Posted on: Sunday, June 22, 2003

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist

The talk Friday — in the newspaper, on television and radio — was understandably all about football coach June Jones and the whopper of a contract he had just landed.

But University of Hawai'i athletic director Herman Frazier, the man who we are told painstakingly negotiated the deal and raised the money for it — had his big day, too.

Never mind that the money — a $800,016 base salary and as much as $125,000 in additional incentives — was all going to Jones. Frazier, too, was feeling like, well, a million bucks.

One year to the day after he'd signed on as the school's AD, Frazier had delivered on one of the biggest challenges of that job, a new contract for the state's most visible figure.

While it was an anniversary that passed unrecognized to most, the successful completion and passage of the Jones contract marked a milestone for Frazier even if there was scant time to reflect upon it or celebrate it amid the crush of his obligations that day.

It was a deal more than 3 1/2 years in the doing, crossing a couple of Bachman Hall administrations, too many stops and starts and no small amount of exasperation.

Constant questions about the state of Jones' contract had become so prevalent they had almost come to replace the standard greetings of the day for Frazier. A number of challenges, including balancing the budget, awaited Frazier on his acceptance of the job last June, but in a lot of people's minds, keeping Jones around had been Job One from the beginning.

So much so, in fact, that four months ago, after an effusive greeting at a downtown luncheon, Frazier candidly offered, "I think the bottom line on this (is) they are telling me I need to raise money. I think that's where all this is going so I can sign the football coach and everything else."

While he got tangled up in announcing the figures on Friday, first putting the deal at $816,000, Frazier had dotted the right i's and crossed the necessary t's to win approval of the deal. No small task when dealing with the disparate interests of the administration, board of regents, Jones' agent Leigh Steinberg and the "10 to 12" donors pitching in the annual $400,008 the AD said contributed to the deal.

All the while apparently doing it without compromising the university's mission by making a grab at tax funds or tuition money to seal the deal.

In past months, Frazier had run the gauntlet with the premium seating plan and ticket price increases in football and women's volleyball. He had added Michigan State to the football schedule and begun a number of reorganizations within the athletic department.

Now, ahead loom more budget and fund-raising challenges, not to mention the necessity of keeping a vigilant eye on potential changes in the shifting conference landscape.

But on the occasion of his first anniversary of signing on at UH, Frazier proved he had done more than just mark time.