Chris Del Conte is proof Texas is serious about being good again
Chris Del Conte is a sharp dresser and a fast talker. Think old-school university professor.
Not two-bit used car salesman.
As the newish Texas athletic director shifts from one topic to another, his understanding of history and society and psychology is obvious. He talks one minute about how football helped fully integrate the University of Alabama back in 1958, the next minute about why he believes it essential for him to be accessible to answer fans’ questions and concerns, even if the problem is cold nachos.
“My father growing up told us, ‘You be honest, you be humble, and you serve others,'” Del Conte said. “Those three things are what I lean on
constantly.”
At his previous stops, the results produced have been nothing short of amazing.
Folks in Austin are banking on the same.
During a week in which Del Conte will be a part of the Red River Rivalry for the first time — he’s only been on the job at Texas since December — he is reason to believe Texas is serious about being great again. Yes, the Longhorns have won four consecutive games on the gridiron. Sure, they come into this game against Oklahoma with a national ranking for the first time since 2012.
But truthfully, the jury is still out on Tom Herman.
Is he the real deal? That question doesn’t need to be asked about Chris Del Conte.
This is a guy who’s had big-time success everywhere he’s been. He’s raised money. He’s changed landscapes. And even though he faces a tall task of returning Texas to previous glory — athletics sputtered since 2013 when DeLoss Dodds retired after 32 years as AD — Del Conte has shown that he’s capable of scaling great heights.
But to understand his successes, you have to first understand his path.
It started in San Felipe del Rio, New Mexico, not far from Taos. That’s where Del Conte’s parents, Robert and Michele, cobbled together their minimal means, bought a 147acre ranch and opened a children’s home. As many as 85 foster children could live there at once.
Along with sister, Belisa, and brother, David, Del Conte grew up with hundreds of kids who he came to call brothers and sisters. They were different ages. Different races. Different religions.
His childhood taught
Del Conte how to treat others. How to accept them, too, even when they weren’t always accepted elsewhere.
“We were all teased growing up,” Del Conte said earlier this year at Big 12 football media days. “We were teased for being at the ranch. We were teased for ‘Where’s your mom and dad?’”
Lots of kids at school didn’t want anything to do with the kids from the ranch.
But then one of the foster kids, a boy named Larry, decided to try out for the football team.
“We lived 30 miles out of town,” Del Conte said. “He goes out for the football team, and the next day, a girl is at the house.”
Larry had a girlfriend. “The following Friday,” Del Conte said, “we were all on teams.”
It wasn’t long before the kids from the ranch were making friends. No more teasing. No more bullying. Their selfconfidence skyrocketed, which improved their grades, their behavior and a million other things at school.
Chris sensed the change, not only in his brothers and sisters but also in himself. He played football and basketball and track, then went to college as a high jumper first at Oregon State, then at UC Santa Barbara.
After getting his bachelor's degree in sociology, he got a master’s in education, administration and supervision from Washington State. He knew he wanted to stay in athletics because of the power of sport he’d witnessed and experienced.
“This is what sport(s) did for me,” he said, “so why not be a part of it?”
After stints at Cal Poly (1994-98) and Arizona (2000-06), Del Conte got his first athletic director’s gig at Rice. He was only there for three years, but he helped raise more than $90 million. That was transformational money at the
private university.
A move to TCU followed, and what Del Conte did there was nothing short of miraculous. Under his leadership, TCU did more than $200 million in facility upgrades, including massive renovations to the football stadium and the basketball arena and the addition of a new world-class weight room, while simultaneously eliminating its debt.
He hired TCU alum Jamie Dixon away from Pittsburgh to be the Frogs’ basketball coach while fending off other schools who wanted to poach football coach Gary Patterson and baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle.
But Del Conte's biggest accomplishment was getting TCU into the Big 12.
The man he first convinced: Dodds.
Seven years ago this week, Del Conte drove from Fort Worth to Austin to plead TCU’s case to the man who was then Texas’ athletic director. Del Conte had no appointment, but armed with reams of information about TCU, he waited outside Dodds’ office for two hours, then met with him for four.
Two days later, TCU was in the Big 12.
Seven years later, Del Conte now occupies the Texas AD office. The color of his ties and pocket squares have changed — deep purple back then has become burnt orange now — but he still operates much the same as he did before. He has a philosophy built on doing what’s best for the athletes and coaches while being ever mindful of the fans.
Check his Twitter account, and you’ll see how quickly he responds to everything from the lack of Texas onesies in newborn sizes to whether there are tickets for a road volleyball match.
“I know that I report to President Fenves,” Del Conte said of Texas President Greg Fenves,
“but I work for everybody. We’re running an enterprise on people’s passion. The most rational people become irrational when it comes to their passion, so I feel like I must respond to everyone.”
And his approach, both privately and publicly, seems to be paying dividends.
Earlier this summer, Chip Brown of Horns247 reported that Del Conte had raised more than $60 million in his first six months at Texas. Money will be spent on indoor baseball facilities, an outdoor pool, and new locker rooms for track and soccer.
Texas has hundreds of thousands of alums, and since the ill-matched hiring of Steve Patterson as AD in 2013, they’ve been at odds.
“We need ‘em all rowin’ the boat in the same direction,” Del Conte said. “That’s what we’re doing right now, putting everyone in the boat and heading the same direction.”
He is quick to acknowledge that success at Texas isn’t measured in dollars raised or facilities renovated. Wins and losses are paramount. Championships won. Trophies claimed.
Even at that, Del Conte is no fool. He knows the Longhorns can have historic success in nonrevenue sports, and it won’t amount to a hill of beans without success in football.
Told you he was more scholar than salesman.
“We’re measured really on football and men’s basketball,” he said. “We know that. You’ve got to trust the process . ... Not saying, ‘Be patient,’ but ‘Trust the process.’”
It’s a lot easier for Texas types to trust with Chris Del Conte at the helm.