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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 1998)
Moos Continued from Page 1A the Duck players. Friends are especially impor tant to Moos. When you’re in a po sition of power the way he is, it’s easy to feel isolated from those around you. Moos says he does his best to keep in contact with friends from the old days, but his job makes it difficult to keep close with them. It’s something he says he thinks about a lot. So it’s not surprising that he will always take extra time to care for an old friend who asks a favor of him — even on game day. "I certainly don't have many op portunities to speak with many old friends,” Moos says. “A lot of times I just feel like I’m engulfed with my job here.” Which is why Washington State’s Rose Bowl campaign last season was a special moment for Moos. At halftime of the Cougars' 21-16 loss to then-No. 1 Michigan, Moos was able to reunite with many of his old teammates from that 1972 team. 1:35 p.m. Moos was supposed to meet with local women’s basketball recruits and their families for a short time before speaking at a pregame buffet in the Pittman Room at the east end of the Casanova Center. Every Sat urday, he will meet with recruits from a different sport. The previous weekend it was women’s tennis; the week before that it was track. However, Oregon’s head women’s basketball coach Jody Runge is close to 25 minutes late, and Moos is biding his time by watching the California-UCLA football game on the television. Moos tries to relax, he leans back in his chair, but he is antsy. Runge is late, and now the day's itinerary, which is calculated days in ad vance, has been thrown off. 1:50 p.m. An assistant coach from the women’s basketball team arrives at Moos’ office with close to 30 re cruits and their families. Moos greets them outside his office door smiling. He shakes fathers’ hands as he leads the group down a corri dor to a small conference room. “I want everyone in this room to know that they are special,” Moos says in a booming voice as the group enters the room. “You’ve all worked very hard to get here, and you should be proud of that. I re member back to my own experi ences, and the fondest memories I have are from being involved with athletics while in college." Every time Moos addresses a group of student athletes he re flects on his football days. He says that experience allows him to bet ter understand the challenges stu dent-athletes face and the impor tant relationships between players and their coaches. “I think it lends credibility to what I do,” Moos says. “I think the athletes respect that I’ve already been through a lot of what they’re going through." At Washington State, Moos was known as a cerebral football play er. Unlike a lot of offensive line men during his day, Moos studied game film and took pride in un derstanding the complexities of the Cougar offense. He didn't just understand his role on the team, Moos understood everybody's role. He says his greatest virtue as a player was his wi 11 i ngness to work hard and prepare for every detail. That attention to detail is evi dent in almost everything he does as athletic director. Itineraries are to be followed to the letter. If he is running late, Moos always phones ahead so people know exactly where he is and when they can ex pect him. 2:25 p.m. Moos is standing in the hallway that connects the kitchen with the Pittman Room’s pregame celebra tion. The Pittman Room is to the Casanova Center what the grand ballroom was to the Titanic — walk-ins will be promptly shown the door. ^_I Wendv Fuller/Emerald Moos speaks to University donors in the Pittman Room at the Casanova Center Oct. 24. ».fmfi..lm,,nru.iji',-l'.,i.iri,,iri.,,-i,l',-tl'ivrr,i,iiiYi-,iiv-'lviY.--,-,-|V.-,-,v,Y|- . v, n" ,v- ---i--4-, i ■ ,'Mh(iHSm■ ■,3 Wendy Fuller /Emerald Bill Moos speaks to a group of recruits for the basketball team and their families in conference room near his office. Today the room is host to 400 of the University’s most illustrious donors and alumni. Ed and Elaine Moshofsky, University President Dave Frohnmayer, members of the Pape family, former NFL standout J.J. Birden, Today Show host Ann Curry. All are guests of the athletic department because they fill dif ferent and vital roles at this Uni versity. Just minutes before Moos is in troduced on stage he is ap proached by an elderly green-and yellow-clad donor. “We have a check for you today, Bill,” she says. “But I’m afraid it’s not very much this time.” “That’s OK,” Moos says, bend ing down to give her a bear hug. Moos hears his name men tioned on stage and shuffles off. Donors are the real most valu able players in college athletics. The Pittman Room is celebrating two things today: the Ducks’ No. 12 national ranking, which has them an eight-and-a-half point fa vorite at home against USC, and all the financial contributions donors like these have made over the years. “If you would have told anyone in this room 10 years ago that they’d be sitting here about to watch a Duck team that is nearly a 10-point favorite in midseason against USC, people would’ve thought you were crazy,” Moos says to the smiling, cheerful crowd. "The days of the haves and the have-nots are gone. The days of schools recruiting players just so they didn’t have to play against them are gone.” Nearly 10 years ago the NCAA reduced the total number of schol arships for a football program to 85. Before that time, college foot ball enjoyed about as much parity as the Roman Empire. Notre Dame, USC, Alabama — these were the kings of college football. When they lost games, it wasn’t considered an upset. It was more like a national day of mourning. But scholarship limitations have leveled the playing field. Moos says Oregon’s remarkable success in the 1990s is a direct result. “It has brought parity to college football because the schools with the best locations can’t attract all the quality players,” he says. 30 minutes before kick-off Security to Moos’ palatial sky box suite is tight. A press box pass and two passes hand delivered by Moos himself are not enough to get an unescorted trip to the top of Autzen Stadium. A man and woman enter the suite. The woman walks to her as signed seat in front of the box; the flannel-dressed man goes to the kitchen and orders a Jack and Coke. The suite has reserved seating for Moos, his wife, Kendra, one of his three daughters, his six month-old son Benjamin and about 20 guests. Vice President Dan Williams and his wife, Mau reen, are regulars, as is Moos’ sec retary Debbie Nankivell. “Nothing is ever hidden,” Nankivell says about Moos. “He’s genuine. That makes him very easy to get along with.” Nankivell arrived at Oregon in 1995, the same year as Moos, but both say they know what it’s like to be involved with athletic de partments that don’t bring in the money that Oregon does. "It really makes you appreciate what you’ve got,” Moos says. “I’ve had to travel on 12-hour bus rides to Ogden, Utah, and places like that. It really makes you appreci ate the luxuries of playing in a conference like the Pac-10.” Moos graduated from Washing ton State in 1973. The following year, Moos worked as an intern in Washington, D.C., which he says proved to be quite an amazing ex perience when the Watergate scandal started to unfold. In the late winter of 1974, Moos assumed a new position as deputy director of community and congressional relations at the U.S. Capitol. His new position gave him an oppor tunity to sit in on many of the Wa tergate meetings in the House and the Senate, but Moos says this job was most valuable to him because it provided him with the perfect arena to work on his public rela tions skills, which would serve him best later down the road. After his internship was com pleted in 1975, Moos returned to the Northwest to go into business with three of his friends building restaurants. He worked with them for about the next eight years be fore getting the job that would change his life. In 1982, Moos was hired as di rector of development at Washing ton State by Sam Jankovich, who was impressed by Moos’ public re lations savvy and good business sense. After five very successful years in player development, Moos jumped to assistant athletic direc tor where he supervised all of the department’s external operations. In 1990, Moos took over the ath letic department at Montana, where he would build the football and men’s basketball programs to two of the most successful in Divi sion I-AA in a very short time. Moos spearheaded several pro jects that included stadium expan sion, facility renovations and im provements to the university’s tennis courts, locker rooms and soccer fields. Moos says the key to improving Montana’s athletic programs 10 years ago is the same as improving Oregon’s today: fund raising. Oregon 17, USC13,15 seconds to go in the fourth quarter With 15 seconds to go in the game and Oregon grinding the ball down the Trojans’ throat, Moos leaps from his seat and grabs his coat. This is his favorite part of the day. Win or lose. Moos makes his way down to the playing field through the student section to thank them for coming. He shakes hands and flashes smiles. The stu dents appear startled to see him but always rush to shake his hand. Moos is very much at home. As the students count down the wan ing seconds of the game, Moos shuffles down the Autzen Stadi um steps to try to catch Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti before he exits the field. Seven ... six ... five ... four ... the students count, and Moop is wedged in behind a large group of them at the base of the stadium. He is smiling, and the rain begins to fall, and he bounces up and down in unison with the students to cel ebrate Oregon’s victory. When the final gun sounds, Moos explodes onto the playing field, but Bellotti has already made his way to the locker room. Moos looks toward the evaporated stu dent section and smiles as Oregon football players one by one come up to him and shake his hand. He is as much a part of today’s victory as any of them. ©resonWCmeralij The Oregon Daily Emerald is published daily Monday through Friday during the school year and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Oregon. Eugene. Oregon. A member of the Associated Press, the Emerald op erates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private prop erty. The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable NEWSROOM — T46-SS11 Editor In chief. Ryan Frank Managing Editor Laura Cadiz Community; Mike Hines, editor. David Ryan, Felicity Ayles Entertainment: Mike Burnham, editor. 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