As a vice president for oil giant Pennzoil, Rondo Fehlberg traveled the globe, earned enormous paychecks and had what he called "the most interesting job in the world."
But Fehlberg, 45, is giving it all up to give something back to his alma mater. He'll become BYU's new director of athletics June 1."I'm taking a huge cutback in pay," Fehlberg said. "But I didn't come here for money. It's like a coming home for me. This university gave me a lot. This athletic department gave me an awful lot. I feel a strong sense of obligation to give back. Combine that with the fact that it's a great thing for my family and it was an easy decision."
Fehlberg, an All-American wrestler at BYU in the early 70s, graduated from the Y. with a B.A. degree in art in 1976 and from BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1979.
After 16 years as an attorney and as an executive in the oil business, Fehlberg is excited to be starting a new chapter of his life as the athletic director of one of the top collegiate programs in the nation.
"This is one position I have wanted for most of my life," he said.
Fehlberg said he plans on taking the first few months, and even up to a year, listening and learning from others who are already a part of BYU athletics. "We have a program that is healthy and solid and it would be a mistake to come in and to start tinkering with something that is working so well," he said.
A longer term project for Fehlberg is, "to make sure the revenue sports are healthy. You certainly don't want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. That means making sure the football and men's basketball programs are healthy."
Fehlberg says the climate of collegiate athletics has changed during the past few years with television contracts being the impetus for changes in conference alignments - like the new 16-team WAC that will begin operation in 1996.
"Conference affiliations will continue to evolve," Fehlberg said. "College sports have gone from being just sports to being big business. It's about markets, it's about revenues, it's about ratings and things that athletic departments used to never think about. It's a new world we live in and we need to be part of it at BYU. It would be a mistake for us to always be playing catch-up in that world. It is in BYU's interest to be proactive and in front of the process."
BYU leads the WAC in attendance for football and men's basketball games, but the attendance figures have been down in both sports in recent years. "BYU, perhaps, has not been out on the cutting edge of the evolution of sports," Fehlberg said. "What people may be saying is that we're not providing the entertainment extravaganza that they get down the road at a Jazz game. The U. has done a much better job of understanding that recently than we have."
While living outside of Utah since '79 - including four years in London - Fehlberg went to great lengths to keep up with the goings on in BYU sports. He had video tapes of Cougar football games delivered to him when he lived in England and put up a satellite dish in his yard in Houston in order to see the Cougs. When games weren't on satellite, Fehlberg would drive to the highest point in Houston to listen to the late-night rebroadcasts of Cougar games on KSL radio and even then the signal would go in and out.
Now he says he wants to make it easier for fans from outside the Intermountain West to keep up with what is happening to the Cougars by expanding the television coverage of BYU sports.
Fehlberg also said he likes the idea that his six children - five boys and one girl ranging in age from 14 to 3 - will now have the opportunity to be close to BYU sports and have Cougar athletes as heroes. Plus, since he won't be flying off to all parts of the world as the International New Ventures vice president of Pennzoil anymore, "the kids are looking forward to seeing more of their dad."