By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

DALLAS, Texas ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" Whether it was fielding a barrage of media questions in Monday's introductory press conference at the Omni Hotel or addressing a crowd of 400 supporters at a dinner that night, Mack Rhoades stressed "opportunity" as a motivating factor in his decision to take on his new role as Baylor's Vice President and Director of Athletics.

"This is an opportunity for all of us, together, to move this institution forward and to move our athletics program forward," said Rhoades, who was hired last Wednesday to become the school's 11th athletic director. "Yes, we want to win, and we're going to win. We're going to win Big 12 Conference titles, we're going to win national championships, but we're going to do it the right way. And we'll do it the right way every step of the way."

The 50-year-old Rhoades, who has previously served as athletic director at Akron (2006-09), Houston (2009-15) and Missouri (2015-16), will not begin full-time duties at Baylor until Aug. 15. But he made it clear that he "will do all I can to ensure our mission of educating young men and women for world-wide leadership and service by integrating excellence and a Christian commitment within a caring community is upheld each and every day."

Introduced by interim Baylor University President Dr. David Garland, Rhoades said he is a "man of faith, a man of family and a man who is inspired by working with young me and women in helping them become championships in life."

Before even being asked about his motivation for leaving Missouri after just 15 months to take on the Baylor job, Rhoades said he sees Baylor as a "great institution where there is the integration of faith, academic excellence and athletic excellence."

"I believe you win with people," he said at Monday night's Baylor Sports Network dinner. "We could have all the nice facilities, and we certainly do. . . . And we can have the biggest budget, all of those things. But if we don't have the people, none of that matters. Great people overcome great obstacles and hurdles, and we're going to do that and we're going to move forward."

A native of Tucson, Ariz., Rhoades graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor's degree in health sciences and a master's in athletics administration/sports management from Indiana.

He served in athletic departments at Yale, Marquette and UT-El Paso before taking over the program at Akron in 2006 when he was 40 years old.

"All three of those places (Akron, Houston and Missouri) are different, and I think what I learned is you have to be open to that as well," he said. "Maybe something that was great at Akron wasn't necessarily a best fit for Houston. That's part of the challenge of somebody coming in new, and we will get that figured out."

Starting in mid-August, Rhoades plans to meet with every athletic department staff member for 30 minutes and "begin to establish relationships."

"I think sometimes in this business we do an unbelievable job of overcomplicating things," he said. "My job as an athletic director is to really provide our head coaches with the necessary resources so that they can be competitive, so that we can develop young me and young men. And we will never, ever, ever compromise that. That will be our No. 1 mission."

Since being hired, Rhoades has talked with or at least exchanged phone messages with all the head coaches and senior administrative staff in the athletic department, including interim head football coach Jim Grobe.

Retired from coaching the last two years, after 13 seasons at Wake Forest, Grobe took the Baylor job after a call for help from former Baylor head coach Grant Teaff.

"I've got unbelievable respect and admiration for Coach Grobe," Rhoades said. "He, in just a very short time, has brought stability. He has certainly done a great job in terms of beginning to earn the trust of the some of our student-athletes, the staff, and I look forward to getting in the trenches and working with him. He's a man of great integrity."

Rhoades was joined by his wife, Amy, and three daughters, Nicolette, Natalie and Noelle. "I'm just going to tell you right now that you will end up liking Amy and the three girls a lot better than you like me," he said. "Every place we've been, that seems to happen. But, we are certainly looking forward to getting to work. I am honored and privileged to be the new Director of Athletics at Baylor University."