After a series of media maelstroms, both small and large, Rutgers made a bold move in introducing Julie Hermann as its new athletic director Wednesday. Hermann, 49 — who was Louisville’s senior associate athletic director — is the third current female AD at a BCS school.
N.C. State’s Debbie Yow and California’s Sandy Barbour are the others female athletic directors, but Hermann walks into an athletic department rocked by the Mike Rice scandal that cost both the disgraced coach and Tim Pernetti — her predecessor — their jobs.
“We need to be an open book. It is a new day. It’s fixed. [We need to show parents] that will never happen again on this prestigious campus,’’ said Hermann, who was No. 2 in Louisville’s athletic department behind Tom Jurich and ran 20 of its 23 sports, not including football or men’s basketball.
“Rutgers is poised to soar. With a world-class faculty and academic reputation, a strategic location and the power and reach of the Big Ten, the university is positioned to create a best-in-class experience for every student who accepts the challenge to learn and compete at Rutgers.”
Hermann, who will earn $450,000 base salary, handled Louisville’s marketing and fundraising, and was instrumental in helping its move from Conference USA to the Big East and now to the ACC after next season. With Rutgers jumping to the Big Ten, president Robert Barchi said that experience weighed in her favor.
Questioned about a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against Tennessee while she was the volleyball coach — a suit assistant Ginger Hineline won for $150,000 in 1997, after claiming Hermann advised her not to get pregnant — she replied, “I’ve been managing people [for] 25 years. Occasionally some of those dialogues become litigious. I don’t agree with the outcome, but it’s been litigated and that’s [it].’’
Later in the press conference, Hermann, who was adopted at birth and lost her father at 16, teared up when discussing him.
Hermann added that she and Jurich who she said reminds her of her hard-working father Eugene, helped build Louisville from a $14 million athletic budget to over $80 million, and that even if Rutgers doesn’t outspend Michigan “we will do more with less. At Louisville, we were smart stewards of the dollar we have.’’
