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By Carolyn Jones Amidst all the Cal paraphernalia in Steve Gladstone’s office, there’s a black-and-white picture of snow-covered Mt. Whitney. Within 10 minutes of meeting Berkeley’s new athletic director, you get the feeling that, at the slightest prompting, he would climb that mountain without breaking a sweat. Ten minutes later, you sense that he would fully expect you to make the climb as well. And, within half an hour, you’re ready to stock up with ropes and Power Bars and head for the peaks, bellowing “Sons of California” the whole way. This is the kind of impression Steve Gladstone makes. He is a coach, through and through. No mere bureaucrat could rouse such enthusiasm. He’s an intense competitor, with 35 years of hands-on coaching experience that most administrators only read about, and he thrives on helping others achieve their potential. As he approaches his first anniversary as athletic director, Gladstone remains head of Cal’s championship crew program. He says that his top priority is spreading crew’s success throughout the entire athletic program. Which means hiring and retaining top-notch coaches, beefing up the Athletic Study Center, and improving training facilities for student-athletes. These steps, he firmly believes, will lead naturally to success in all other areas-winning percentages, fundraising, and life beyond the courts and playing fields. “What motivates me, and why I took this job,” Gladstone says in his office at Haas Pavilion, “is the chance to create an environment where the student-athlete can grow.” By “grow,” he doesn’t mean put on 15 pounds of muscle and add an inch or two in height-although, of course, that kind of growth is always welcome for athletes. He means personal growth. He wants to see student-athletes stretch themselves to their fullest, academically and athletically. Only by testing one’s limits can one learn and become stronger, he says. Jack Clark, Cal’s national-champion rugby coach, says Gladstone’s appointment is good news for all the school’s sports programs. “As athletic director, Steve has to deal with all the bricks-and-mortar stuff, but at the end of the day he’s still a coach. He comes into the job with a team-building mentality. He gets involved shoulder-to-shoulder, and he won’t hear any excuses. I’m looking forward to the effect that attitude is going to have.” All this sounds well and good for recruiting and fundraisers, but what does it mean to the long-suffering Cal football fan who has seen A.D.’s and coaches come and go like falafel vendors on Sproul Plaza? Does it mean winning? On this, Gladstone is unequivocal. Yes, he says, it will lead to winning. “Creating the right athletic context can be extraordinarily valuable, and winning is a byproduct of that,” he says. Modestly, he adds: “I don’t pretend that this philosophy is unique or profound. It’s not. But I believe it.”
He’s already made improvements in the Athletic Study Center, hiring new personnel and helping them raise money for more tutors. Men’s basketball coach Ben Braun supports the effort; he gave an out-of-pocket donation of $250,000 to the study center last spring to help pay for laptop computers so athletes can do their homework while on the road. In his most high-profile move, Gladstone replaced football coach Tom Holmoe with Oregon’s young assistant, Jeff Tedford, known for his energy and creativity, and has agreed to pay him a salary that’s competitive with other top coaches in the Pac-10. He also plans to improve the marketing for both football and basketball in order to bring more fans to the games. Some have wondered whether Gladstone’s strength as a coach could be a liability in his job as an administrator. And some have also expressed concern that his continued coaching of Cal’s crew will detract from his A.D. duties. Anticipating these potential problems, Gladstone has hired a staff of experienced assistants to help him with the day-to-day duties of running the $34-million department, which administers 27 Division I sports and 25 club sports. That frees him from the nuts-and-bolts details of the department, allowing him to focus on fundraising and overall leadership; it also gives him time to coach crew, his first love. Fundraising is the bottom line for any school’s athletic department. Asked why Stanford wins the Sears Cup practically every year while Cal only finishes 12th or so, Gladstone says: “It’s very simple. Over the past 30 years, Stanford has been able to retain great coaches. The reason is money. Without money, you can’t do that.” The University gives very little financial assistance to the athletic department, although Chancellor Berdahl has been generally very supportive, Gladstone says. Revenues from football and men’s basketball pay for just about everything except crew, which is self-supporting through an endowment. Ideally, Gladstone would like to see every nonrevenue sport have its own endowment. Meanwhile, Memorial Stadium is due for a $120-million seismic upgrade, and several other sports facilities need refurbishing. “We have big challenges in front of us, and they are money challenges,” he says. “It won’t happen overnight. There needs to be enlightened management at the top, so people can trust the budget work, and have faith, and share this vision. That said, we have a very loyal, supportive base here at Cal already. Our alumni, friends, and faculty are generous and kind.” So far, Gladstone’s focus on fundraising has been successful. Last year the athletic department raised $1 million more than the previous year, and it might have been higher had it not been for September 11 and the economic downturn. The department has already begun a drive for a scholarship endowment program and will soon kick off a $150-million drive to pay for the upgrades to Memorial Stadium and other facilities. If the response from Cal’s most generous and ardent fans is any indication, Gladstone will be a smashing success. “Cal fans have every reason to be excited,” says Robert Haas ‘64, chairman of the board of Levi Strauss. “We need to be patient. But I can already see how his philosophy will yield dividends,” says Haas. “He’s a very intense person who, in the Zen sense of the word, is ‘present.’ He has a very, very high intellect, and he brings absolute integrity to everything he does.” Gary Rogers ‘64, chief executive of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream and a longtime supporter of Cal crew, says Gladstone “is an educator, a philosopher, but also a real technician. He knows exactly what it takes to win at intercollegiate athletics, and he gets his athletes to give 100 percent. He’s also a fabulous fundraiser,” he adds. “Who could say no to Steve Gladstone?” Gladstone, at age 60, is healthier looking than most undergraduates. He’s tall and robust, and speaks in a booming voice. He’s authoritative without being intimidating, thoughtful without seeming hesitant. In conversation, he listens as well as he speaks. Gladstone was born in New York City and graduated with a degree in American literature from Syracuse. He rowed for the varsity crew in college, then coached at Princeton and Harvard, where he led his teams to four consecutive undefeated seasons and won the Thames Challenge Cup and Wyfold Challenge Cup at Henley, England. From 1972 to 1980, and again from 1996 to the present, he served as Cal’s director of rowing and men’s varsity crew coach. Between stints in Berkeley, he was crew coach and also served as interim athletic director at Brown. Overall, he’s won nine national championships (four at Cal) and has the second-most victories of any crew coach in history (behind a Cornell coach whose streak ended in 1915).
For inspiration, he often turns to an old snapshot on his desk of a man named Thomas Dixon Walker, his crew coach at the Kent School in Kent, Connecticut. Gladstone says that Walker “taught us that the route to personal fulfillment was not by doing things for yourself, or focusing on your own needs, but by being unselfish and working with other people to achieve a goal. I still believe that.” Carolyn Jones ‘92, former Daily Cal editor and California Monthly assistant editor, works for the San Francisco Chronicle and longs for the day her two young children can see the Axe back in Berkeley. |
 Athletic director Steve Gladstone Photo by Dana Davis
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