At a mid-afternoon press conference last Friday, President James J. Duderstadt announced he will recommend to the Board of Regents at its Sept. 24 meeting that M. Joseph Roberson be appointed as director of athletics.
If approved, his new appointment will be effective July 1, 1994, for a three-year term, succeeding Jack Weidenbach, the current director of athletics.
Roberson now is associate vice pres-ident for development and executive director of The Campaign for Michigan, the fund-raising effort aimed at raising $1 billion by 1997.
Duderstadt said he is recommending “a course of action designed to retain the great wisdom and experience of Jack Weidenbach, bring a strong leader and manager to the athletic department, and provide some time for the younger managers to mature and gain experience.”
Weidenbach has agreed to stay on full-time as director of athletics for the coming year. After July 1, 1994, he will serve as director emeritus of athletics on a part-time basis.
In announcing the recommendation, Duderstadt said “Joe Roberson will be an athletic director in the finest Michigan tradition. He bleeds Maize and Blue. He has been affiliated with the U-M for his entire adult life. He earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from the U-M. Joe also has a strong background in athletics, having been a professional athlete himself.”
Duderstadt continued: “For the past six months, the University has conducted an extensive nationwide search for a new director of athletics to succeed Jack Weidenbach. For the past six weeks I have been engaged in extensive interviews and discussions with several of those candidates who were most strongly recommended by the search committee and who I felt had the leadership experience and the understanding of athletics that are needed of an athletic director at Michigan.
“Unfortunately, these extensive interactions have not led to a decision and final agreement that would allow me to make a recommendation for Jack Weidenbach’s successor to the Board of Regents. As we proceeded with the search, I became more and more convinced that within our athletic department and among Michigan graduates nationally there are some candidates with potential, many of whom were interviewed by the search committee. While these candidates have potential, each of them lacks the management, personnel and financial experience I truly believe is vital to running an athletic department as large and complex as ours. The recommendation I am making to the Board will address that difficulty in the next several years and should provide a number of interesting candidates with proven management experience and strong Michigan backgrounds.
“At the same time,” Duderstadt added, “the next few years will be extremely challenging ones for Michigan athletics and for intercollegiate athletics in general. Jack Weidenbach has done the best job in the nation that I know of of running a clean department and putting our financial situation on a strong footing. But those will continue to be challenges.
“In addition, we face challenging goals in reaching equity for women’s athletics, bringing our graduation rates for athletes up to the level of graduation rates for all of our students, and at the same time continuing to field successful men’s and women’s sports programs.”
Roberson had an outstanding career as a baseball and basketball player at Flint Northern High School and signed as a left-handed pitcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953. In his five-and-one-half year minor league career he played with a number or men who are now major league coaches and managers, including Sparky Anderson. After an arm injury ended Roberson’s professional baseball career, he returned to college and completed his three U-M degrees.
A search for a new director of the Campaign for Michigan will be held during the coming year, Duderstadt said. “We are fortunate to have in Roy Muir, our other associate vice president for development, someone to provide leadership for the Campaign during the transition. During that time Joe will be able to begin the transition to the athletic department, working with Jack and other department staff when his schedule allows. Many people in the department are already familiar with Joe, having worked with him on fund-raising matters over the past few years. He is also very familiar to many of our alumni and friends, having met them in his fund-raising or administrative roles over the years.”
