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University of Massachusets Athletics
Sitting Down With Ian McCaw
 |  Ian McCaw answers a question at a press conference to announce his hiring. |
Aug. 20, 2002
Ian McCaw, introduced by University of Massachusetts Chancellor John V. Lomardi as the school's new director of athletics on July 15, officially began work in Amherst Aug. 1. McCaw, who received his master's degree from UMass in 1987 (sport management), spent the last five years leading Boston's Northeastern University's athletic program to new heights, and is currently the chair of the NCAA Division I men's ice hockey committee. Before Northeastern, he served as senior associate athletics director for development and associate athletics director for external affairs at Tulane from 1992-97. During his stint at the New Orleans institution, he also served as the school's co-interim director of athletics (1996). McCaw went to Tulane from the University of Maine, where he worked for six years (1986-92). He began as an assistant director of sports information and progressed to the roles of sports information director and both assistant and associate athletic director for external affairs. Ian, his wife, Heather, and their children, Christy, Paul, Callie and Corinne hope to be settled in the Pioneer Valley later this month. Despite his hectic schedule, Ian found time on his second day in Amherst to sit down with the Maroon & White's Nick Joos and discuss a wide variety of topics.
M&W: What are your goals for the UMass Athletics program?
McCaw: We want to have an athletic program where the focus is on the student-athlete. We want to provide a very high quality academic, athletic, and social experience for them at the University of Massachusetts. We want to build highly-competitive athletic programs that are competing at the highest level in all 22 of our sports. In addition, we also want to maintain an environment where we promote equity, diversity, sporting conduct and compliance. Those are values that are very important to us. Certainly, revenue-enhancement is going to be an important part of what we need to do in order to have the resources to move our programs forward in an excelerated fashion. That's going to involve development, external affairs activities, ticket sales, marketing, licensing, merchandising, enhancing all of the revenue streams. And finally, enhancement of our facilities. There are some wonderful facilities here, but there are others that need some attention. Obviously, a student recreation center and an outdoor track immediately come to the forefront, along with some refurbishment of some of our existing facilities.
M&W: Chancellor Lombardi has a tremendous passion for college athletics. How will he help you shape this program?
McCaw: He's going to be a tremendous leader for the institution. I believe he is someone who has a great vision for our institution, and he also understands college athletics. He has been at a very successful program at the University of Florida, so I believe he's going to bring some great expertise, and great understanding of the college athletics landscape to the table. He's also a highly-skilled and very successful fund-raiser, and I believe he will help the University reach out to the external community in perhaps the most effective way it ever has. So, I believe we have some great opportunities under his leadership.
M&W: How do you plan on generating more revenue for the program?
McCaw: Obviously, we have to look at each and every revenue stream. There's no one area that's going to provide us all of the revenue that we desire. We've got to build on everything, the season ticket base, how we approach our development activity reaching out to new donors. We need try and maximize each area in terms of revenue potential.
M&W: How would you describe your athletics philosophy?
McCaw: I believe, at a very fundamental level, that athletics and sports should be fun for the participant. It should be enjoyable and promote healthful benefits. Athletics should be a great source of entertainment for the campus community. In addition to the fact that athletics promotes great values and is a great area to teach life lessons to young people.
M&W: There is currently a budget crisis, to some degree in Massachusetts, and throughout the country, how will that effect your plans here?
McCaw: I believe most institutions are facing challenging budget situations right now between the market and the resulting economic conditions in all 50 states in the country. Rather than focusing on that, we are going to focus on how to move in a positive direction in terms of revenue enhancement, using the dollars we have as wisely as we possibly can and just making very good business decisions. I'm a glass is half full type of person, so we are going to focus on the positive. As long as we do what we control well, then I believe everything will take care of itself.
M&W: What do you see as the major differences between Massachusetts and Northeastern?
McCaw: The two institutions are very different. Northeastern is a smaller, private university, while UMass is a large public institution. But, when you come right down to what the key dictators are of athletic success, you need to have high quality coaches, good facilities, the appropriate resources for people to be successful, and you need to motivate them to achieve their desired goals. You are doing all of those things whether you are at a Northeastern, UMass, or Michigan. Those are really the primary indicators of being successful.
M&W: What was your greatest achievement as Northeastern's A.D.?
McCaw: I would have to say personnel. We left Northeastern with very high quality coaches, and a very cohesive and talented administrative staff. I'd have to say that's probably the best thing that we did.
M&W: What is your ideal vision for the UMass Athletics program?
McCaw: It really starts with competitive athletic teams. If you are providing students with a good experience, recruiting well, and doing everything else right, you are going to have successful athletic teams and you are going to win. That's really what generates the energy and enthusiasm to drive fund raising, which in turn drives facilities. So, it is really about competitive success as much as anything. One of the things I found most attractive about this job is the potential of our teams. We've seen flashes of it in the past, winning a I-AA national championship in 1998, the success of men's basketball in the early 1990s and the softball program. You just go around the 22 sports we have in place, and there is great potential for success here, and I believe we can win consistently across the board. That's one of the things that really excites me.
M&W: How has UMass changed since your days as a graduate student?
McCaw: There have been a lot of physical improvements. The campus is much more expansive and much more developed than it was 16 years ago when I left campus. I think the institution has come a long way academically, and certainly the athletic program has evolved very significantly.
M&W: When you were a graduate student here, did you ever dream of returning as Athletic Director?
McCaw: Truthfully, I did not. At that point I was worried about getting my first job out of graduate school and really focused on that as opposed to thinking about where I might be 15 or 20 years later. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to return to the University. I care about it a great deal, it has special meaning to me and I couldn't be more delighted about returning.
M&W: Tell us about working at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Do you have fond memories of working in the press?
McCaw: I have fond memories of that, and of working at that time with Howie Davis in the sports information office. That was really a big part of the time I spent here. I was the only assistant in sports information, so I was putting in 40 to 60 hours a week in addition to my graduate studies and working as a stringer at the Daily Hampshire Gazette on top of that. So, I definitely had a full plate in terms of work load at that point. But, I enjoyed every minute.
M&W: What do you expect most from your coaches?
McCaw: I expect our coaches to run very high quality programs, attract outstanding student-athletes and achieve competitive success. I like to have open lines of communication with them and help them be successful. So, I'm going to spend a lot of time trying to identify what their greatest needs are, and then get to work to try and put the pieces in place to help their programs move forward. I look at my relationship with the coaches as one where we are joined at the hip. If they are successful, I'm successful, if I'm successful, they're successful. So, we need to work together. I will be focused on identifying the areas where I can help them be more successful, be it in recruiting or with the facilities or with their team, whatever it may be. That's a large part of what I'm doing right now, sitting down and meeting with each and everyone of them, trying to identify what their needs are.
M&W: Tell us about your family, and what they mean to you.
McCaw: My family is extremely important to me. My wife, Heather, and I have been married for 10 years. I met her when I was working at the University of Maine. She was a former student-athlete there and played field hockey. She's a great lady and does a wonderful job of raising our four children who range in ages seven down to 18 months. We are a very close family. We try to spend as much time together as we can, which is difficult in this profession. I'm very fortunate to have four healthy, beautiful young children.
M&W: What sports did you play growing up?
McCaw: Just about everything. I was a sports fan from my earliest recollection. I recall leafing through the sports page at age 4 or 5, and basically playing pick-up games, little league, youth sports, you name it. So, really I love all sports.
M&W: What was the first athletic event you attended?
McCaw: It was probably a CFL (Canadian Football League) game at Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, Ontario, where the Hamilton Tigercats played I believe the Ottawa Roughriders. I probably would have been 5 or 6.
M&W: As a child, what were your career aspirations?
McCaw: Initially, I was very interested in business. At one point, I thought I might end up being a stock broker, which today probably wouldn't be the best choice. Finance, business were strong interests. Early on, before I realized there was a field of sport management, I was more focused on the business world. There really are a lot of cross applications. Serving as an Athletic Director is very much like running a small to mid-sized business because you have 100-plus employees and 600 student-athletes, and you are dealing with budgets, facilities and generating revenue. I enjoy business and education, and I love athletics, so I feel I've found the perfect fit.
M&W: When did you decide you wanted to be an athletic director. Why?
McCaw: It was really at the encouragement of Kevin White, who I worked with at the University of Maine. He felt like I had the skills, personality and character to be an athletic director probably when I was in my mid to late twenties. I really hadn't thought about it seriously until that point. He really encouraged me to pursue this area, and I had opportunities to grow professionally over the course of the time I worked for him at Maine and Tulane. I had the opportunity to be the co-acting director at Tulane in the mid-1990s and really had a taste and flavor of being involved in running an athletic department. It's something that suits my personality and my skills very well, and I'm very comfortable in this type of role and enjoy it.
M&W: Who are the people who have influenced your life most?
McCaw: Obviously, my parents, Jim and Arlene McCaw, had a great deal of influence on me growing up. I have a brother who is now deceased who was killed in a car accident when he was 29 and he and I were very close. There's a gentlemen named Bob Wanzel, who chaired the sports administration program at Laurentian University where I received my undergraduate degree. Professionally and academically he certainly got me focused in this field. When I was here at UMass, Glenn Wong was the chair of the sport management department, and he certainly had a lot of influence on my career. Howie Davis, who I worked with, gave me a start in the field of athletics in sports information at that point. Kevin White, who I worked for for eight years. Those are people who all had tremendous impact on my life professionally.
M&W: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
McCaw: I spend most of my time with my family when I do get away from athletics. This is a field where there is a big overlap between what you do professionally and personally, because a lot of the people you come in contact with through work are the same people with whom you socialize. But, when I'm truly away from it all, I try to focus most of my time on our family and family activities. We go to church regularly, we like to go out and play mini golf or go bowling and support the children's activities.
M&W: What was the last book you read?
McCaw: That's a good question. It was called Parenting With Grace. Most of my reading is self improvement, non-fiction.
M&W: What was the last movie you saw?
McCaw: That one is going to be Titanic. I'm outdated there. I have a hard time getting out to the movie theater with my schedule.
M&W: What's the best advice anyone's ever given you?
McCaw: I keep a journal of great quotes and advice, so I have about 250 entries that I've picked up over the years. Jack Welch (a UMass alum and former president of General Electric) has some excellent advice regarding leadership. He said be candid with everyone; control your only destiny or someone else will; if you don't have a competitive advantage don't compete; face reality as it is, not as it was or you would like it to be; don't manage, lead; change before you ever have to. Those are his six principles of leadership, and he's demonstrated that he's one of the foremost business leaders in the country based on his tenure at General Electric. I subscribe to a lot of his theories.
M&W: If you could meet one person in history, who would it be and why?
McCaw: That would be Jesus Christ because there's no one else like him. He lived the perfect life, stuck to his mission and rose above it all.