USC Athletic Director Eric Hyman

MidlandsBiz: 
Improvements to the facilities here at USC are an important part of your vision.  Why?

Eric Hyman: 
Universities across the country are improving their facilities. You want to make the proper presentation, and it’s not just the athletic department, but really the entire university.  Young people come to the university and they look at the Horseshoe, the Strom Thurmond building, the dormitories and also the athletic facilities.  If you want to recruit the best and the brightest, you have to show that you are committed to excellence.

MidlandsBiz: 
How does the university measure up?

Eric Hyman: 
If you look back at the past 30 years at USC, you have to look at what Paul Dietzel accomplished during his time as Athletic Director.  He must have been a visionary because he really placed USC on the cutting edge in terms of facilities.  But since that time, we haven’t kept up and we are now in the position of having to play catch up.  If you’re not doing anything, then you are getting behind, particularly in the Southeastern conference (SEC) where schools are very aggressive in terms of putting their dollars back into infrastructure.

We need to communicate this vision to Gamecock nation so we can go out and attract the best and the brightest in the country in order to be competitive in a tough conference.

I can’t guarantee that we are going to win championships, but I can guarantee that we are going to get further behind if we do nothing.

MidlandsBiz:
How are you going to fund these improvements?

Eric Hyman: 
We are looking at a variety of revenue streams.  We did our due diligence on ticket prices and found that when you compare revenue per seat against other SEC schools, we ranked near the bottom – so we have increased ticket prices. 

Our Gamecock Club dues had increased only once since 1967.  I’ve told people that the cost of a Super Bowl ad in 1967 was $25,000.  In 2007 that same ad costs $2.5 million.  There’s a price for excellence and vision can be expensive.  A lack of vision can be even more expensive.

MidlandsBiz: 
How important are academics to you as an AD?

Eric Hyman: 
If you look back over the past 60 years, two things really transformed the history of college education in this country: the G.I. Bill and athletic scholarships.  Very few of our student athletes have what it takes to play sports at the next level.  We tell our young people that the physical body will only take them so far and for only a relatively short period of time.  Then you have many more years of earning power and your mind has to take over.  Our students will spend four years in college athletics and hopefully forty years in the workforce.

We have over 500 student athletes here at the college and the vast majority of them do extremely well academically.  In fact, our outgoing academic coordinator, Harold White, told me the other day that we just finished our best academic semester ever.  Sure, some students don’t do as well, and they tend to be some of our most visible athletes.  But overall, the GPA for all of our teams was over a 3.0. 

MidlandsBiz: 
Talk a little about the Steve Spurrier effect?

Eric Hyman: 
Our goal is to become a top 25 program.  There’s no question with Coach Spurrier here we have a window of opportunity that’s not going to stay open for ever.  That’s why we have moved expeditiously.  Normally we would have phased in these price increases over a number of years.  But we now have a mechanism in place to ensure that we have the funding for competitive programs.

MidlandsBiz: 
What can we expect to see built first?

Eric Hyman: 
When I got here 2 years ago, I sat down with every coach and we determined the one facility that required the highest priority was the academic enrichment center. It will be the cornerstone of our building program.  It will send out a very positive signal to both our prospective students and also our existing student body that we are serious about academics.  Students will have the infrastructure in place to be successful academically.  We have hired the architects and have formed a committee to go out and look at other SEC facilities and I anticipate that we will get going on this in 2009. 

Once football is over, we will start working on our 8,000 square foot training facility.  And we are currently looking in to the feasibility of improving the north side of Williams Bryce stadium.

The baseball stadium is under way and we are currently talking with the USC School of Medicine about a sports medicine facility in the Roost area.  So we have great projects under way. It takes energy and money, and we are working hard to make sure that we go about things in the right way.

MidlandsBiz: 
What can Gamecock fans do to help?

Eric Hyman: 
One of the reasons that I came to this university was because of the passion of the Gamecock fans.  There’s such a great love that the fans have for their teams and for the whole university.  What we are trying to do is to blend that passion into a recipe for success.

The greatest thing fans can do is to continue doing what they have always done – show up and support our teams.

One of the challenges here is that we have never gone through a capital campaign.  The good news is that there is fertile ground here and no place to go but up. The bad news is that the ground has never been ploughed and fundraising is more complicated than people think.  It’s all about relationships and timing.  People need to be trusting of your vision and know that you are going to be good stewards of their money.  And people who invest in the university are going to want that investment to pay dividends. 

MidlandsBiz: 
What is your leadership philosophy?

Eric Hyman: 
I draw from my days as a student athlete and as a coach.  It’s a team.  It’s our team.  Team members should make team mates better.  I try to create an atmosphere where people can thrive and achieve their goals.  I try to be inclusive and make sure that everyone feels as though they can put their fingerprints on the department.

I am not trying to win a popularity contest; I am trying to do what is in the best interest of the university.  When we set our goals as a team and we all put our oars in the water together, we have a much greater chance of being successful. 

You try to surround yourself with people who share your values. It’s hard to teach values, so I try to hire values. 

Leadership is how you live your life.  It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.  It’s about setting a standard for yourself.

MidlandsBiz: 
Do you have a favorite sports book?

Eric Hyman: 
When I was a kid I really enjoyed reading about sports icons like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.  I just got through reading a book about John Wooten.  If I had to pick one coach that I really looked up to, it would be John Wooten.  He epitomizes this idea that you are what you do.  Decisions you make, make you.  I don’t know if this is a direct quote from the book, but it nicely paraphrases his philosophy.  People have to realize that they are truly defined by the decisions they make. 

I also really like Wooten’s idea that is not about activ
ity, it’s about achievement. 

MidlandsBiz: 
What sports did you play in college and what sports to you play now?

Eric Hyman: 
I played football in college.  I used to play a lot of tennis, but I haven’t had time to do that for a couple of years.  I play a little golf and work out whenever I can.  But the number one activity in my life right now is biking.  That’s the way that I get away from it all and release the tension of the job, and it’s a great way to connect with the outdoors.