Sports now
business for
UH’s McClainThe school's interim president
-- a big fan of UH sports -- was
once a successful athlete himself
The current Kingpin at the University of Hawaii hasn't seen the movie of that name, but would likely enjoy it.
UH interim president David McClain almost chose pro bowling over academia.
"I was a good bowler as a kid. I was an only child, and it was a thing me and my parents could do as a family," McClain said in an interview at his office last week. "Some people are gym rats. I was a bowling alley rat."
McClain, who grew to be 6-foot-3, also played basketball and baseball as a kid in St. Joseph, Mo. His first love was the diamond; when he couldn't be on it, he played tabletop dice and card baseball games at home -- that appealed to his love of the game as well as numbers, and his dream to play the sport for a living some day.
"When I was in around fifth grade, I was asked my three first choices for what I wanted to do in my life," McClain recalled. "I wrote down baseball player, mathematician and astronomer."
Bowling, though, was his best sport. His top game was 289 and he once rolled a 718 series. McClain played on the club team at the University of Kansas, but instead of trying to make it as a pro kegler, he ended up in the Army in Vietnam and later earned a Ph.D. and taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University.
Sports continued to be a big part of his life as an adult, which also included stops in Japan and working with the Carter administration in Washington.
The McClain file
Job: University of Hawaii acting president, vice president for academic affairsBorn: Nov. 11, 1946
Favorite sports: Bowling, baseball, basketball, golf, tennis, volleyball
Golf handicap: 25 (plays about once a month)
Family: Wife Wendie (golf, sailing) and daughters Molly (sailing at Stanford), Emily (track and tennis at Bates College) and Jenna (water polo and paddling at Punahou)
Quote: "What's so cool about sports is it is competition and passion in a well-defined environment. Everyday work is a little more complicated. Sometimes it's not clear what the rules are. I've thoroughly enjoyed all the jobs I've done, but sports is fundamentally about play, and at the same time dedication and excellence."
He played shortstop for a championship fast-pitch softball team at MIT. He also played volleyball in Vietnam and took up golf while working in Japan.
These days, there's little time for any of that. Especially since June 15, when McClain, 57, was named acting president by the UH Board of Regents in the wake of the firing of Evan Dobelle.
Even before that, McClain was too busy for the lanes.
"I haven't picked up a ball in five or six years," he said. "It's really a time thing."
Now he's more of a spectator, and a staunch UH fan -- even when the Rainbows, Warriors or Wahine are playing his beloved Kansas Jayhawks. He was at the Stan Sheriff Center when Hawaii upset Kansas in basketball in 1997.
"I had mixed feelings, but couldn't have been happier with the outcome," he said.
McClain, who has been at UH since 1991, has held football season tickets for several years. He also regularly attends UH volleyball matches.
In his new position -- which many believe will eventually lose the "interim" tag -- sports is business for McClain ... close to $20 million worth of business for the UH-Manoa athletic department alone. (Like Dobelle, McClain is quick to point out that the Hawaii-Hilo athletic department also falls under UH's interscholastic sports umbrella.)
He said it is "totally coincidental" that an auditor's report taking the Manoa athletic department to task and athletic director Herman Frazier's five-year plan to get UH sports out of a deficit were unveiled at the same time as Dobelle's firing last month.
"I'm obviously very interested, and (sports) is an important dimension," McClain said. "Herman just did what any good MBA does. He made a business plan for results and laid it out. He identified the source of cost pressures and made plans to go forward."
McClain, whose area of expertise is economics, said he is confident in Frazier's ability to lead the department to financial success. It's a feeling he's had from the time McClain met the Olympic gold medalist more than two years ago, when McClain headed the search committee to find a new AD.
"I was impressed from the get-go. He's a person who has excelled at the highest level of sport. And I was impressed with how he was able to make tough decisions," McClain said, citing Frazier's firing of a popular basketball coach at Alabama-Birmingham.
Frazier will spend most of August in Athens as chef de mission of the U.S. Olympic Team, and he has been criticized for not spending more time at his Manoa office. Not by McClain, though.
"My take is Herman's Olympic affiliations are a clear net benefit for the University of Hawaii," McClain said. "He's got a good team of administrators. He helps put us on the map ... the global map."
UH Athletics
uhathletics.hawaii.edu
