Q&A with Executive Director Jim Haney Looking Back On 28 Years

Looking Back on 28 Years

As you approach your final NABC Convention and NCAA Final Four as NABC Executive Director, take us back to your first full year in the position.

It is hard to believe that I have served as executive director of the NABC for 28 years! Wow! Okay, July 1, 1992, was the official start date as executive director. There was only one employee, me. Joe Vancisin, the previous executive director who had his office close by his home in Connecticut, had retired. Upon being hired by then NABC president Johnny Orr, I was told to move the offices to Kansas City to be close to the NCAA headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas.

The move of the NABC offices to Kansas City was just one of a number of initiatives the NABC Board of Directors had identified as important next steps for the NABC to become more influential. In addition, they authorized me to hire a staff and, of course, find and negotiate an office lease. The offices were located approximately a mile from the NCAA headquarters in Overland Park.

Over the next weeks and months a staff was hired. The huge challenge was to develop a revenue source or sources beyond member dues to support staff salaries and benefits not to mention rent, purchase of furniture and equipment, including computers, printers, etc.

To generate new revenue streams, we focused on gaining approval of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee to present a fan event during the Final Four in which our coaches would participate. Thankfully and critically, they agreed. We called our fan event Fan Jam. That event opened the door for us to seek corporate sponsorship dollars to support a growing association. The 1993 Final Four was in New Orleans and we held Fan Jam in a hotel ballroom. It was modest with one corporate partner, Nike.

With a solid foundation created in year one, tell us about the years that followed.

Just a year later, at the Final Four in Charlotte in 1994, Fan Jam had taken off. We had multiple corporate partners and the event was held in the convention center. ESPN telecast its SportsCenter shows inside Fan Jam. We were receiving national exposure through ESPN telecasts and college basketball fans in Charlotte flocked to the venue. They loved it! Our coaches were very visible. Over 80,000 people came through the turnstiles during a five-day period! We would continue to present Fan Jam in Final Four cities with good success after that. Years later, the NCAA would take over presenting a fan event, now titled Fan Fest, at the Final Four events of both the men and women.

The confidence we experienced from building Fan Jam into a terrific attraction would become the foundation for creating a permanent fan event, the College Basketball Experience and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame as part of Sprint Center in Kansas City. That venue has received acclaim as one of the best interactive museums in the United States. The College Basketball Experience opened its doors in 2007 and continues to receive wonderful reviews! Thirteen Hall of Fame induction

ceremonies have been presented. Among those honored include John Wooden, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Dean Smith, Kareem Abdul Jabber, Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Shaquille O’Neill.

Tell us some of the other initiatives in those early years as well as more recent programs conducted by the NABC.

In no specific order, we wanted to attract wives and children to accompany their husbands to the NABC Convention and Final Four. Our own Fan Jam provided a wonderful, fun destination for coaches and their families. We created a familyfriendly lobby environment at the headquarters hotel and initiated a spouse program that continues to this day. Soon to follow was a program offered to entertain children - “I’m A Coach’s Kid”.

Another target was to reveal the heart of coaches as caring people and not just focused on winning. Jim Valvano was in the fight for his life against cancer. It was a fight he lost but also was a catalyst for the creation of the V Foundation. The NABC Board decided to partner with the American Cancer Society and launch a national effort to address cancer awareness and raise money for cancer research. That collaboration resulted in Coaches vs Cancer, which influences nine million dollars annually for cancer research. Suits And Sneakers week is one of the many Coaches vs Cancer fundraising activities. Over the years the NABC has partnered with other organizations including Samaritans Feet to provide footwear to those without shoes throughout the world. Last year alone over 600,000 pairs of shoes were distributed to those who had no shoes.

We also pulled together a Ministry Team including representatives from Athletes-in-Action, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Focus on the Family, Every Nation, Nations of Coaches, National Center for Fathering, Championship Fathering and NABC coaches to plan and present Christian based clinics including marriage seminars and a nondenominational worship service. The Ministry Team events during the annual convention have expanded in number over the years and are very well attended. Over the five days of the convention the Ministry Team events draw several thousand attendees including coaches and their families.

Over the last several years, a Catholic Mass is offered on Sunday for members at the headquarters hotel and groups for Asian coaches and Jewish coaches have been formed.

Other impactful initiatives launched include Coaches Powering Forward for Autism when our coaches wear blue puzzle piece lapel pins to raise awareness. Ticket to Reading Rewards incentivized middle school kids to read outside of school and receive rewards for doing so. It was impactful! Somewhat similarly, Stay In to Win is a retention program for middle school aged children, encouraging them to stay in school and graduate from high school. This program too has been received very well.

There are other initiatives that have been initiated over the years that we are proud of including the NABC Foundation Court of Honor Gala held annually in June in New York City honoring individuals who have roots in college basketball and impact society in a meaningful way. Among those honored are Jerry Colangelo, Bill Bradley, Phil Knight, Jim Nantz, Dick Vitale, John Thompson, George Raveling, John Rogers, Arnie Duncan, Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim.

Any concluding thoughts you would like to share.

Simply, I thank God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit who lives in me for the privilege of serving as NABC/NABC Foundation executive director these past 28 years! Without their guidance what has been accomplished would not have happened!