Pres. Ray: 'Stansbury Fits Into OSU's DNA'
Oregon State will win games, capture Pac-12 Conference championships and continue to be among the nation’s leaders in graduation rates under new vice president and director of athletics Todd Stansbury.
But the true measure of his department’s success will be revealed sometime in the future, when those same student-athletes who earned rings and diplomas have grown into leaders in their workplaces and in their communities.
“Athletics are a gateway to a better life,” Stansbury said Wednesday in explaining his philosophy during an introductory news conference in the Gill Coliseum. “They are a tool to develop young people who will go out and change the world.
“Ultimately we will be judged by wins and losses and graduation rates. But I believe the thing that ultimately determines the success of a program over the long haul is what our student-athletes are doing 5 or 10 years after graduation.
“At OSU we call our student-athletes Everyday Champions, because they are every day, not just on game day,” Stansbury added. “That is the brand of this program and we will continue to build on that.
“Our student-athletes will go on to great heights and great success, and make us all proud. Nelson Mandela said sports can change the world and I truly believe that. It can change the world and change lives. I’m an example of that.”
Stansbury said athletics offer opportunities to young people who might not otherwise be able to attend college, transform their lives, and change the world.
“When we talk about producing Everyday Champions, we’re talking about producing the leaders of tomorrow, leaders this country will need,” he said.
“It is about wins and losses, because we’re teaching people how to win. But it’s ultimately teaching people how to win beyond the playing fields. Graduation is the norm, but that’s just the beginning of the road.
“Our focus is going to be, ‘What are you doing after graduation? Where are you going, what do you want to do?’ [We will] grab the hearts of these young people and teach them it’s possible to do more than they thought possible, just as my coaches and my athletic director did for me.”
Wednesday was a homecoming for Stansbury, 54, and his wife, Karen. Most recently the athletic director at the University of Central Florida, he worked at OSU from Feb., 2003 until Jan., 2012, as OSU’s executive associate athletic director under his predecessor, Bob De Carolis, before leaving Corvallis for his three-year stint at UCF, an American Athletic Conference powerhouse located in Orlando.
“Those nine years set the stage for now, which is a great stage of facilities and great coaches,” Stansbury said. “And the focus here has always been on the student-athletes, which can’t be said everywhere.
“My goal for Oregon State athletics is to be an indispensable partner to the university in helping it fulfill its mission.”
Stansbury used his own life to illustrate how athletics can change lives. A hockey player as a youth in Oakville, Ontario, he decided to become a Georgia Tech football player as an 11-year-old after meeting some Yellow Jackets during a family vacation to Daytona Beach.
Seven years later, that dream came true when then-Tech coach Bill Curry offered him a scholarship. He graduated in 1984 with a B.S. in Industrial Management; after several years in private business, he began his career in intercollegiate athletics in 1988 at his alma mater as an assistant AD for academics.
“I want to thank my parents, for allowing me to dream impossible dreams,” he said. “My parents were not about protecting me. They were about letting me dream the biggest dream, and then go for it.”
Stansbury said Curry, Georgia Tech athletic director Homer Rice and others at the university pushed him to aspire for more than he ever thought was possible. His vision has always been to emulate what they did for him with the student-athletes he mentored at Georgia Tech, at the University of Houston (1997-2000), at East Tennessee State (2000-03), in his first stint at OSU, and then at UCF.
OSU president Dr. Edward Ray said Stansbury, who signed his contract at the outset of the ceremony, emerged from a diverse and outstanding nationwide pool of candidates from college and professional athletics as the obvious choice.
“Today is very important for Oregon State athletics but it’s obviously very important for the whole university,” Ray said. “I’m proud to say we have found the perfect person in Todd Stansbury. We hired the right candidate, a person who fits Oregon State’s DNA.
“From the start my commitment in hiring was to select a leader who is immediately capable of growing fan excitement and engagement; contribute to the academic success of our student-athletes, and build on my personal commitment to increase Oregon State’s athletic success.
“We will consistently compete for, and win championships, and win them the right way. This effort will contribute to the remarkable transformation underway throughout Oregon State, where everything we do is about excellence and leadership.”
