similar reporting hierarchy where the Athletic Director reports to a Vice President (Tom Kelly), instead of to Garanzini. Anybody see a problem?

We can do better than Hartzell.

The other candidate is Steve Watson from St. Bonnies. He was seen on campus today.

Hell no, but Tom Kelly is going to do whatever the hell he wants. You'd better believe I am going to be making my voice heard over this next year. Tom Kelly is a goon and is running this program into the ground.

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Cigarboy sucks!

This is promising and the right angle for this job...



Also this, since it's helpful to have an actual athlete in that position (even though there is a certain athlete that would have been perfect in the job, but Tom Kelly had to act like a petulant child to ensure he always gets his way)

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Cigarboy sucks!

There are plenty of reasons to think that Hartzell isn't a worthy candidate, but being a stock car enthusiast is so crazy it didn't ever cross my mind (and I personally dislike nearly everything about racing and its culture). If that's the standard, we might also eliminate hunters, skydivers, video gamers, horror movie fans, hot air balloonists, and Civil War re-enactors.