ST. LOUIS -- The hiring of Missouri's new athletic director came as no surprise to those who worked closely with him.
Mack Rhoades has always been destined for greatness, according to Jeramiah Dickey and David Bassity, two of Rhoades' colleagues in the University of Houston athletic department. Dickey first began working with Rhoades at UTEP in 2003 before eventually following him to Akron and finally to Houston in 2010.
"He's obviously someone I look up to," says Dickey, who reported directly to Rhoades on many financial matters as the senior associate AD for external relations at Houston. "He's taught me a lot about how to treat others, and he's always come from a standpoint of what's best for the university and the department."
Dickey says that selflessness and unique ability to earn the trust of others are what make Rhoades such a dynamic fundraiser, and he's been able to significantly raise budgets at every stop. Houston's student-athlete scholarship fund, Cougar Pride, has broken annual records in every fiscal year since Rhoades arrived in June 2009, and Bassity, the school's associate AD for strategic marketing and communications, says overall the department has raised nearly $100 million in Rhoades' tenure.
Bassity wasn't sure whether he really wanted to leave the University of Oklahoma for Houston when he interviewed for the job in 2012. By the time he left campus, Rhoades' magnetic personality had Bassity calling everyone he knew to find out how he could get the job.
Rhoades oversaw the construction of two brand new football stadiums and countless other facility improvements at Akron and Houston, demonstrating his commitment to enhancing the student experience. Dickey says Rhoades stays heavily involved with student leadership organizations, and he's always there supporting the teams without trying to meddle in the day-to-day or game-to-game operations.
But he certainly isn't afraid to make coaching changes, something he has done often at Houston with mixed results. He promoted assistant coach Tony Levine in December 2011 and fired him in 2014 prior to the Armed Forces Bowl following back-to-back winning seasons and fourth-place finishes in the American Athletic Conference.
The hiring of Ohio State offensive coordinator Tom Herman this offseason could lead to a bright future for Houston football, just as Rhoades' decision to hire Kelvin Sampson could lead to success for the Cougars' basketball team. It's clearly a risk to hire a coach who earned a five-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA for making impermissible phone calls at both Oklahoma and Indiana, but Dickey says Rhoades thoroughly vetted the 1995 and 2002 National Coach of the Year.
"He has an extremely high expectation of himself and of his team," Dickey says. "At all his stops, that's what's allowed those departments to be so successful."
He's confident Rhoades will continue that trend at Missouri, where one of his first tasks will be to find a new deputy athletic director. Even though Dickey has built a great relationship with his boss over the years, he says he hasn't had any conversations about the job and considers himself to be in a great position at Houston.
Rhoades may bring in someone more familiar with Missouri to fill the No. 2 spot, or he may even turn to Houston's associate vice president for intercollegiate athletics and chief operating officer, Hunter Yurachek. Whoever it is, Dickey knows Rhoades will treat that person with nothing but respect.
"He's not going to big-time you," Dickey says. "I don't care if you're the janitor. I don't care if you're the president. He's going to shake your hand."
When he moves to Columbia and sets out to embrace its small-town feel, that approach should serve him well.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
