Life after USOC still
busy for FrazierThe Hawaii AD wants to broaden
his horizons as his term as VP expires
Herman Frazier no longer has Vice President of the U.S. Olympic Committee among his titles, but the University of Hawaii athletic director still has a full plate and may pile on a bit more.
Frazier's term on the USOC's Board of Directors expired last week when a new board was installed, with organizer of the 1984 Games and former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth as its chairman.
"It's kind of like getting half your life back," Frazier joked.
But whatever time he has available figures to be booked solid for a while longer.
He will continue to serve as Chef de Mission for the U.S delegation to this summer's Games in Athens, Greece, in addition to handling the full-time challenge of running an NCAA Division I athletic department.
Frazier, a two-time Olympian and a gold-medal winner in 1976, had served on the USOC's Board of Directors since 1996 when he was elected to one of three vice-president positions.
Shaken by scandals, most notably the controversy surrounding the bidding process for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, and internal strife between volunteers and staff, the USOC formed a Governance and Ethics Task Force in February 2003.
The task force recommended, among other measures, trimming the board from 125 members to 11. The outgoing board approved the streamlined structure last October and made its exit when the new board was installed last week.
"They were always trying to do it before the Athens games, to get these people seated," Frazier said. "Normally my term would have run out this coming fall, but since this board is already seated, our terms are expired."
While he is preparing to lead the U.S. team to Athens for the Games scheduled for Aug. 13-29, Frazier said his work on the Board of Directors had actually decreased since arriving at UH in August 2002. He said the board's role in the organization had diminished over the course of his term.
"To be honest, we as a board have not done that much in the last year-and-a-half," Frazier said. "When I was at Arizona State and when I was at (Alabama-Birmingham) I'll bet I averaged at least two or three U.S. Olympic Committee meetings per month. I haven't done that since I've been here at all. It's probably been something like one per every two months.
"In a previous administration of the USOC, the board really ran the organization. That changed over the last three or four years, so the board doesn't run it anymore."
Frazier will remain involved in the Olympic movement after the Athens Games by serving on joint NCAA/USOC committees. But now that he's off the USOC's Board of Directors, he is already receiving inquiries about serving on other boards, including one from Women's Sports Foundation Chief Executive Officer Donna Lopiano.
Frazier said his involvement with entities outside UH helps him deal with issues within the department.
"If I go on the Women's Sports Foundation sports board, you think that doesn't help our women athletes here, you think that doesn't help me be able to recruit additional coaches who can come help our programs?" he said.
"That's how one gets ahead in life. It's no different than a professor who takes a sabbatical to go learn something. For me it's serving on boards, broadening my horizons, getting to know people and being able to pick up the phone and make calls whenever we need something."
UH Athletics