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q & A : m i t c h d a n i e l s Putting It In Perspective New president will be a fan, but won���t micro-manage athletics BY ALAN KARPICK AKarpick@GoldandBlack.com M itch Daniels, an avid sports fan, was very comfortable talking athletics and its role in the college experience during a recent interview with Gold and Black Illustrated. But the newly minted 12th Purdue president also was clear in his desire to keep big-time sports in its proper perspective, something he feels has been a constant over the years at Purdue. The following are excerpts from our 45-minute interview. Gold and Black: I know you are a big sports fan. What was your favorite team growing up? Daniels: ���I���m a Dodger fan. It���s never been clear why, but I became conscious of baseball and sports when I was living in Bristol, Tenn. There was no regional team (there). The best I can remember ��� family lore is ��� that was about the mid-���50s and the Dodgers finally broke through and they finally, finally won (the World Series). A family friend did a little volunteer scouting for the Dodgers in the South and gave me a hat. That���s all it took. To this day, Duke Snider is my one real sports idol; named my first dog after him. And I���ve been Dodger Blue all the way ever since. ���Other loyalties have kind of shifted around. Again, I was 6 years old, and Johnny Majors from the University of Tennessee finished second in the Heisman. Where we lived, Johnny Majors was a deity. They were probably one of the last major college teams to run the single wing. The mortal enemy was Georgia Tech and Bobby Dodd was coaching. Then, we moved to Atlanta and, two years later, I���m a Georgia Tech fan. I don���t know why. Dad took me to a game and I loved those nifty gold uniforms. ���But then we moved to Indiana and it didn���t take me too long to transfer loyalties and I have vivid early memories that the cheapest entertainment for families like ours was Butler basketball. It cost almost nothing and many, many times somebody���s dad would drop us in the parking lot of Hinkle Fieldhouse and somebody else���s dad would pick us up after the game. We would watch Butler either beat or throw a huge scare into some other bigger team. I saw them beat Michigan. I remember that. This was in the 1960s, a Cazzie Russell team. ���I���ve always been a loyal follower of all kinds of Indiana teams. Whoever was good I was excited about. So there have been many eras where I was the biggest Purdue fan in the state of Indiana. I can remember I was on an errand for my dad on a Saturday ��� I remember exactly where I was ��� I was so excited Bob Griese is leading Purdue back against Notre Dame in a (1965) game Purdue winds up winning. I got so excited I pulled into the nursery. I don���t know what the errand was, but it wasn���t to go buy a bush. I pulled in there and listened to the AM radio Tom Campbell New Purdue president Mitch Daniels loves to watch and participate in sports but is very clear about athletics��� role with the university. As long as it is self-supporting, big-time college athletics will have no bigger supporter. while Purdue wins that game. I���ve been a pretty attentive follower all along.��� Gold and Black: I know in your term as Governor, you���ve had commercials about being fit. Did you play sports growing up? Daniels: ���Yeah, I played baseball into high school. I wrestled in junior high and the start of high school. I broke an arm, that set me back and then that was the end. It was a broken arm in a pickup football game. So I played whatever was in season. I played some high school tennis. I played reasonably competitively until I got to an age when everyone else got bigger. After that, it was intramurals and just for fun.��� Gold and Black: Do you still work out? Daniels: ���I���ve been running for 40-some years. At the peak, it was about 30-some miles a week. That���s back a ways (laughs). Up to about a year ago, I would run four or five miles at a time plus some lifting. I���m coming back now from a little setback. I was doing a little swimming for a few years, mixing that in, but then I tore a rotator cuff and I have to kind of tip toe back into that, too.��� Gold and Black: In our brief meeting back 34 ��� Gold & Black IllustrateD ��� volume 23, issue 4 in 2005, it was impressive how much you knew about all the high school athletic talent in Indianapolis, especially in basketball. You���re a salesoriented person. What intrigues you about that process of getting top-level student-athletes to come to Purdue? Daniels: ���It���s interesting to know whether we can maintain our high standards and still get more than our share of the elite athletes. It���s not an easy question. ���It was very interesting driving up here on a Sunday before the Iowa game. There was a replay of an hour-long interview with (former Purdue men���s basketball assistant coach and administrator) Bob King. Mark Montieth had done it not that long ago (before King died on Jan. 19). Bob said he didn���t think he���d be a good recruiter today or that he would like it. For him, recruiting was you got to know the family, you got to know the coach. And he was talking about how it���s now all about the AAU coaches and all this summer business and there���s always the middlemen. It was interesting to hear someone who knows about the modern environment. ���As I see it, we at Purdue have chosen a tougher GBIprint.com GoldandBlack.com