October 07, 2005

Back to the table of Contents Page

Classifieds

Palo Alto Online

Leaving a legacy of success

by Rick Eymer

Maples Pavilion overhauled in less than a year? A plan to renovate Stanford Stadium in less than a year?

There were many people who suggested Stanford Athletic Director Ted Leland was being unrealistic in both plans. Maples Pavilion not only came in under budget, but was reopened ahead of schedule.

Leland is still working on the plans for the football stadium, even as he prepares to accept a new position in life - that as Vice President of University Advancement at the University of Pacific in Stockton.

Leland, 57, announced his decision to step aside as Stanford Athletic Director on Tuesday. He had been offered the job a mere 24 hours before and made his decision -- not without difficulty -- Monday night.

"He makes things happen fast," Stanford women's water polo coach John Tanner said. "All his projects seem to get done early and any of the teams that are added become competitive fast."

Leland, who will assume his new job on Jan. 1 so that he can continue to work on the stadium project, does make decisions quickly, but not hastily. Of every coach he has hired, there only seems to be disagreement on one of them, and he's hired coaches in a timely fashion for every sport at Stanford with the exception of baseball, where Mark Marquess has presided over a successful program for three decades.

And with very few exceptions, athletics at Stanford has been a source of pride. The Cardinal have won at least one NCAA title for the past 26 school years; the football team has reached the Rose Bowl; the men's basketball team has been to the Final Four; and the baseball team was many several trips to the College World Series on his watch.

Men's soccer, cross country, tennis; the list of successes goes on and on.

The Stanford women's athletics program has not only flourished under Leland, but has become a model of excellence. Stanford took the lead in women's sports and arguably has developed into the national leader in that arena.

"Where many schools were cutting programs, he was adding them," Stanford men's volleyball coach Don Shaw said. "There are a lot of schools with the minimum eight men's teams and eight women's teams you need to remain in Division I. Stanford wanted to support everything we could."

Stanford sponsors 35 intercollegiate varsity teams - 15 men, 19 women and one coed - and recently announced the addition of squash to that equation.

Shaw, who also coached women's volleyball, has seen first-hand Leland's influence on the athletic program.

"I was ready to look for some place else to coach before Ted got here," Shaw said. "I had issues with the previous people. It a lot of areas the department was dysfunctional. I felt that when Ted came in he brought the department back together."

Shaw helped build the women's volleyball program into a national powerhouse, but Stanford didn't win its first national title in the sport until Leland came on board. Shaw coached Stanford to four NCAA titles, while current coach John Dunning has added two titles.

"We had been knocking on the door but we broke through when he arrived," Shaw said. "He's been fair to me and great outside the realm of athletes. With some personal issues I've gone through, he's been there for me."

Leland was hired at Stanford on June 7, 1991 and the Cardinal have won 50 national titles and 173 conference titles (many sports for the first team ever) since then.

Stanford has won 11 consecutive Director's Cups for overall athletic excellence. During the 1996-97 school year, Stanford set an NCAA record with six national titles. Last year, Stanford had 26 programs finish among the top 25 nationally.

"This is an opportunity to re-pot myself," Leland said. "UOP is a great opportunity and we consider it our hometown. My wife (Stephanie) grew up there and it happens to be a place where I have two degrees from. I think I can help."

Leland came to Stanford after serving as Athletic Director at Pacific (1989-91) and Dartmouth College (1983-89). He also served in various athletic administrative roles at the University of Houston and Northwestern. Leland was an assistant football coach at Stanford in 1978-79.

As an undergrad at Pacific, Leland was a first team all-Pacific Coast Athletic Association defensive end in 1969. He later coached football at Pacific and East Tennessee State.

Leland was the A.D. at Pacific when Walt Harris was the football coach. Dunning served as women's volleyball coach and Tanner, a Menlo-Atherton High grad, coached water polo there.

"He has strong loyalties and strong commitments to the places he's worked before," Tanner said. "People from Dartmouth are always asking about him and I know he stays in touch with them. I know he will continue to follow all the teams here. He has strong connections wherever he goes."

Tanner recalled that when Mike Montgomery was brought on board, he was told he wasn't expected to win, that it would be hard to be a consistent winner at the school.

"Ted said 'yes, we can do it,' and that's the approach he took to the whole department. He said there was no reason it can't be done. He showed that schools like Stanford could win. Ten, twenty years from now more places will be using the same model."

It was the same thing when Tara VanDerveer was brought on board for women's basketball. The former coach thought there was no way to win at Stanford given the academic requirements. VanDerveer, like Montgomery, turned the sport into a perennial powerhouse.

Women's gymnastics, softball and synchronized swimming are also success stories. All three have competed for national titles in the recent past after Leland helped nurture them through early stages of development.

"He wet out and got great coaches," said Tanner, who has coached Stanford to an NCAA title in women's water polo. "For the most part everyone believed you had to choose between academics and athletics. No one believed you could truly have both. Ted firmly believed he could pull them together."

Leland said it would be difficult to pin down his most memorable moment, explaining that he could look at any coach and recall a successful time.

"My highlights are very private," he said. "Seeing a team overachieve or an individual student succeeding. I love the trophies and the Rose Bowl was spectacular but that's not what drives me. I remember when Montgomery was giving a wonderful talk about Brevin Knight's achievements in the four years he was at the school. I was sitting next to Brevin's mother and when Montgomery came back, she said 'I didn't send him here to be a better basketball player. I sent him here to be a better man.' Montgomery asked her how we did. She said, 'you did great.'"

How did Leland do during his 14-year tenure? Great, just great.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.