UH AD search favors those with experience

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

Is the University of Hawai'i leaning toward a sitting athletic director as the next leader of its athletic program?

Bob Beaudine, president of Eastman & Beaudine, the UH-contracted search firm, has told people who have been involved in the process that those without experience as athletic director "are long shots" to get the job, the unsuccessful applicants said.

In addition, several candidates who were not finalists for the job said Beaudine told them that of the last 16 athletic director searches he has run all have gone to people with previous experience.

Beaudine was not immediately available for comment.

Dick Tomey and Jim Donovan, the two candidates with the strongest local ties, were the only finalists without experience as an AD, according to people familiar with the process.

Tomey has been a head football coach at UH and Arizona from 1977 through 2000. He spent last year as a football analyst for K5.

Donovan has been in athletic administration at UH for the past 14 years, the last seven as an associate athletic director.

A seven-person delegation from UH made up of administrators and members of the selection committee was scheduled to begin interviewing finalists yesterday in Dallas. The sessions are supposed to last the weekend.

A successor to Hugh Yoshida, who has announced plans to retire in December when his contract runs out, could be presented to the UH Board of Regents for approval as early as Friday.

Yoshida has been athletic director at UH since 1993.