UNM coaches Weir, Davie appreciate Krebs for giving them a chance.
Like any public figure, Paul Krebs’ legacy as athletic director at The University of New Mexico had its good and bad moments.
Yet, as he announced his retirement Friday after 11 years at the school amid investigations regarding a golf junket to Scotland he coordinated in June 2015, the news was met with restraint from some coaches.
Paul Weir, the recently hired head men’s basketball coach, declined to comment when asked to describe his impression of the athletic department at his Thursday news conference.
“Anything outside of the men’s basketball department is not really my jurisdiction to comment on,” Weir said. “I probably haven’t even been here long enough to tell you what I think.”
However, Weir did express his appreciation for the university hiring him.
“At the end of the day, they all believed in me enough to hire me,” Weir said. “It was a gutsy call to hire me, and I know that and I appreciate that. I am very loyal to them for giving me this opportunity, and I’ll do anything I can in return to help them.”
UNM head football coach Bob Davie, who was hired in 2011, offered support for Krebs.
“I will always appreciate Paul Krebs giving me the opportunity to be head coach at UNM,” Davie said in a statement. “[Davie’s wife] Joanne and I wish Marjori [Krebs’ wife] and Paul all the best in the future.”
Paul Mercogliano, UNM assistant athletic director for communications, said head baseball coach Ray Birmingham declined to comment on Krebs’ departure.
UNM highlighted Krebs’ accomplishments in its news release, which included overseeing a department that accumulated 64 conference titles and a national championship from the women’s cross-country team during his time and an academic record in which student-athletes recorded a 3.0 GPA for the last 17 semesters and 27 of the last 28. Krebs also helped facilitate renovations and improvements in the facilities for men’s and women’s basketball, football, baseball, softball, track and field, tennis and golf.
He also landed naming rights for The Pit twice, first with WisePies and then with Dreamstyle remodeling in a twofor-one deal with University Stadium.
Some of his failings, however, ultimately led to his departure. The golf junket was the tipping point, but he also struggled to make a permanent decision
with former men’s basketball coach Craig Neal before dismissing him in the 11th hour. The ensuing search saw several candidates come and go before Weir emerged as Neal’s replacement.
Critics lambasted the initial naming rights deal with the little-known Wise Pies Pizza and Salad in 2014 before it was dissolved in April in lieu of a 10 year, $10 million agreement with Dreamstyle Remodeling.
Krebs was not the first AD to leave embroiled in controversy. In fact, his career followed a similar path to that of Lavon McDonald. He held the position from 1974- 79 before he was reassigned in October 1979, the pre-emptive strike to an impending scandal with the men’s basketball program that is infamously known as “Lobogate.”
The transcript-fixing scandal devastated the university and the basketball program didn’t recover until the late 1980s, but it also undid the good that McDonald did during his five-year tenure with the athletic department.
Just like Krebs, McDonald added his touch to The Pit when he helped push through a project to add the mezzanine section to the famous arena. He helped procure money for the three-tiered press box at University Stadium and the tennis complex, and played a crucial part in helping UNM earn the bid for the 1983 Final Four.
Yet, when the school removed him as AD, it was amid an NCAA investigation that affected the football and basketball programs.
In 1988, John Koenig resigned under pressure when allegations surfaced that he bilked UNM out of $25,000 by double-billing the school for travel and business expenses. Ironically, the school hired Koenig in 1987 to help the athletic department tighten its purse strings after it accrued an $800,000 deficit during the tenure of former AD John Bridgers.
A Bernalillo County grand jury inducted Koenig on 47 charges stemming from the incident, and he pleaded guilty to six fourthdegree felonies. Koenig received a nine-year suspended sentence as well as a $15,000 fine, plus he had to repay UNM $19,139.
Perhaps Koenig’s biggest accomplishment in short tenure was the hire of the school’s most successful men’s basketball coach — a man named Dave Bliss.