Following his one-year term as interim athletic director at the University of Montana, where he had first guided Grizzly football into the national spotlight as well as to its first I-AA national championship, Don Read is back in Corvallis, Ore.
He’s reading, he’s writing, and the arithmetic part - well, it all adds up to keeping his hand and mind in the game of football in a multitude of ways, many tied to the program at Oregon State University where his son, Bruce, is an assistant coach.
He admitted that his “retirement” has not been typical.
“I did a little consulting work,” Read said. “I’ve been pretty active here at Oregon State.”
Besides his son coaching there, Read is good friends with OSU head coach Mike Riley.
“I’ve been able to walk in and get my nose in where it probably shouldn’t be half the time,” Read acknowledged. “I have a good time over there, but they give me things to do.”
Read finished one book - not his first, by any means - and is ready to have another published. Those things coupled with keeping tabs on the Montana Grizzlies fill his schedule pretty well.
“I’m on the phone it seems like once or twice a week to somebody back there (Montana) keeping track of what they’re doing.”
If Read does put his feet up and watch television chances are there’s a football game on or a game tape running in the VCR.
When he does consulting work it can vary depend on what’s being looked for.
He recently did a study of the quarterbacks in the Pac10 Conference, comparing those at OSU with those at the rest of the league schools. Other consulting jobs have included long-range planning for football programs that include scheduling, funding and more.
“Some insights into what’s going on and what could go on if they made a commitment financially to do specific things,” Read explained. “So some of it is just two different eyes looking at something.”
Read currently is doing a five-year plan for Oregon State’s football program. Some of his work has been easy because he knows football so well while some has been a learning experience. Regardless, Read says it’s been fun.
The former Griz coach and AD has faced some health issues - he’s up for some heart valve work in the near future - but those issues didn’t keep him from taking nearly every trip with the Oregon State football team since he returned to Corvallis.
He also sits in on their (coaching) meetings and feels like he has “the pulse of what’s going on in this particular program.” With that knowledge it helps him compare the Beavers to other Pac 10 programs with the idea that he can help them improve in some areas.
There was a time when some thought schools like Oregon State, Oregon and Washington State were at a disadvantage competing in the Pac 10 because of the size of the communities in which they’re located. Read never bought into that theory.
“If you look at South Bend, Ind. (Notre Dame), or Norman, Okla. (University of Oklahoma), you can go across the country to some of the great programs that are in little communities, but their draw is big,” Read explained. “People commute to there because they have a product, so to me the product is more important than the base community.”
He did acknowledge that it helps to have people nearby, but he doesn’t think that’s the critical component. Read says the most important thing for any football program, including those in the Northwest, is funding support.
“When their facilities improved their winning improved,” Read said based on one study he has done. “Within a year after the completion of marked facility improvements you see winning increase, and it has not slipped. Since these facilities have been enhanced more and more, so has the winning in the Northwest.”
Oregon - a program Read coached for three years prior to coming to UM - is a prime example of a school that had a long stretch of losing seasons. So did Oregon State before the commitment to build a better program was backed by necessary funding.
“Now people - if they don’t go to a bowl game they’re upset,” Read pointed out. “If you go back into the 60s and 70s the University of Washington started putting a lot of money into their facilities and … they were winning … pretty darn regularly.”
As time passed Read said Oregon, Oregon State and - to a point - Washington State began to catch up.
But Read’s best case in point might be the University of Montana. Before he arrived in Missoula in 1985 the Grizzlies struggled to have winning seasons. Read arrived at the time Washington-Grizzly Stadium was being completed and - with improvements in many other facilities as well - the rest is history.
When Read looks at Idaho - which continues its struggle to make it in Division I-A football - he sees a difference because the Moscow program didn’t have key things in place and tried to make the jump too quickly.
One thing is certain. Read has had no second thoughts about leaving UM after just one year as interim athletic director for a number of reasons, none of which the ever-humble Papa Bear wants credit for.
“The program was stabilized … because just a lot of people rolled up their sleeves,” he recalled, “and there was some commitment to getting some things going right again at the university athletically speaking as far as the indebtedness we had accumulated over the years.”
Since that was the main reason he was hired as interim AD he knew it was time to go. But there were other things.
“They had a good, stable coaching staff,” Read went on. “I thought the facilities had made drastic improvement and there were plans for further improvement … in place.”
Read also said it was really important from his viewpoint that President George Dennison was in UM athletics’ corner, and that fences that needed to be mended internally and externally had been repaired.
It also was important for Read to be closer to his family and back with his wife, Lois. The two had split up not long after they left Missoula after the 1995 season but reconciled a couple of years ago. And not only is son Bruce close by, but the Reads’ daughter lives north of them near Portland.
Then there’s his health which he believes will be squared away once his heart surgery is done.
In the interim between leaving Grizzly football in 1996 and returning to head the UM athletic department in 2004 Read had been contacted about going back into coaching. But a close look at the pros and cons led him to believe he should forsake his desire and do what was best for him and his family.
“I think once you’re into coaching it’s very hard to get out of your blood,” Read said. “It becomes part of you. I don’t think I’ve lost much as far as staying on top of it.”
He stays on top of it by consulting, watching a lot of film, and writing about the sport he loves and has influenced in such a positive way.
Don Read on the game of football today:
On high coaches’ salaries - “I do believe things are relative … and I think those are unique programs. There are a handful that probably fall into that, or close. But (for) the large masses of college athletics it’s a struggle just to make your budget every year and (they) do not have the kind of support those (upper) institutions (have). I think the thing that has affected that more than any one … is television. I think that has a real impact on being able to ensure a certain percentage of your budget every year. The other is … we’re creative today (about funding options).”
On the negative impact of television in general - “I think there’s negatives (from) all outside influences of any kind. There’s good and bad with it. But some of the negatives are … they can be very dictatorial and your program is somewhat dependent on it.”
On the negative impact of television on the behavior of players - “Yes and no. If recruiting has a base on a sound philosophy that is going to attract a (higher) quality … kid then I don’t think it has an impact. If you get that kid that is maybe on the border … I think sometimes that shows up and can tarnish an image.”
On the impact of television on fans - “I think (there is) the tendency to be more critical whether it be of officials or play. People are more analytical. They see so (many) more games today because there’s so much more exposure via television. The average fan really gets exposed to a ton of it, so he’s able to sort things out and be more critical. And also he picks out what he thinks is good and let’s go (of) what isn’t so good, so some team that may be just skimming along doesn’t give the excitement to that fan that maybe he saw on television last night.”
Click here to hear Bill Schwanke's complete interview with Don Read.
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