TEMPE, Ariz. -- Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson follows the school's academic identity of thinking outside the box. So maybe it wasn't surprising when he announced the hiring of Bob Bowman, the longtime coach of 18-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps, to lead the Sun Devils men's and women's swim programs.
It was, however, to Bowman.
"In many ways I might be the most surprised," Bowman said at a press conference Friday afternoon. "When I looked seriously at the potential of this program and this university, it's clear this can be a great story not just for the program here or for ASU, but for collegiate swimming, collegiate Olympic sports. It could be a model to follow."
ASU's swim programs have not enjoyed any long-term success. The school fired coach Dorsey Tierney-Walker at the end of March after her teams failed to finish in the top half of the Pac-12 during her six-year tenure as both men's and women's coach. In 2008, the men's program was nearly eliminated because of budget cuts.
Moving forward, the school is comfortable using a unique hiring model.
The complexity begins with Bowman continuing his prior responsibilities toward his professional athletes such as Phelps. But the Sun Devils will work with him as he wears two hats.
There are benefits to that as well. Though Bowman won't move to Arizona full-time until August, he said a staff he's yet to hire will head to Tempe as soon as possible. And his Olympic clients, including Phelps, will train with him at ASU. It's a recruiting boon the program could use.
Bowman last coached a college team at Michigan from 2005-08, and had two top 10 finishes in the NCAA Championships. He admitted not knowing much about ASU heading into his first meeting with the school. Yet, the swim programs' past struggles weren't necessarily a deterrent.
"When I heard that this job was open, I'd already been thinking in my post-Michael (Phelps) life, which is approaching," said Bowman, who oversaw Phelps coming out of retirement last April and continues to prepare him for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. "I wanted it to be where something special could happen. I wanted to be somewhere where we could build something, it wasn't already pre-made. This ticked all the boxes."
Chasing Bowman might have been viewed as a reach, but ASU President Michael Crow told Anderson to be "entrepreneurial" in this coaching search.
"If we discover a coach that has a potential mutual interest, as far reaching as that person might seem out of ASU's reach, if we think there's a glimmer of a chance that we can sell the vision and entice world-renowned folks to join us, we'll do that," Anderson said. "(Crow said to) be more flexible than others might be to make it happen."
As he began to seek out qualified candidates, Anderson consulted Frank Busch, the national director of USA Swimming who spent more than two decades (1989-2011) leading a national power at Arizona, who ended up being a "big player" in Bowman becoming a candidate.
And weeks after introducing Bobby Hurley as the men's basketball coach, Anderson now has another impressive-looking hire.
Bowman will give up some responsibilities with the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, but the transition isn't expected to take away from his goals at ASU. He knows he'll be building a program from the ground up, using his background working with the world's best swimmers to create success from scratch.
"This is going to be a long-term project for me at ASU," Bowman said. "We're going to lay a foundation, we're going to recruit aggressively, and we're going to build over time, step by step by step."
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