Talk Story
Donovan is go-to guy
for university athleticsJIM DONOVAN tells a story about the final game of the 1982 season, his last as a senior offensive lineman. His University of Hawaii Rainbows faced Nebraska at Aloha Stadium.
Tom Osborne's Cornhuskers stopped here on their way to a second consecutive Big Eight championship and the Orange Bowl, where they beat LSU 21-20 to finish third in the nation with 12 wins and a single loss.
The 1982 Nebraska roster included standouts such as Heisman winner Mike Rozier at running back, Turner Gill at quarterback and center Dave Rimington, who won both the Outland Trophy and the Lombardi Award.
"On the first offensive play, you always go at about 75 percent," Donovan said. "You want to feel out the defense and you don't want to show them everything you've got."
Lined up next to Donovan was Rainbow center Jesse Sapolu, who later played 15 years with the San Francisco 49ers, won four Super Bowl rings and made three trips to the Pro Bowl.
Sapolu snapped the ball. "The next thing I remember, I'm flat on my back looking up. Their linebacker is tackling our quarterback right above my face and they both come crashing down on top of me," Donovan said, recalling the 37-16 loss.
"I pick myself up and go back to the huddle thinking it's like men playing boys.
"Our quarterback calls the next play and on the way back up to the line Jesse says to me, 'You gotta help me, Jim.'"
Ever since that 6-5-0 season, when the team finished fourth in the WAC under Dick Tomey, Jim Donovan's been helping the Rainbows, first as graduate assistant football coach, then Rainbow Stadium manager, director of sports marketing and assistant athletic director.
In 1994, he became associate athletic director, managing the budget, support staff and special projects, such as negotiating a $6.2 million television contract and raising $4.1 million from advertising at the Sheriff Center and Aloha Stadium. He was on the search committee that found June Jones.
While Donovan politely acknowledges that retiring Hugh Yoshida "entrusted me and empowered me" and "treated me as a co-leader, even though he didn't have to," others close to the athletic department say Donovan has been calling the shots. "He's the only one who ever says no," one said.
When UH went looking for a new athletic director to fill Yoshida's slot, Donovan and Tomey were considered the hot local prospects.
I asked Paul Costello, UH Vice President for External Affairs, early last week if a new athletic director announcement was coming. He said yes, he hoped they'd have a deal by Friday, and, "We've got a really great candidate coming in."
"Well," I said. "I know the new person will either be Jim Donovan or have to be very, very good."
There's a tendency in Hawaii to go outside for leadership rather than to promote from within. This doesn't just happen at UH, although President Evan Dobelle and UH-Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert are recent examples.
Too many local organizations mount nationwide searches to fill top jobs, convinced that a new vision will reap quick rewards. Unfortunately, this sends our best and brightest young managers this message: To get ahead you must leave Hawaii.
The result usually is the very mediocrity that compels us to hire leaders from the outside.
Incoming UH athletic director Herman Frazier was passed over for the AD position at Arizona State University after working in that athletic department for 23 years. He said, "I went about my work every day, didn't sulk, continued to be a leader. But behind the scenes I actively pursued a new job."
Donovan might already be doing the same, but Frazier would do well to emulate the great Jesse and say, "You gotta help me, Jim."
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.