Poll: Best Athletic Director Ever

[RURahh]

Tried this 2 years ago and will reveal the numbers after this poll finishes. Not surprisingly, there is only one person on this list who was never fired (yet?)

Besides Julie, I think a case can be made for any of the names on here.

IMHO it's a tossup between Tim and Uncle Bob. Tim was truly a rising star who was nominated as Athletic Director of the Year and I think he was responsible for getting us into the BIG although Mulcahy set the table. Mulcahy bought us into a new century of fund raising and modernized the Athletic. Department

Despite the handling of the GS hire, Hobbs has made some very good hires and has been amazing with his fund raising. I truly believe he has been hamstrung with football ( he had Ash forced upon him and didn't have the funds or backing to terminate him)

Grunninger makes the list based on longevity alone (25 years) and was responsible for hiring Tom Young who got us into the Final 4 which might be the greatest Rutgers sports achievement ever

 

[fsg2_rivals]

There's no poll.

 

[RURahh]

Tried this 2 years ago and will reveal the numbers after this poll finishes. Not surprisingly, there is only one person on this list who was never fired (yet?)

Besides Julie, I think a case can be made for any of the names on here.

IMHO it's a tossup between Tim and Uncle Bob. Tim was truly a rising star who was nominated as Athletic Director of the Year and I think he was responsible for getting us into the BIG although Mulcahy set the table. Mulcahy bought us into a new century of fund raising and modernized the Athletic. Department

Despite the handling of the GS hire, Hobbs has made some very good hires and has been amazing with his fund raising. I truly believe he has been hamstrung with football ( he had Ash forced upon him and didn't have the funds or backing to terminate him)

Grunninger makes the list based on longevity alone (25 years) and was responsible for hiring Tom Young who got us into the Final 4 which might be the greatest Rutgers sports achievement ever

 

[MulletCork]

Good poll and a good actual sports topic.
Voted Mulcahy!

 

[fsg2_rivals]

There's no poll.

Now there is. Retracted.

 

[RURahh]

Both Tim and Mulcahy got railroaded by the media big time....Give Hobbs some credit for making it 5 years with way even more media scrutiny than any of those AD's ever saw.

 

[fsg2_rivals]

Too early for Hobbs since you can look at the others' full resumes.

Gotta be Mulcahy as of now. Pernetti's hires just too weak.

 

[LC-88]

Whoever hired Frank Burns. Take Julie over Fred G. She would have said "yes" to Big East in '79.

 

[Racpack]

1. Mulcahy hired Schiano and Goodale, There was pride in RU when Bob was here. He had connections with the NJ legislature which was a plus.

2. Tim was doing a very good job, had potential, and then got railroaded by Governor Christie and Barchi supported Christie.

3. Hobbs has done well raising money. He really screwed up the Schiano hiring. He was afraid that Greg would make him irrelevant. He plotted to get Christie to attack Greg. It back-fired when Murphy, Politi, and Rutgers fans demanded that Schiano be hired, Hobbs has turned off most of the big Rutgers donors. Don't know anyone in leadership that speaks well of him.

4th Grunninger hired Tom Young. Otherwise he was a disaster. Kept us out of the Big East and forced Frank Burns out. These actions set Rutgers back years, Was over his head as he had no idea how to take RU to the modern era.

5th. Julie - thankfully she is no longer the Rutgers AD

 

[RURahh]

1. Mulcahy hired Schiano and Goodale, There was pride in RU when Bob was here. He had connections with the NJ legislature which was a plus.

2. Tim was doing a very good job, had potential, and then got railroaded by Governor Christie and Barchi supported Christie.

3. Hobbs has done well raising money. He really screwed up the Schiano hiring. He was afraid that Greg would make him irrelevant. He plotted to get Christie to attack Greg. It back-fired when Murphy, Politi, and Rutgers fans demanded that Schiano be hired, Hobbs has turned off most of the big Rutgers donors. Don't know anyone in leadership that speaks well of him.

4th Grunninger hired Tom Young. Otherwise he was a disaster. Kept us out of the Big East and forced Frank Burns out. These actions set Rutgers back years, Was over his head as he had no idea how to take RU to the modern era.

5th. Julie - thankfully she is no longer the Rutgers AD

Very thoughtful response....Grunninger also hired our best coach ever in C Vivian, but over 25 years, even a broken clock can be right twice.

I think if you look at pure batting average as opposed to full career, I would go with Tim
He did more to boost Rutgers image and media coverage in just a few years than anyone else in a lifetime. On a personal level, he was so invested in Rutgers and I truly believe he would be here today if not for the hatchet job that the media did on Mike Rice (who in retrospect could have been an excellent hire as well)

 

[RUinFla]

Mulcahy chased away a good basketball coach, Gary Waters, who took us to three NIT's in his five seasons, in favor of a man who had a reputation for being a good recruiter but turned out to be a bad coach, and completely inept in dealing with his players. Fred Hill Jr was probably the worst basketball coach we have ever had. Not even close. Mulcahy was stampeded into hiring him, and it ushered in several awful seasons. Hobbs became AD in November 2015 and replaced Eddie Jordan with Steve Pikiell after the 2015-16 season. Guess most people are happy with that choice.

 

[RU848789]

Tried this 2 years ago and will reveal the numbers after this poll finishes. Not surprisingly, there is only one person on this list who was never fired (yet?)

Besides Julie, I think a case can be made for any of the names on here.

IMHO it's a tossup between Tim and Uncle Bob. Tim was truly a rising star who was nominated as Athletic Director of the Year and I think he was responsible for getting us into the BIG although Mulcahy set the table. Mulcahy bought us into a new century of fund raising and modernized the Athletic. Department

Despite the handling of the GS hire, Hobbs has made some very good hires and has been amazing with his fund raising. I truly believe he has been hamstrung with football ( he had Ash forced upon him and didn't have the funds or backing to terminate him)

Grunninger makes the list based on longevity alone (25 years) and was responsible for hiring Tom Young who got us into the Final 4 which might be the greatest Rutgers sports achievement ever

Tim? Are you joking? The man hired Rice and completely bungled the hazing/abuse incident and video, giving RU a huge black eye - and it was widely known Rice was a powder keg before he was hired. He also hired Flood instead of finding the $$ to hire a serious coach. F-. The only thing that raises him to a D was his role in getting us into the B1G, although most of the heavy lifting for that was done by Bob and Greg, turning the worst football program in the country into a highly competitive team and expanding the stadium.

Hands down Bob was our best AD. If Hobbs had his way and hired someone other than Greg, I would've wanted him canned (unless it was a surprise home run), but he eventually got it done - that, plus the Pike hire and some very good fundraising has him at least in the conversation with Bob, although let's see if Greg does as well as I think he will before reaching that conclusion.

 

[satnom]

Very thoughtful response....Grunninger also hired our best coach ever in C Vivian, but over 25 years, even a broken clock can be right

I think if you look at pure batting average as opposed to full career, I would go with Tim
He did more to boost Rutgers image and media coverage in just a few years than anyone else in a lifetime. On a personal level, he was so invested in Rutgers and I truly believe he would be here today if not for the hatchet job that the media did on Mike Rice (who in retrospect could have been an excellent hire as well)

Grunniger backed into the Cviv hire after Fran Lawrence put his foot in his mouth with comments about minority students and IQ/test taking capabilities. Fran and company went out of their way to hire a well known accomplished minority women coach to quell the internal and external criticisms aimed at the Rutgers President. Grunniger allowed legendary coach Bill Walsh to mesmerize his silly little brain to hire a lower level football coach from San Jose St U that had no connection to the East coast let alone NJ to take over the football program and drive it further into the ground than a coach named Chris Ash. The same Grunniger who failed to hire Dick Vitale who would have taken over the reins of the basketball program for free and brought RU basketball to heights unheard of. The same Grunniger who failed to commandeer real investments into RU athletics to elevate RU athletics to a national power befitting of a flagship state university inundated with athletic and academic high level talent all around. That guy held back the growth of RU athletics for a generation and would have been better off in the Patriot or Colonial league. Guy shouldn’t even be on the list.

Mulcahy is the clear number one, Hobbs # 2 with Pernitti #3 and the rest whatever.

GO RU

 

[sunsetregret]

Grunniger was the worst by far. I don't know of a single Middlesex or Union County high school coach that didn't viscerally hate him - football or basketball. All the way into the late 90s, when you wanted to make a joke about a complete "f--k up," you'd still use Grunniger as the punchline.

 

[50 yd line RR]

Tried this 2 years ago and will reveal the numbers after this poll finishes. Not surprisingly, there is only one person on this list who was never fired (yet?)

Besides Julie, I think a case can be made for any of the names on here.

IMHO it's a tossup between Tim and Uncle Bob. Tim was truly a rising star who was nominated as Athletic Director of the Year and I think he was responsible for getting us into the BIG although Mulcahy set the table. Mulcahy bought us into a new century of fund raising and modernized the Athletic. Department

Despite the handling of the GS hire, Hobbs has made some very good hires and has been amazing with his fund raising. I truly believe he has been hamstrung with football ( he had Ash forced upon him and didn't have the funds or backing to terminate him)

Grunninger makes the list based on longevity alone (25 years) and was responsible for hiring Tom Young who got us into the Final 4 which might be the greatest Rutgers sports achievement ever

Nailed It!

 

[MulletCork]

Mulcahy came in my company’s office numerous times when I just got out of college. The old timers had respect for him but I had no idea who he was. Friendly guy. Took the time to say hello to me back then and ask where I went to college and wish me luck. Fast forward 20 years later and he comes into MY office.
I never told him that but I remembered him after the first random chance and then going to some soccer games and seeing him at those.
Personal bias aside he did so much for the program but also Olympic sports if you will too. My wife knew him thru soccer and she had friends at places like Villanova and they all knew him. Just a good guy and a great hire back then.

 

[Plum Street]

Grunniger? Pernetti? These guys were awful.
As for Julie, I don’t know how anyone can rate her since an AD is really judged by football and men’s basketball hires. She didn’t get to make either. She wanted to fire flood in 2013 and bring in Mullen . If that happens, she might be top of the list .
But she was tied to flood for 2 more years -a lousy pernetti hire. And predictably the program has issues and julie and flood are shown the door. She gets an incomplete.
Hobbs - jury still out.
Mulcahy is the winner here by many miles. Hired schiano and got us into the BIG . Game, set , match

 

[NY AGENTMAN]

,Grunniger was the best! He single handily tried to destroy Rutgers Athletics. Great for the crazy RU professors and great for every other school especially Boston College , Seton Hall and Syracuse. Those teams should honor him every day for his negligence

 

[Zak57]

Julie at least tried to get the Olympic sports back in order as well. Tim let them rot while he was here.

 

[Plum Street]

Julie at least tried to get the Olympic sports back in order as well as Tim let them rot while he was here.

Tim was awful as evidenced by his hires . The flood-rice hires are probably the two worst tandem of hires in school history . Even worse than Shea-littlepage .
I think people are in love with Tim because he is an alum and had the aura of a big time AD. He was impressive in person and a good politician . You need that in the job . But his hires speak for themselves and that’s why he is awful.

 

[50 yd line RR]

Grunniger was the worst by far. I don't know of a single Middlesex or Union County high school coach that didn't viscerally hate him - football or basketball. All the way into the late 90s, when you wanted to make a joke about a complete "f--k up," you'd still use Grunniger as the punchline.

“BIG RED IS DEAD WITH FRED AT THE HEAD”
Infamous banner that was that flew during one of the football games back in the seventies.
It only flew for 5 minutes campus cops confiscated it.lol
Banner said it all. Looking back though it wasn’t all Grunninger it was just Rutgers not having the vision or determination to actually compete at the next level.

 

[wheezer]

Grunniger was the worst by far. I don't know of a single Middlesex or Union County high school coach that didn't viscerally hate him - football or basketball. All the way into the late 90s, when you wanted to make a joke about a complete "f--k up," you'd still use Grunniger as the punchline.

Came here to post the same..... Grunninger by far the worst....... when the big east was formed and I saw it included St John's and Syracuse I knew we had to jump
But he just could not do it
Yes he hired Young, but he could have hired Vitale who was probably just as good if not better. Vitale would have probably not lasted as long due to health issues, but this was unknown at the time.

As to the best, tough call, would go with Mulcahy if pressed

 

[koleszar]

Very thoughtful response....Grunninger also hired our best coach ever in C Vivian, but over 25 years, even a broken clock can be right twice.

Good thread @RURahh but,

I think Dear Ole' Fred was asleep in his office for that one. As he was a lot of times.(yes Fred liked to take naps) BTW who the hell hires a Golf coach anyway to be your AD? Now that was some serious penny pinching. However, a lot of the blame goes on the BOG, who fostered an atmosphere that mere participation was simply enough. They've always been the root problem with many still clinging to their Ivy league dreams.

Another of Fred's Follies:
Turning down the Patriots who wanted to build their beautiful stadium on campus. Wouldn't have cost the University a dime just the land. Could have had best in class facilities instead of the Little League field we still have today.

 

[soundcrib]

They all suck. Rutgers athletics has suffered under each and every one of them in one form or another.

 

[e5fdny]

Put them all together and maybe...

Like certain positions in sports, the AD get too much credit and too much criticism.

The problem over the years was Rutgers as a whole entity which filtered down or was manifested in a lot of areas of the University, including Athletics.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

I would like the names of the 5 people who actually selected Fred. They deserve to hear me for 15 minutes change their opinion as it was Fred G who Absolutely destroyed Rutgers basketball when It turned down the big East

If they don’t have a statue of Fred on the seton hall campus, they should....

 

[RUDutch]

I would like the names of the 5 people who actually selected Fred.

In past polls you could see who voted in the poll, can we still do that? If so, how?

 

[bigmatt718]

Mulcahy is #1 even though he screwed up mens hoops, Hobbs is #2, Pernetti is #3, wasn't around for Fred G so he gets #4 by default, and Julie is in the basement.

 

[shields]

Fred also hired the soccer coach and Fred Hill senior also right?. Granted Big East decision was horrible.

 

[LetsGoRUwrestling]

Mulcahy chased away a good basketball coach, Gary Waters, who took us to three NIT's in his five seasons, in favor of a man who had a reputation for being a good recruiter but turned out to be a bad coach, and completely inept in dealing with his players. Fred Hill Jr was probably the worst basketball coach we have ever had. Not even close. Mulcahy was stampeded into hiring him, and it ushered in several awful seasons. Hobbs became AD in November 2015 and replaced Eddie Jordan with Steve Pikiell after the 2015-16 season. Guess most people are happy with that choice.

I think Eddie Jordan is definitely in the discussion of worst coach ever..Jordan was 29-68..Junior was 44-77..Both were terrible

 

[ScarletDave]

If you consider only football (which I can understand - don’t agree with it though but understand) ... then it’s Bob .... however, as a fan of ALL Rutgers sports .. including men’s and women’s basketball, soccer, wrestling, gymnastics, and lacrosse ... it has to be Pat Hobbs. His hires have turned around so, so many Rutgers sports that for years were embarassingly bad, and not only made them good, but turned a lot of them into ranked teams. Also the Alley

 

[e5fdny]

If you consider only football (which I can understand - don’t agree with it though but understand) ... then it’s Bob .... however, as a fan of ALL Rutgers sports .. including men’s and women’s basketball, soccer, wrestling, gymnastics, and lacrosse ... it has to be Pat Hobbs. His hires have turned around so, so many Rutgers sports that for years were embarassingly bad, and not only made them good, but turned a lot of them into ranked teams. Also the Alley

You’re welcome.

 

[Plum Street]

I would like the names of the 5 people who actually selected Fred. They deserve to hear me for 15 minutes change their opinion as it was Fred G who Absolutely destroyed Rutgers basketball when It turned down the big East

If they don’t have a statue of Fred on the seton hall campus, they should....

The sad thing is no one at the school seems to realize this , even today . Those morons put Grunniger in the hall of fame

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Came here to post the same..... Grunninger by far the worst....... when the big east was formed and I saw it included St John's and Syracuse I knew we had to jump

no one knew we "had to jump" when we could have joined.

when we turned down the Big East we had the CORRECT VISION of an eastern football conference.. shared that same vision with Villanova, Pitt, Penn State, Temple, WVU...

what happened was Seton Hall taking our spot meant we were NOT going to get an invite to join afterward... unlike Pitt and Nova. so when ESPN made the big East the best thing since sliced bread.. we were already outside looking in. and, yes, it was very obvious not halfway through that first Big East season that we should have joined.. they dominated Sportscenter and had all the BUZZ... but we had already missed the boat. Then we saw Nova leave us and then Pitt... it did not take long for teh damage to begin to add up in recruiting.

you can blame Grunninger for that.. but really, it was Syracuse and Penn State that screwed it up for all eastern football-playing schools. Syracuse joined the Big East because Penn State were greedy bitches not realizing their value as part of an eastern football conference of equals would be worth more than them alone. Eventually, they realized they had to join a conference.

for all I know, the mistake of not being a founding member of the Big East is the reason we still play football and are in the Big Ten. Nova corrected that mistake and they don't have a football team... but they do have a few National Championships to keep them warm.

 

[wheezer]

Mulcahy chased away a good basketball coach, Gary Waters, who took us to three NIT's in his five seasons, in favor of a man who had a reputation for being a good recruiter but turned out to be a bad coach, and completely inept in dealing with his players. Fred Hill Jr was probably the worst basketball coach we have ever had. Not even close. Mulcahy was stampeded into hiring him, and it ushered in several awful seasons. Hobbs became AD in November 2015 and replaced Eddie Jordan with Steve Pikiell after the 2015-16 season. Guess most people are happy with that choice.

having also been a fan through that time period, I have a different perspective....

Gary Waters was an ok coach for RU..... we know that was a period of time that, all we had to do was get to a .500 overall record and the NIT came calling...... the NIT would then attempt to feed us gimme games at home so we would make it to the garden.....the best record Gary had, I believe, was after we won those gimme games and made it to 20 wins overall, which looks good now, but was a bit deceiving.

we just could not win league games on the road, the old,and we had to " hold serve" at home.....so in conference we often were a game or two below .500.....we never were a serious threat to win the title....

I just did not feel that Waters would ever get us to be a true winner

both RU and Seton Hall thought Hill was a home run, and our signing him before the Hall could was important...of course, that was a bad choice.

 

[RU#1fan]

Not enough close.
Bob M. is #1
Tim P. would be 2.
The rest irrelevant.

 

[wheezer]

no one knew we "had to jump" when we could have joined.

when we turned down the Big East we had the CORRECT VISION of an eastern football conference.. shared that same vision with Villanova, Pitt, Penn State, Temple, WVU...

what happened was Seton Hall taking our spot meant we were NOT going to get an invite to join afterward... unlike Pitt and Nova. so when ESPN made the big East the best thing since sliced bread.. we were already outside looking in. and, yes, it was very obvious not halfway through that first Big East season that we should have joined.. they dominated Sportscenter and had all the BUZZ... but we had already missed the boat. Then we saw Nova leave us and then Pitt... it did not take long for teh damage to begin to add up in recruiting.

you can blame Grunninger for that.. but really, it was Syracuse and Penn State that screwed it up for all eastern football-playing schools. Syracuse joined the Big East because Penn State were greedy bitches not realizing their value as part of an eastern football conference of equals would be worth more than them alone. Eventually, they realized they had to join a conference.

for all I know, the mistake of not being a founding member of the Big East is the reason we still play football and are in the Big Ten. Nova corrected that mistake and they don't have a football team... but they do have a few National Championships to keep them warm.

respectfully disagree..... I knew that any basketball league that St Johns and syracuse joined was going to get major press and interest

I wanted us to jump ship, immediately.....and what followed was predictable.....the big east took off, our recruiting began to suffer.....RU would normally get a couple of the better players from NJ, now they drifted towards the hall

might have been just my opinion, but I would have been out the door pronto..... maybe it was because I did not think the future bb/fb conference would amount to much, but the big east basketball would

 

[RURahh]

People seem to forget the position that Tim was put in for both football and basketball

Football - Greg leaves with just days left before signing our best class ever. Tim makes himself a coach, talks to every recruit and MOST of the influential high school coaches and with a limited budget, tries to sign Mario Cristobal but his wife nixes the deal. With no time on the clock, he hires Flood (who NJ coaches overwhelmingly support) , who holds the class together, goes on to get us one of our best seasons ever, (including our best Bowl Win) and is on the verge of signing our Best class ever before the bottom drops out in the 2013 Season,. He then goes on to get us our what will be our best year in the Big 10 for a decade, highlighted by hiring Ralph Friedgen and Rutgers fans are openly talking about if Flood is an upgrade over Greg. Flood goes to a Counting Crows concert and its all downhill from there - lol

Basketball - Mike Rice checks the boxes of exactly what we are looking for, a young aggressive winning coach from a mid major who knows the area and is CHEAP. He quickly gets the team back to respectability after FHJ destroyed it. Players generally like him, are playing the hardest we have seen in years. Here comes the timeline of one of the great injustices in Rutgers sport history:

1. Extortionist Erik Murdok (fired after making 70k a year for 2 years, demands between $1MM-$2MM for his silence) brings the damaging video to Tim. Tim immediately goes to Barchi and says, you need to watch this, this is a fireable offense. Prior to all this, Tim had hired an outside firm to do a complete internal investigation after Murdok first verbally made the allegations the prior year

2. Barchi and/or the BOG asks our law firm to see if this is a clear violation of contract and if we can fire him without paying off his contract - they are told NO, you will have to pay him out

3. Barchi tells Tim to discipline Mike Rice, and Tim fines and suspends him and sends him to anger management class. IMPORTANTLY, Tim speaks to EVERY member of the team, who by and large support the coach and when Rice returns the team is playing its best basketball ever, beating a ranked Pitt team, beating Seton Hall twice, and being competitive in almost every game on the schedule. The team is clearly turning the corner and the players are playing harder than ever (for a coach they LIKE)

4. The video is leaked to ESPN AFTER the season is over, and immediately people call for Mike Rice to be fired. Barchi pleads ignorance and says he never saw the video. After getting Rice's scalp, the media still needs someone higher up, so Tim is next on the chopping block, despite Tim sayng that he initally called for Rice to be fired but DID NOT have the support of the board. Tim is scape-goated and falls on his sword for the school that he loves


That is how Tim's 2 major hires went down, one coach compiling 2 of our best football seasons in the past 30 years and the other legitimately turning around a hoops team that had not been to the Dance in 25 years. Add to that his tireless work on branding, fundraising, relationships both in and out of the University and the fact that he was always going to be hamstrung by $$ in all of his hires, and I would say Tim did a pretty miraculous job and there is no way we are in the Big 10 without him, and for that alone, he needs to be in deep consideration

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

respectfully disagree..... I knew that any basketball league that St Johns and syracuse joined was going to get major press and interest

I wanted us to jump ship, immediately.....and what followed was predictable.....the big east took off, our recruiting began to suffer.....RU would normally get a couple of the better players from NJ, now they drifted towards the hall

might have been just my opinion, but I would have been out the door pronto..... maybe it was because I did not think the future bb/fb conference would amount to much, but the big east basketball would

The Big East became THE BIG EAST because of the rise of cable TV and ESPN. That was not predictable. So I respectfully disagree.

We were already in a basketball conference.. that gave us football games as well...

Rutgers
Villanova
Pittsburgh
Massachusetts
Duquesne
George Washington
Penn State
West Virginia

These 4 teams were independents and needed a conference to better schedule..

Providence
St. John's
Georgetown
Syracuse

so they invited...

Seton Hall
Connecticut
Holy Cross
Rutgers
Boston College

to form a conference..

I'm sorry.. but in 1979 is was not obvious to abandon the dream of an eastern all-sports conference to join those teams in a basketball conference. Rutgers, Nova, Pitt and WVU were every bit as good as the best joining the Big East conference.

The difference-maker was the ESPN TV contract and the exposure that provided selling their prime product. That landed the national name and the CBS TV contract for basketball.

 

[fsg2_rivals]

Is OP Tim Pernetti's best man?

That's a lot of excuse making that doesn't change the bottom line.