Tumey ready to take on challenge as Bulldogs' athletics director

Fresno State introduced Terry Tumey as its new athletic director on Monday, and there was some introduction required.

Tumey, 52, spent three years as athletic director at UC Davis, an NCAA Division I program that plays football at the FCS level. But his two other stints in the big chair have come at little places – Dominican University, a program that Tumey transitioned from NAIA to Division II; and the Claremont McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps colleges in Division III, where he had spent the past two years as director of athletics, physical education and recreation.

Even Learfield Communications, Fresno State's multimedia rights partner, apparently was unacquainted. The day after news of the hire broke, it led its D1.ticker, a daily aggregation of news and notes from around college athletics, with this: "In what likely surprised many around the industry, former UC Davis & current Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (DIII) AD Tumey gets the nod at Fresno State ..."

But former UCLA football coach Terry Donahue gave a strong endorsement, and university president Joseph Castro said he has no doubt about his hire.

Tumey interviewed for the position in 2014 when Jim Bartko was hired and was pursued again in a field that included interim athletic director Steve Robertello and several sitting athletic directors with high- or higher-profile resumes. Castro said Fresno State reached out to Tumey.

"I met Terry the last time we searched for this position and he did very well," Castro said. "I liked him a lot then. He's even stronger today than he was then and I think he's exactly what we need right now.

"He has background as a successful student-athlete, he was a coach for a time. He was a sitting AD, which was very important to us in the search, to have somebody who has been in the chair. Has, at three different places. All that together with his personality we thought he was the best candidate. We were so fortunate to have an exceptional pool, but to me he was unquestionably the top candidate."

That group included Kevin Anderson, who at Maryland ushered the Terps into the Big Ten Conference and away from the Atlantic Coast Conference and is the interim athletic director at Cal State Northridge.

Also, Brian Wickstrom, regarded as one of the top fundraising athletic directors in the country when at UC Riverside, Louisiana-Monroe and now Incarnate Word.

"I think (Tumey) is in a better position today to lead us than even back" when he interviewed in 2014, Castro said. "For me, it's the time he spent looking at a wide variety of issues. The landscape in the AD world and athletics is changing so fast, so to have somebody who has been responsible at three different places, that means he has seen and dealt with a wide range of issues that would be hard for anybody who is an associate AD to really understand."

Those who have worked with Tumey said they, too, are confident that he can lead an athletic department that in 2017-18 will need $2 million from the university to cover a budget deficit and in 2018-19 will be receiving close to $20 million in university support.

"I think he'll do a great job for Fresno State," said Donahue, coach at UCLA when Tumey earned all-conference honors in 1985, '86 and '87, thriving at nose guard in the middle of the defensive line while playing at just 240 pounds.

"He's a very smart guy, extremely well-educated. He has been in the coaching profession, so he understands how hard it is to win a game, but he also has been an administrator. He has been at the collegiate level, the pro level. He has a lot of qualifications and a lot of very cool background stuff that really should lend itself to success."

Tumey, who has a degree in political science from UCLA, a master's from the Anderson School of Business there and spent time in the NFL as a director of football administration with the San Francisco 49ers, said he is well aware of the challenges ahead and unconcerned about the history of the position that he has accepted.

Castro inherited athletics director Thomas Boeh when appointed Fresno State president in 2013. Boeh was in the first of a five-year contract when he was reassigned.

Castro then hired Bartko, who resigned the position in November. In May, Bartko filed an administrative claim and is pursuing a lawsuit against Fresno State, its Athletic Corporation, Castro and two university officials alleging the university president orchestrated a "whisper campaign" against him, telling donors and community leaders that he "was going to get fired because he was an alcoholic and he wasn't doing his job."

Tumey said, "I'm quietly self-confident enough to just say, 'I can do that. They might have had some ups and downs and not so good, but I can do that.'

"I did not even bat an eye when this happened. I felt as though if you're truthful and transparent with people they'll give you a chance and that's all I'm asking for."

High on the to-do list, Tumey said, was to fill a development position that has been vacant for the past six months. He also must get into the community and jolt a fan base that barely paid attention last football season when coach Jeff Tedford was resurrecting a program that was 1-11 just one year earlier.

The Bulldogs went 10-4 and won a West Division championship in the Mountain West, but averaged only 30,632 in home attendance.

They did not break 30,000 in four of six home games and did not sell out an opener against Incarnate Word that marked the Fresno State debut for Tedford, a former Bulldogs' quarterback, and included a halftime ceremony for the retirement of jersey No. 4 in honor of record-setting quarterback Derek Carr. The game drew 39,447 in a stadium that seats 41,031, or did until late September when a broken water line under the south end zone forced the closure of one section in the decrepit venue.

Just to make budget in 2018-19, the athletics department needed another $1.6 million in university support, bringing the total to $19.1 million.

It also will not fill the position of former senior associate athletic director for business operations Terry Donovan, who is now athletic director at Stanislaus State.

And, while university support has skyrocketed to $19.9 million in 2017-18 and the budgeted $19.1 million in 2018-19, donations to the program have remained relatively flat. Fresno State has averaged around $7 million over the past four years.

Castro has said the department must generate the revenues to support 21 sports programs; university support is reaching its limit, and eliminating sports programs or raising student fees for athletics is not up for discussion.

"We need a rainmaker here," Tumey said. "I need a person who is going to put together a development program that understands our ag community. He doesn't need to be ostentatious and showy, glitzy. He needs to be real and earthy and tangible and something that people can believe in and that we are fulfilling our commitment to them.

"Finding that person is going to be tough, but we'll do it."

Athletic revenue at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was $5.3 million and at Dominican it was $3.4 million, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Education.

At Fresno State, it was more than $40 million.

"This is certainly going to be a more challenging position, a more complex position, but I think the principles are going to be the same," Castro said.

"The fact that he has been around at UCLA as a student-athletes and a coach and on their alumni association board, he understands this level of athletics and I think that he's going to be very successful because of that and the fact that he has had such great experience at these other institutions."

Donahue said to count on success, as well.

"Terry has been at places that have had very restricted budgets and so he has been in situations where they had to claw and scratch for every dime to stay competitive and to stay relevant in their respective leagues," the former UCLA coach said in a phone interview.

"I think that background will help him. You have to have enough money to support the sports that you're trying to support and you have to be able to go out and fundraise and I think Terry can. He's a very likable guy. I think people will like him. If you can't get along with Terry Tumey, there's something wrong with you."

This story was originally published June 25, 2018 at 2:40 PM.