This was the only choice

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By GARY SHELTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 22, 2001

At a place where it was hard to tell whom to believe, you always believed Lee Roy Selmon.

At a time the character of an entire university was questioned, no one ever doubted Selmon's.

At a crossroads where it was uncertain which way an athletic program was headed, it then makes sense that the University of South Florida turned to Selmon to provide directions.

USF finally did something right Monday. It called off this nationwide search silliness and instead went on a 15-mile quest to Selmon's house. Upon arrival, it named him athletic director and, by doing so, asked him to make the mess go away.

Whom else would you ask to save the day besides a man with a hero's resume and a star's approval rating? More than anyone, Selmon can clean up this place. He can wash off the tarnish that has dragged down the program since charges of institutional racism surfaced, and he can make you forget the sludge that left a coach and an athletic director fired and eight current and former players lined up to go to court.

Just by taking over, Selmon provides the Bulls with unquestioned character and unchallenged credibility. He is a recognizable face with an admired resume and a background in fundraising. And if you want to ask about integrity, well, his is bigger than yours. Or mine. Or just about anyone's.

Where else was USF going to find all that? At some small school in Boise? At a junior college in Oklahoma? At the desk of an assistant in Montana? USF could have searched this nation and most of the other ones, and it wasn't going to find a better man for the circumstances than Selmon. The only thing surprising about the hire is that it took USF only 72 days to realize it.

By the nature of the job, athletic directors don't normally own a restaurant bearing their name. That's why when most colleges hire one, he often is a stranger to the general population. Most places, he does a behind-the-scenes job, overseeing a department, raising funds, managing budgets, representing the school in conference meetings.

On the other hand, most places don't need the athletic director to be more. USF does. It needs a knight. It needs an image. It needs Selmon's face, Selmon's voice, Selmon's reputation to say things are going to be done properly. It needs Selmon to say that if instances of racism have occurred -- and enough heads have rolled to say they have -- they will be tolerated no more.

In other words, it needs Selmon to be bigger than the mess around him. If you remember the Bucs' 0-26 beginning, you know he has played the position before.

Does Selmon have the personality for this job? If you talk to Selmon, 46, you know him as a quiet, reserved man. Can you see him firing a coach? Can you see him telling another that times are tight and the budget is going to be reduced? Can you see him making hard decisions?

Answer: You're darned right you can. Selmon has heard this personality garbage since he was a Bucs defensive end and people wondered if he were too nice to get to the other side of Ron Yary. Yes, Selmon is nice. It says so right under his bust at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"Whenever I think of Lee Roy, I think of one word: class," said Rich McKay, the Bucs' general manager, whose father, John, was Selmon's coach. "He's class personified. With his family, with his football, with his life. He's going to be successful no matter what he does."

Oh, Selmon will need help. You can't see him up nights worried about the baseball team's schedule or whether the volleyball team has enough nets. He's going to hire a deputy athletic director (Lucious? Dewey?) to help.

Make no mistake, however. It is Selmon, and Selmon's pristine reputation, that has caused the school to turn to him. It is as if USF hopes to attach its tarnished reputation to Selmon and that Selmon can lift it to the luster of his.

Even for Selmon, it's going to take some doing. Whenever a university is charged with racism, damage is left. When that university is slow to react, when it seems more intent on spin doctoring than finding truth, it hurts worse. For USF, this was a 10-month lesson into the worst possible accusations and the worst possible way to react. If there is institutional racism at USF, one hiring won't erase it. But who would suggest that Selmon's hiring isn't a great place to start?

You go back to the beginning and you wonder how Selmon would have handled this situation. His predecessor, Paul Griffin, made the mistake of trying to handle it himself instead of turning it over to the proper department. You hope Selmon wouldn't. You hope he would act quickly. You hope he would realize the seriousness of the charges and make it clear they would not be tolerated. You hope he would be wise enough to realize that charges of racism don't come up just because players are unhappy with playing time, that players sit on benches all over America.

Selmon is in charge now. The program you couldn't trust thankfully is in the hands of the last man you could.

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