THE THING ABOUT Glen Tuckett was that he could make you believe. Give him the microphone at a prep football banquet and he'd have them sitting on the edge of their seats. By the time he was finished, even the cool guys slouched in their chairs with their hats on backward were thinking of joining the Marines.
Though Tuckett retired two years ago as athletic director at BYU, he became national news again this week when he was hired as interim athletic director at Alabama. After a national search, the school settled on Tuckett to see it through one of the most trying periods of its long and colorful history.Tuckett's followed the resignation of Hootie Ingram, who left last month after the football program was hit with NCAA sanctions. The school was put on probation and its football scholarships reduced for four years.
The news of the sanctions hit Tuscaloosa like, well, a loss to Auburn. It nailed them where they live. The Team that Bear Built was, if not down for the count, at least taking the standing eight-count. In hopes of straightening things out before they get worse, Alabama went looking for an interim A.D.
The selection of Tuckett isn't much of a surprise for those who have worked with him. He took BYU from an obscure private university in the Rockies to one of the best overall programs in the nation. Under his direction, the football team won a national title, the stadium went from 30,000 to 65,000 seats, the men's basketball team made the Elite Eight and the men's golf team won a national championship.
Not only was Tuckett successful, he was clean. His middle name is "compliance." If the NCAA is likely to look kindly on anybody, it's Tuckett. In 17 years as athletic director at BYU (1976-93) his sports programs were never reprimanded by the NCAA. Nobody ever accused the booster club of buying a car for Jim McMahon or a sound system for Steve Young. Nobody claimed Ty Detmer had ringer take his English Lit test.
Throughout his coaching and administrative career, Tuckett developed the reputation of being a law and order man who loved to win. After a doubleheader loss in California one year when Tuckett was the baseball coach, a player clambered onto the team bus and begun mimicking Tuckett's firey speeches. What he didn't know was that Tuckett was sitting behind him in the next row.
Tuckett slowly stood up as the bus went quiet. Without a word, he took a $20 bill out of his wallet and handed it to the player, indicating he should use the money to catch a bus - someone else's - back to Provo.
The truth was that Tuckett wasn't all that upset about being made fun of. He was upset they'd lost the games and the player was taking it lightly.
However serious about winning, Tuckett wasn't inflexible. While BYU dominated the WAC in football throughout the '80s, the common complaint was that the Cougars ran the league. But Jeff Hurd, now an associate athletic director for the WAC, says the opposite was true.
"In reality, Glen was probably the AD with the most compromise in him. We had to make a lot of changes, for TV or scheduling or whatever, and very often it was BYU doing the changing," said Hurd. "Glen was a guy who was saying, `Yeah, we'll do this if it's in the best interest in the conference' even when he didn't need to. He looked out for BYU, but if it was in the best interest in the league, he'd give it every consideration."
Former WAC Commissioner Joe Kearney was telephoned by Alabama officials about 10 days ago, asking for recommendations. "I put somebody at the top of my list and I'll give you three guesses who that was," he said.
Kearney, who spent 14 years as Commissioner, calls Tuckett "a man of integrity."
"His cards were always on the table. He was very forthright," Kearney added.
So when trouble arose in Alabama, the state's most famous school decided to get back on course. And it hired Mr. Clean to make sure it happens.
It will be new territory for Tuckett. Instead of building a tradition, he's inheriting one. Instead of presiding over a program untouched by the long arm of the NCAA, he'll be presiding over one that has been reprimanded by it.
Given Tuckett's history, he'll probably have them marching in line at Alabama soon. But not only will he make sure people to do things by the book, he'll also convince them they can still win while they're at it.