Men’s swimming coach Skip Kenney was here when Jimmy Carter was president, gas cost under a dollar per gallon and many of our parents were doing “The Hustle” in high school gyms across the country.
In a month and a half, he’ll be gone.
The famed coach announced his retirement on Wednesday, ending a storied 33 years with the Cardinal that saw him guide 31 straight teams to Pac-10/12 conference titles and bring seven national championships to the Farm.
It’s hard to imagine doing the same thing in the same place for that long, and that well. But—not to diminish his achievements—Kenney is not alone in the world of college sports. At Stanford, 13 of our 35 varsity teams are led by a head coach who has held that position for at least 10 years. Baseball’s Mark Marquess, in the home stretch of his 36th year as the Cardinal’s lead man, is the only coach who has been here longer than Kenney, with women’s basketball’s Tara VanDerveer having held her post for 26 seasons.
When a coach shows that kind of commitment to a program—and to a university—you’ve got to imagine that it trickles down to the players. The fans definitely appreciate it too, especially in big-name sports like football or men’s basketball, where there’s always a bigger buck to be made at the pro level. That’s why coaches like Mike Krzyzewski, who has been with Duke men’s basketball for 32 years, become the faces of their respective sports. Despite his recent fall from grace, Joe Paterno’s 46 years at Penn State made him a local demigod and a household name across the country.
Football is the one sport in which too much of a good thing has never benefitted Stanford. The Cardinal has never held on to a football coach for 10 years, and even though you can’t blame football minds like John Ralston, Bill Walsh and Jim Harbaugh for leaving to go to the NFL, it sure would be nice to have some continuity of the type that Kenney brought to men’s swimming.
Stanford will never be able to compete financially with many other coaching destinations, given its rightful commitment to academics. That’s why, when David Shaw was hired as head coach a year ago, Cardinal fans got a particularly warm feeling inside when he said, “I wanted this to be my last head coaching interview ever.”
What about our athletic director? There are several possible successors to Bob Bowlsby, who is leaving to head the Big 12 next month, but my guess is that Stanford will consider longevity one of the most important factors in making its decision. Again, you can’t blame Bowlsby for bolting after six very successful years, but wouldn’t it be nice to have another Ted Leland (1991-2005) or Al Masters (1925-63) at the helm after his relatively short tenure?
The only way that’s going to happen is if the new athletic director has deeper ties to Stanford, ties that can’t be broken by money alone. Marquess, for example, has been so successful in his nearly 40 years as the baseball head coach that he must have attracted some attention from a professional team or a college with deeper pockets along the way. A former two-sport athlete on the Farm, however, Marquess has stayed put at his alma mater and continued to build a winning tradition here.
That’s why I was skeptical when West Virgina athletic director Oliver Luck (who, by the way, said Thursday that he wasn’t interested in the Stanford job) became one of the biggest names thrown out there to replace Bowlsby. Two of his kids have been very successful Cardinal athletes, but that’s not going to keep him here for the long haul.
My guess is that, if Stanford’s next athletic director isn’t an inside hire, it will be a former Cardinal athlete or long-time coach. Now that Bowlsby has extended Stanford’s winning tradition to football, it’s time for someone to carry the torch for the long haul.
Skip Kenney, you interested?
Joseph Beyda is really just hoping that Dave Chappelle will be Stanford’s next athletic director. Tell him about your favorite Chappelle’s Show moments at jbeyda”at”stanford.edu.