10 TO WATCH IN 2004:
Herman Frazier
UH athletic director
faces Olympic task
Track and field stars are very familiar with the concept of spreading themselves too thin. At some point in their careers, they have all entered too many races in one meet.
Herman Frazier, a medalist in two events in the 1976 Olympics, insists he is not doing the high-level-administrator equivalent this year. But all eyes are on him as he attempts an impressive double. The University of Hawaii athletic director will spend his summer vacation leading the U.S. Olympic team into the Athens Games as chef de mission, a position with roughly the responsibility and authority as a general manager.
The Star-Bulletin is spotlighting 10 people who may have a big impact on Hawaii this year.
Frazier, who is a vice president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said the high-profile, high-pressure moonlighting will not affect his day job, which involves responsibility for several hundred student-athletes and staff and a budget approaching $20 million a year at UH.
"The first thing is I want people to know is I'm not going to be flying back and forth to Athens all the time," Frazier said. "I'll be there from Aug. 1 to Aug. 30."
The 49-year-old, originally from Philadelphia, has lots of experience juggling important positions.
"In 1998 and 1999, I was vice president of the Olympic Committee, president of the Fiesta Bowl and senior associate athletic director at Arizona State," Frazier said. "Nothing will ever compare to that."
Since his hiring in 2002, Frazier has worked toward streamlining the athletic department and fund raising, including scraping up enough private money to fund half of football coach June Jones' new $800,000-a-year contract.
Frazier started 2004 with the nettlesome task of sorting out who did what in the brawl following the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas, and said suspensions of UH football players will be handed out, probably this week.
He is also still filling out the Warriors' football schedule for the upcoming season, as well as his management team. John McNamara, an official from Conference USA who worked with Frazier at Arizona State, is expected to be hired as an associate athletic director pending Board of Regents approval this week.
The 4x400 meter relay gold medalist said he has no thoughts of handing off the UH baton in the near future.
"Why do people keep asking that?" Frazier said. "We've been visible in the community, and I know we've worked our butts off."
