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Friday, June 14, 2002

Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson is a big boy who doesn't need my help or anyone else's defending himself against his many critics. But I'm not going to sit back and allow him to be slandered by some unfortunate and off-base insinuations from a disgruntled former employee. He has done too much for the Pitt program.

Longtime Pitt track coach Steve Lewis did not go quietly when he was fired by Pederson this week. In a statement, he railed against the "racist and gender hate" and "dollar mongers" at the university. He didn't mention Pederson by name, but it seemed obvious he was the target. Lewis even ridiculed the "Commitment, Teamwork, Pride" motto Peterson instituted at Pitt when he was hired in November 1996.

That's not the Pederson I know.

The Pederson I know is one of the sharpest, shrewdest and -- I don't use this next description lightly -- most principled athletic directors in the country, certainly the best Pitt has had in my lifetime.

The Pitt athletic department was a joke when Pederson took over. Its big-money sports -- football and men's basketball -- really were laughable. Few people were paying to watch the football team. The basketball team seemed to have no future. Pitt Stadium and Fitzgerald Field House were old, decrepit and needed to be replaced. The program was hemorrhaging money -- $11 million in the two years before Pederson's arrival. Morale on the staff was low.

Today, Pitt might not have the best athletic department in America, but it's climbed a long way up the ladder. Much of the credit goes to Mark Nordenberg, as sports-friendly a chancellor as there is in college athletics. The rest should go to Pederson.

The biggest improvements the Nordenberg/Pederson regime have made were to the facilities. The two linked the football program with the Steelers at Heinz Field and the spectacular South Side training complex. They also found funding for the new Petersen Events Center, which will open in the fall. Their predecessors had tried and failed for years to secure it.

"We're going from the worst facilities in the Big East to the very best," Pitt men's basketball coach Ben Howland has said. His team will be in the preseason Top 10 next season and is expected to play before sellout crowds at the 12,500-seat Petersen Center. "Twenty years from now, people are going to look back at this period and realize how important these decisions really were."

It was Pederson who brought in the little-known Howland from Northern Arizona three years ago. All Howland did last season was lead Pitt to a Big East regular-season division championship and the NCAA tournament's Round of 16 and win all of the major coach of the year awards. Pederson signed him to a long-term contract extension after the season.

Pederson also hired another little-known coach, Walt Harris, for the Pitt football program in 1997. Harris hasn't had the same quick impact as Howland, but he did take Pitt to minor bowls in three of his first five seasons. And expectations are high for next season.

No one is laughing at the Pitt athletic program anymore.

That doesn't mean Pederson hasn't made enemies along the way. He made plenty when he pushed to tear down Pitt Stadium. He made some when he instituted a seat-licensing plan for the men's basketball games at the field house. And he made some when he eliminated Pitt's boosters from the athletic department decision-making process. Those boosters won't like reading this, but they should have no place in the hiring and firing of coaches.

Pederson hasn't been afraid to make tough personnel decisions. In his first six months on the job, he fired seven athletic department employees and re-assigned 18 others, including football coach Johnny Majors. He later fired men's basketball coach Ralph Willard. Earlier this year, he fired Buddy Morris, the football team's strength and conditioning coach. Like Lewis, Morris was extraordinarily popular with his athletes.

Pederson doesn't strike me as the kind of administrator who takes firings lightly. I trust he had his reasons, but I'm also betting he lost sleep over each of the moves. He declined to respond to the Lewis allegations yesterday.

Lewis certainly is entitled to his feelings. It must hurt to be terminated after 20 years of loyal and productive service. But change happens. It might not be fair, but, as all of us know, life isn't always fair. Majors, Willard and Morris, among others, probably would tell you that.

It's just a shame Lewis chose to go public with his statement. It doesn't just hurt Pederson. It hurts the university Lewis says he loves.

My guess is Pitt and Pederson will survive.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.