New hire is forced to play away games
Jarmond became not only the first African American athletic director in UCLA history last weekend but also the first to be hired without visiting the campus. He was given a sixyear contract last weekend after wowing university officials during online video chats forced by the COVID-19 pandemic that made in-person interviews impossible.
Jarmond, 40, spoke with The Times for about 45 minutes Wednesday morning about a variety of topics as he prepares to formally start his new job that will pay him an average of $1.4 million over the next six years.
Where are you as we speak, one day after being officially hired?
I am in my office at Boston College. I’m going to be here through the end of next week officially in this capacity doing both, so right now I’m talking to you from my office here in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
When do you plan to start the job and physically be in Westwood full time?
You know, we’re still working on a start date. Ideally, in a perfect world, I’d start sometime to have some carryover with Dan [Guerrero, the athletic director who is retiring July 1], so whether it’s mid- or late June. But as far as moving, that’s the big unknown. I mean, there’s no handbook for moving during a pandemic and so we’re going through the process of just finding out what moving companies are operating in Massachusetts and if we can move and we’ve got to sell our house too, so I don’t know when I’ll move there, but it will be a while.
Have you physically been on UCLA’s campus?
No, I have not. I’ve heard it was beautiful but I have not been on campus.
How did the logistics of the inter viewing process work? Was it all telephone calls and Zoom meetings, and what was that like to go through?
Yes, it was all virtual, at least my process. I don’t know everybody else’s and just so you know, on the search questions, I usually would defer to UCLA and Chancellor [Gene] Block because it was their search, I was just a participant. But I would tell you it was all virtual for me. I haven’t met them in person. It was odd. I mean, doing an interview over Zoom, I’ve never done that and not many people can say they’ve interviewed over Zoom, so it’s a little odd because you don’t have that personal connection. You have to worry about things like, should I be looking at the camera or the screen? So it’s little quirks about doing it via Zoom. It’s still connecting in a way, it’s just not as probably personal as being face-to-face.
What made the UCLA athletic director’s job more attractive than the post you held at Boston College?
The opportunity to have a major impact. UCLA, from an athletic and academic standpoint, is elite, and there’s not many elite institutions that do it at a high level in the country. And so when you have the opportunity to be a part of a place that is so historic and produces so many leader and legends — Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — it’s amazing to be a part of — John Wooden. So any time you have a chance to be a part of being a caretaker or a steward to a program that’s elite, it’s probably a once-in-a-lifeMartin time opportunity. Those just don’t come available.
And so for me, it was really, I want to have an impact on our student-athletes and I want to have a platform and ability to have an impact and be a leader in college athletics and that’s what UCLA is. You know, there’s a lot of things going on in our business now, there are a lot of challenges, but I can tell you, UCLA will be at the forefront of those solutions and leadership as we move forward, and so it was just the opportunity to impact student-athletes and be a part of an elite athletic, high-level academic institution.
What does it mean to you to be the first African American athletic director at UCLA, a school known for racial pioneers?
I understand the significance of it to a lot of people, but for me, quite frankly, I’d love the day to come where I’m not [primarily known as] the first African American athletic director at Boston College, I’m not the first African American athletic director at UCLA — those are the days that I long for.
I certainly understand the importance and the perspective, but for me, I’d rather focus on the opportunity afforded to me because of what we’ve been able to accomplish and what we’ve done and the places that I’ve been, so I understand the importance, I’m humbled by it, quite frankly, I think it is important, especially for student-athletes — or students, really — to be able to see people that look like you or have something in common, to believe that you can achieve and accomplish certain things. So from that perspective, it is very important because I know when I was coming up in this business it mattered to me when I saw people being athletic directors who looked like me — it gave me more confidence — so I understand and appreciate the historical perspective, but I’d love to get to the point where I’m not the first anymore.
Dan Guerrero was not active on social media or known for engaging with the casual fan, but you have a reputation as being energetic on both of those fronts. What can that type of engagement do to help an athletic department?
You know, I think it brings energy. You have to look at the people we serve, and we serve a lot of different constituencies, but the most important constituency group we serve is our student-athletes, and how do our student-athletes communicate? A lot of it’s social [media]. So to me, it’s a way to engage and interact but also relate to our students because again, that’s who we serve but also I think energy and enthusiasm starts with students on campuses, so when you talk about what we’re trying to do — whether it’s fan support, whether it’s different student initiatives — you have to have that level of engagement to be successful, but for me, it’s an outreach of really trying to engage and relate and communicate and meet students where they are, and that’s the way that they communicate quite a bit, as you know. So I think what that does for an athletic department is, it brings a level of energy, it brings a level of understanding and empathy, meeting students and people where they are — and fans the same way. So I believe in having a social media presence. That doesn’t make it right or wrong. You know, you have to do what you’re comfortable with and I’m comfortable in that space because I think it’s valuable to communicate.
Football success is the lifeblood of any major college athletic department and UCLA is coming off four consecutive losing seasons for the first time since the 1920s. Attendance at the Rose Bowl last season was at a record low. What can you do as an athletic director to rectify that situation?
Obviously, football is very important. We need football to be successful; I’m committed to winning in football and basketball. We need them to be successful but also there’s an economic reality to them being successful that is very important to the broad-based excellence that we believe in and that we strive for, so I understand that. I’m looking forward to learning and getting in and understanding from Chip [Kelly] how I can help him and the program be successful and again, that’s something that I’ve got to sit down with him and learn the program and what’s going on now and what does he need from me.
The one thing I can tell you is, I’m going to lock arms with him and try to make sure that I’m doing everything I can to help football be successful; you have to do that — that’s nonnegotiable. Football is too important and the success and what we’re trying to do and we want to win, you’ve got to be alive and you’ve got to be locked in from an athletic director’s standpoint to say, “Hey, what do you need and how best can we get there to help us be successful?” So that’s something I’m committed to, and my first phone call with Chip over the weekend when I called him after [the hiring] was done and I said, “Hey, I’m looking forward to working with you and learning what I can do to be helpful so we can keep moving this thing forward.”
Your alma mater, North Carolina Wilmington, upset fourth-seeded USC in the first round of the 2002 NCAA tournament a year after you graduated, so you already know what it’s like to root against the Trojans, right?
Absolutely. That was one of my proudest moments. I was like a proud papa. I was in grad school watching that game with my jersey on and when they did it, I collapsed on the floor and just started bawling. I was so happy. Oh, man, I’m getting goose bumps now as I’m walking here. That was a great moment, and I hope to have many more moments where we’re beating USC.