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Takeaways from AD Jim Knowlton's Introductory Press Conference

The decision to hire Jim Knowlton as the athletic director away from Air Force was not made anywhere near as quickly as this press conference was put together, and that showed Monday afternoon. Knowlton talked for about ten minutes about his plans and how he came to accept the job and took questions for another twenty, and laid out his next few months for those in attendance.

Four Main Priorities

Knowlton laid out four priorities he has going into the job as a whole:

- Supporting the student athletes, which comes in supporting them, in his words "on the fields of friendly strife," but also supporting them off the field, in their academic lives as well. One thing Knowlton said he did at the Air Force Academy was to have team captain training, taking the student athletes to Gettysburg as a part of it. Knowlton, a captain of the varsity hockey team at West Point in his own right, acknowledged that his athletic background shaped a lot of who he is.

- Supporting the coaches, administrators, and programs. That'll come financially in some ways, taking the time to talk to coaches in another, bringing in people to come to games on another branch. On the attendance issue, Knowlton talked about engaging with the community around.

"It's a lot easier to lose fans then get them back, and I think it's really about getting out into the community," Knowlton said, "that's my job, I go to Rotary Clubs, I talk to anybody who will invite me to talk and I tell them the story of where we're going, what the mission is for athletics and why athletics is such a critical part of Berkeley."

- Develop a vision and strategic plan. That's still in progress as Knowlton said to the media after that he had a 25 donor list to go through after the press conference. He also plans to hold 'listening days' with whoever, whether that's donors, students, players, faculty, administration, whoever. Knowlton formerly taught engineering at West Point, so he can "straddle the line" between faculty and athletics, which has been a frosty relationship

- To go out and meet. Knowlton was personable with the media, taking the time to write names down of whoever asked questions, and getting to know the lay of the land is his calling card. Women's basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who was on the search committeed, noted that one of the things Knowlton did before the initial interview was walk around the campus and the area and get the lay of the land. That's how they knew he was interested.

Other Notes:

- Knowlton called out Gottlieb and Wilcox as big parts of the search committee, noting that he had a helpful 1 on 1 with Wilcox. He accidentally called Wilcox 'Mike' during. He likely owes Wilcox 10 pushups.

- Knowlton was a part of the Berlin Brigade in West Germany when the Berlin wall in 1989

-- Knowlton joked that his kids didn't quite understand why they had to burn all their red clothes now.

- Met Mike Williams previously when Cal played Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl in 2015

- Noted that they helped student engagement by giving away Chik-fil-a at games, said he'd like to do that there

- As far as other ADs he talked about looking to for inspiration, he highlighted UNC AD Bubba Cunningham, Ohio State AD Gene Smith, and UCLA AD Dan Guerrero.

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