141
Chapter 6: Athletics
Transitions at the Top
In 1998, Bob Becker announced that he would retire following 18 years as athletic director. The following decade was one of fluidity atop the Athletic Department. The administration promoted head football coach Jerry Kill to athletic director in June 1998 in advance of Becker’s retirement.4 As a coach, Kill emphasized that his students perform well in the classroom. As an administrator, he brought athletics and the academic departments together to monitor attendance and achievement. He made certain that athletes attended class and urged them to sit in the front row. Kill also was adept at the little things. He brought people in the department together, for example, by remembering their birthdays. Within months, however, Kill confided to many of those close to him that the pressures of administration combined with the time necessary to build a successful Division II football program were proving too much for him. Within a year of his appointment, Kill resigned as athletic director and head football coach, citing a need to return home to Kansas to assist with an ailing parent.5 He later returned to the gridiron as head coach at Emporia State University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Northern Illinois University and, in 2010, the Big Ten’s University of Minnesota. Gilbert “Griz” Zimmermann replaced Kill in 2000. A former football player at the University of Michigan, Zimmermann came to SVSU after having served as assistant athletic director at Southern Methodist University since 1993. His background was in strength and conditioning. While at SMU, Zimmermann assisted with the rebuilding of a program devastated by the 1987-1988 “death penalty.” The NCAA had suspended the football program for much of two seasons as punishment for massive rules violations that included the payment of players. Zimmermann stayed at SVSU for three years, leaving in 2003 to take the same position at Gannon University in Pennsylvania. Golf coach Joe Vogl replaced Zimmermann on an interim basis in 2003 before administrators named him athletic director in May 2004. A former golfer at SVSU, Vogl became the second golf coach to serve as athletic director at SVSU, and as a coach he was just as successful as his mentor Becker. He led the golf team to GLIAC titles in 1996 and 1998, and took them to national tournament appearances in 1997 and 1998. Three times he was named the GLIAC “Coach of the Year” — in 1993, 1996 and 1998. Just as his predecessor, Vogl left after three years. He resigned in June 2006 to return to coaching and assume the new position of director of annual giving in the SVSU Foundation.6 Despite the turnover atop the department, many of the Cardinal teams enjoyed success during this era. The men’s and women’s track and field teams from 1999-2005 finished in the upper third of the GLIAC nearly every year. Perhaps the best season for both indoor track teams was 2003, when the men’s team finished third in the conference and 20th at the NCAA regional meet. The women’s team finished as the conference runner-up that season and the next year earned a 14th place finish in the NCAA regional. The men’s outdoor track team finished between second and fourth in the GLIAC each year save one from 1999 through 2005. Coincidentally, the year that the team finished with its lowest standing in the conference, fifth place in 2002, was also the season that it earned its highest finish (13th place) in the NCAA Regionals. In 2006, team co-captain Adam Roach was named 200506 Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the GLIAC after finishing 11th in the nation in the
Griz Zimmermann
Joe Vogl
Adam Roach
