University Southern California Trojans
Winning Ways
March 20, 2003
By Kenny Berkowitz
Kenny Berkowitz is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management.
In 10 years of running one of the largest athletics programs in the country, Mike Garrett has met his share of critics. But when it comes to wins and losses, there's no question that Garrett has been enormously successful, both on and off the field.
Since being named Athletic Director in January 1993, Garrett has led the University of Southern California to national titles in baseball, women's swimming, men's tennis, women's track and field, men's and women's water polo, and most recently women's volleyball. He's built strong contenders in just about every other sport that USC sponsors and finally has the football program where he wants it to be. After a series of heavily debated hiring decisions at head coach, this year's squad finished in the nation's top five, with quarterback Carson Palmer winning the Heisman Trophy.
Over the past decade, Garrett has piloted USC's graduation rate for student-athletes to an all-time high, added two new women's teams, and increased the number of women's scholarships to meet the NCAA maximum. Fund-raising has achieved record levels, and corporate sponsorships, merchandising, and licensing have skyrocketed. He has undertaken the biggest building program in the history of USC athletics, constructing the $3 million Galen Center and expanding USC's facilities for baseball, diving, football, soccer, tennis, and track.
Born in East Los Angeles in 1944, Garrett became part of USC legend in 1965, when he led NCAA Division I rushers with 1,440 yards on 267 carries and became the school's first player to win the Heisman Trophy. Graduating with a degree in sociology, he spent four years with the Kansas City Chiefs and four years with the San Diego Chargers, retiring in 1973 with a total of 5,481 yards rushing and 2,010 yards receiving.
In San Diego, Garrett founded a community-based education program for underprivileged youth, worked in the district attorney's office, and ran for Congress. Returning to school, he received a law degree from Western State University College in 1986, and became director of business development for the Great Western Forum before returning to USC as associate athletic director in December 1990.
For the next two years, he handled the day-to-day supervision of five men's sports (golf, tennis, swimming, volleyball, and water polo) and was responsible for the department's budget, personnel, and corporate sponsorships. In this interview we talked to Garrett about the lessons of the past 10 years, the challenges of working with the media, and his goals for the University of Southern California athletic department.
Q. What's the most important lesson you've learned in the past 10 years?
Garrett. When you do things well, you get results. That's what we've been relying on for the last 10 years, making good decisions.
What are the best decisions you've made at USC?
Hiring [Head Football Coach] Pete Carroll. Hiring [Head Men's Basketball Coach] Henry Bibby. Hiring Mick Haley to coach women's volleyball. Hiring Ron Allice to coach men's and women's track and field. Hiring Peter Smith for men's tennis, and Richard Gallien for women's tennis. Making Mark Schubert the director of men's and women's swimming.
Those are the decisions I rave about-the head coaching decisions, because that's the reason why you have an athletic department. Great coaches make great athletes, and make young people better students.
What do you look for in a head coach?
Someone who knows the trade, who knows the Xs and Os. Who knows what the mental state of students must be to perform at their best. Who is a disciplinarian, with almost zero tolerance for young people who don't want to be accountable for their performance athletically, academically, or socially.
Young people have to have structure. What the society is going through right now is because of a lack of structure and a lack of parenting. Discipline is structure, and our coaches are expected to provide that discipline.
How do you balance academics and athletics?
Garrett. It's part of our chemistry, part of our formula. It's done on a daily basis, because that's how we operate. Consciously. Purposefully. Everyone has to do well in the classroom, and everyone has to do well in their athletic endeavors.
How do you keep in touch with your coaches?
We maintain a running dialogue, and it's not uncommon for coaches to drop into my office and just say hello. We talk all the time, plus I have regular meetings with three or four of my coaches. We're always sharing information about what's going on with each sport and each coach, so there is a constant dialogue to reinforce our roles.
How much contact do you have with your student-athletes?
A lot. I know the football team very well, I know both of the tennis teams very well, both of the golf teams very well. I also have five senior associates who work very much like I do, and we share information about all 19 sports. That's what we do naturally, because it's a family atmosphere and we are constantly trying to parent.
How do you parent your student-athletes?
By providing structure and support. It's not uncommon for me to see a student-athlete walk through Heritage Hall in tears. Sometimes they'll wave me off, and other times they'll turn around and say, "My father is ill," or "I didn't do very well on my final," or "I have a final coming up and I'm worried about it." And I'll listen. Because it's one of those things that gives more stability and calmness to the place.
How does that concept of family extend to your relationship with coaches?
It's very much about having a dialogue and continually talking about things. It's like having two or three generations under one roof, and you get to use all that experience to make sure you make the right decisions.
The reality is that I'm now 58 years old. I've seen a lot, and a lot of my coaches are younger than I am. I don't know their sports as well as they do, but I can sure help them deal with human motivation, and sometimes just give them comfort. And hopefully, they turn around and give that same thing to their student-athletes.
What's the best part of your job?
Interacting with the kids. Watching them grow. Like Carson Palmer, he's been an absolute delight. I've seen him go through some tough times during his first two and a half years here, and never once did he blame it on his team. Never once did he blame it on his coach. Never once did he have an outburst of temper. That's a rare thing in this day and age. And now to win the Heisman Trophy, it's almost like a dream. I'm not his parent, but I sure as hell have shared in the enjoyment.
How does your experience in the pros color the way you see Carson Palmer, or the way you see the rest of the football team?
It doesn't, it's not relevant. What matters is your life experience. Coming from your family to the age you are now, you're constantly gathering information, trying to improve yourself.
I tell my staff all the time, "You can only see in other people what you see in yourself, and you can only help people if you can identify with what they're going through." You've got to be real with yourself to be real with the student-athletes. That's a process that I learned by living, not by playing pro football.
What were the life experiences that help in your job now?
Being raised in a good family, having my mom and dad be instrumental in my development. Having great mentors in the school system, from elementary to junior high to high school. And having a great coach in John McKay [Head Football Coach at USC from 1960-75]. Those things are tremendously important, and I simply want to give those same kinds of experiences to our student-athletes.
What were the most important lessons that you learned from John McKay?
I was not the biggest athlete, or the fastest or the strongest. So Coach McKay said, "You may be just a C student, but that doesn't mean you can't be a success in life. It's what you do with what you have." And I never forgot that.
What's the hardest part of your job?
Losing. I hate losing. The toughest part about it is having kids who don't realize their talents, who give up on themselves. You can't win with everyone. That's a hard lesson in life. You're going to lose some kids and every time you lose one, it's going to hurt.
My father used to tell me, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." And it's true. You can bring people to a splendid university, one that is great academically and athletically, and if they won't take the bit, there's not much you can do. It's heart-breaking. But that's what life is, isn't it? That's why you want to win so badly.
How do you rate the program so far this year?
Well, I think we've done well the last 10 years. We've had three objectives: To hire the best head coaches we could find. To help them in recruiting the best student-athletes. And in the process, to improve and upgrade our facilities.
Right now, we have 19 sports and every one of them is geared to win the national title. The coaches know it, the student-athletes know it, the administration knows it. We work very hard to put our teams in place to win. We've won national championships in swimming, track and field, tennis, water polo, baseball, and now volleyball. We've been very close in both of the golf programs, and in the crew program.
In football, we're in the top five or six, and next year we hope we can be in the top one or two, and playing for the championship in the Rose Bowl. That's our aim every year, to go to the Rose Bowl.
Out of 19 teams, we have 12 or 13 or 14 in the top 10, depending on what happens this spring. Women's basketball is having its troubles right now, and I would like to see women's soccer getting better. But generally speaking, we're doing very well. There's enough success to let us know we're on the right track, and that's the real sign.
If a team is struggling, what can you do as the athletic director?
Coaches are the heart of the team. You have to evaluate the coach and talk with him or her about what's going on. We're monitoring all the games, so when they're not going well, we exchange communication about it.
Sometimes you look at the kids, and no matter what you do, they're not stepping up. You can't blame the coach. So you have to be as objective and caring as you can, under the circumstances. But sometimes you're going to have to make a change in the coaching.
Before you make that change, what can you do to improve a coach's performance?
Well, we won't hire someone who's not good at Xs and Os. So if there is a problem, it has to be with something else, some chemistry with the students. We talk it out, and sometimes the coach is tired. He's been in the business for a long time and lost that edge. Or maybe he has problems at home that are interfering with his performance at work. Those things occur.
How do you know when it's time to let someone go?
You feel it. It's not a surprise to the coach, because you've been talking about it the whole time. Now let me say this: When I first took over this program, there was a rash of coaches being fired. Since then, in the last five years, it's been minimal. But I know I will have to face that situation again in the future.
Why were there so many firings at the beginning?
Because I took over a dysfunctional department. Changes had to occur to make it right.
There was a lot of criticism for those decisions.
Absolutely. For about eight years, it was pretty tough. But I knew what I had to do, and the flack that I got had nothing to do with student-athletes.
The kids were improving, but because of my background and some notoriety, I was the perfect target for people to second-guess. The people I was replacing were saying very acrimonious things, and the media was eating it up.
In 1993, your former Head Women's Basketball Coach, Marianne Stanley, took USC to court, arguing under the Equal Pay Act that her salary should be similar to the head men's basketball coach. Looking back, is there anything you wish you had done differently?
No. We went to federal court and we won. We did everything to observe the laws, and make sure our student-athletes were being taken care of in the process. But people in the press didn't see what was really going on; they just jumped to conclusions, because that's easy for them to do.
How do you deal with the negative publicity?
The media has its own objective, and the thing is for me to be civil and do the best I can under the circumstances. I'm not fooled. If we don't keep improving, if we don't keep winning consistently, they'll come back and criticize me again.
What's the challenge of working in a major market like Los Angeles?
As I tell all the coaches and all the student-athletes: "If you can't stand the heat, don't go into the kitchen." USC is a very visible place. When you win, you'll be complimented, and when you lose you'll be criticized. You learn to take the good with the bad, the bitter with the sweet; that's what life is all about. You can't get a better life experience than the four years that a student-athlete has at USC.
Where did you get the idea to turn the USC-UCLA rivalry into the Lexus Gauntlet?
It came from Michael Alford, who is our Associate Athletic Director for Marketing. He suggested we create a competition between the two schools, where every team can add points to their campaign. He had this whole concept, and it's worked out wonderfully, because it really illuminates the sports that people don't follow as closely, like tennis or track and field. Last year, I think we ended up beating UCLA by half a point, and this year it's going to be just as competitive. It's a great tool, and I would love to expand it to Stanford and Berkeley.
What's your opinion on the Bowl Championship Series?
I think it's a great system.
Does it feel any different to you now than it did when you were a player?
No. You've got to win. That's all.
As a student, you were playing baseball and football. Would you like to see more student-athletes competing in multiple sports?
We always recommend that, because we think that adds to the total college experience. Usually, they come to us when we're recruiting and ask, "Can I play two sports?" and we say, "Absolutely. As long as you can maintain your grades."
How much of your time do you spend on building projects?
A lot. We have the world's best fund-raiser, Don Winston, and we have the best building person in the country, Carol Dougherty. We've been very successful. We're finishing the football stadium, we've added onto our baseball diamond, refurbished the tennis stadium, added a diving facility, and a soccer field. Now we're on the verge of fund-raising for our arena. So in 10 years, we've done a lot.
What's been the most effective tool for fund-raising?
You'd better be successful. If you do well in academics and you do well in athletics, your alumni will support you.
When you look back over these 10 years, what was the hardest lesson to learn?
Realizing that the press doesn't understand everything you're doing. They can't see something building as readily as you can, so they wind up missing the mark. That's been the most difficult thing, because we've had coaches do some great things and not be acknowledged. Because all the media can write about is whether or not we're winning the conference.
What challenges do you have left?
The challenges never leave. You're constantly trying to keep up your facilities, maintain your recruiting balance, and make sure your coaches are performing as well as they can. We need to win more national championships, continue to graduate young people, and always try to improve.
