North Carolina State University Athletics
Q&A: Athletics Director Lee Fowler
11/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Nov. 17, 2005
Lee Fowler was named NC State athletics director in September of 2000, after serving as the AD at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) since 1994. Fowler was instrumental in facilitating the Blue Raiders' move to I-A in football from a strong I-AA program. He hired current MTSU head football coach Andy McCollum while AD at MTSU. McCollum's Blue Raiders will visit Raleigh this Saturday, November 19 for a 1:00 pm showdown with the Wolfpack. GoPack.com visited with Fowler recently about his history with MTSU before being hired at NC State.
Q: How did you get the MTSU job?
A: I was associate athletics director at Memphis, and I was called by their search committee to ask me if I knew anybody that would be interested in the Middle Tennessee job. So they called and asked me, because MTSU is only 30 minutes from my hometown. I told him I would think about it, I wasn't really sure if I knew anyone.
I asked `by the way, what does it pay', because the AD's before that made around 50,000 dollars. They told me they were stepping it up and wanted to go to [NCAA Division] I-A, and it would pay 100,000 dollars. I said, `Whoa, whoa, wait a second, maybe I'm interested.' They said they were hoping I would say that and were feeling me out to see if I had any interest in it. That's how it started, and I went to interview and they offered me the job.
Q: What were some of the changes you helped implement at MTSU?
A: Basically, they wanted to go I-A in football, and were a very good I-AA program before I got there. The president told me he could get enough money together to build a 35,000 seat stadium and approached it from the stand point that we wanted to go I-A and build at least a 30,000 seat facility. We ended up with about 34,000 seats, and built new locker rooms, weight rooms and an academic center. We added softball and built a field, constructed a new track facility and refitted the entire department to become a I-A program.
The football coach that was there decided that he didn't want to move to I-A, so he resigned at the end of the season, so we hired the current coach, Andy McCollum. We played a lot of road games, against good teams like Alabama, Georgia and Missouri, sometimes we would only have four home games in a season, just so we could play I-A opponents and bring in money to the program.
Q: What are some other improvements you feel you made at MTSU?
A: We did a ton of facility upgrades along the lines of what we are doing at NC State. We improved the tennis facilities, the track, started women's soccer and softball programs, and built a new softball stadium. We were trying to make the program grow, and did work in corporate sponsorship and fund-raising to improve the facilities and athletics department to fit in at a Division I-A level.
We went from selling 4,000 season tickets to 18,000 the first year we were I-A. Those were things we had to do to get the program going, and we were hoping to sell 10,000 tickets, but ended up with 18,000 instead. My wife, Carol, was actually the chair of the ticket drive during that time.
Q: When NC State needed to add a game, did you have a say in it being MTSU?
A: No. Actually, the reason we have Middle Tennessee is because Temple dropped us and dropped MTSU, so we were the only two teams in the country that didn't have a game that weekend. The only decision that had to be made is where we would play it, because all of the schedules had already been made across the country at that point.
Q: With what you did at MTSU, did those similar tasks help for what you are doing at NC State now?
A: I think it does help, but at MTSU we did most of our work off of student fees, where here it is primarily fund-raising. We didn't have the base of alumni there that we have here. There we moved to I-A, and we wanted to get that base set. Here, we were at I-A level, but wanted to bring it to the top of I-A. There are definitely parallels, but the way we do things is completely different because of the Wolfpack Club and what they are involved in to raise the money we need at NC State for our goals. Here and there, someone has to make decisions as to what are the most important things to do and what will work for the athletics departments. I hope that my leadership and planning helped both MTSU and now NC State.
Q: What were some differences between being the AD at MTSU and NC State?
A: Both are financial. Unfortunately, in our business, you spend most of what you bring in. When I left MTSU the budget was eight or nine million, and its probably up to 11 or 12 now after five years. There it is financed from university coffers, and here it is from ticket revenues and donations. Both places have the same financial struggles though, and we have many more employees here than I did at MTSU. They are comparable as to what you are doing, but at entirely different scales because of the money involved.
Q: Was it difficult moving your family from Tennessee to North Carolina when you took the job?
A: I moved with Kristen, who was in the middle of her high school years, first to Raleigh. It was toughest on her, having to change in the middle of her high school years. Carlee, my youngest, was able to come here to a junior high, then move into high school so it was probably easier on her. She came later with my wife, Carol, and we stayed in an apartment before moving into our house. I had never lived outside of Tennessee before, so this was the first move out of state for me.
