By Jimmy Hyams
Often times when the torch is passed, someone gets burned.
The new boss makes changes. The old boss defends his regime. The new guy wants to alter the attitude, the culture, the mindset, the direction.
The rhetoric can lead to hard feelings.
That wasn’t the case when Roy Kramer passed the baton to Mike Slive.
The two had been friends for years, Kramer as commissioner of the SEC (1990-2002) and Slive commissioner of Conference USA before taking over the SEC (2002-2015).
Slive died May 16 after two bouts with prostate cancer.
Kramer remembers him fondly.
“From a personal standpoint,’’ Kramer said, “Mike was a tremendous friend. I lost a great friend. I’ve known Mike all of his career in intercollegiate athletics.’’
They first crossed paths when Kramer was chairman of the NCAA committee on infractions and Slive worked for the Glacier firm in Kansas City that represented many schools that went before the committee.
“I think his ability to look at the big picture, his ability to look at both sides of the issue made him a natural type of leader for intercollegiate athletics,’’ Kramer said.
“You’re never going to get a unanimous idea. You’re always going to have people looking at other ideas and be concerned that you’re out there too far. Mike did an admirable job negotiating his way through that and as a result became a very strong leader for various issues that came to the forefront, not only in the SEC but at the national level as well through the NCAA.’’
Was Slive persuasive?
“He certainly was,’’ Kramer said. “He was a good listener. .. He would put together his ideas in a way which would ultimately get his way as he moved through the controversial issues in the conference.
“Any time you’re in that role – and I speak from experience – you’re not going to be 100 percent friends with Buddy and Bob because when you make tough decisions, somebody is going to be upset. And Mike had a way to remain friends with those people and to work with them to accept his ways and his ideas.’’
Kramer said Slive did a “truly outstanding job’’ in the areas of student aid and expansion and television rights and the SEC Network.
“He did an admirable job of steering the conference through those rocky waters and coming out with a great deal of accomplishments for the conference.’’
Kramer said the SEC Network will be one of the “great legacies’’ left by Slive. “What the SEC Network did for this conference was to elevate all the sports, the women’s sports, the Olympic sports, many of which did not have any type of exposure and now they have tremendous exposure across the nation.’’
Kramer praised Slive for launching the SEC Network the right way and at the right time, showing patience along the way. Whereas the Big Ten Network took years to get up and running, the SEC brokered a deal with ESPN and succeeded immediately both financially and with exposure.
“From Day One it was an instant success,’’ Kramer said, “and I think Mike’s willingness to wait and do it in that form rather than just jumping in with an independent network was a very far reaching and visionary idea.’’
Kramer complimented Slive on helping form the College Football Playoff and bringing diversity to the SEC office and coaching staffs. And negotiating the SEC’s TV package with CBS and ESPN.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that the SEC was winning seven national championships in a row in football and doing well in many other sports.
As Kramer said, “It never hurts to have a victorious client to work with.’’
Kramer didn’t have to offer Slive much advice when Slive took the SEC gavel.
“I told him the SEC was one great organization,’’ Kramer said. “I assured him he had a great group of schools, a great group of presidents, a great group of athletic directors. They might not always agree with each other, but they had the best interest of the student-athlete at heart and they had a great belief in what this conference was about.
“This conference was great long before I came along, long before Mike came along. And we had the good fortune to captain the ship through the waters. And Mike did an admirable job of doing that.’’
At the SEC Awards Dinner Thursday night, the SEC recognized Slive.
Various athletic directors and presidents spoke about Slive in a video that included comments from Slive from his back porch at his Birmingham residence, smoking one of his favorite cigars.
It was an emotional night for SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, whose voice cracked at times as he spoke about his former boss.
“Mike created a family type atmosphere,’’ Sankey said. “He showed you could achieve as a whole instead of individually. That’s what makes this conference great.
“His legacy will live on through us.’’
Sponsored by Big Kahuna Wings: The wings that changed it all
