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He’s waited 11 years between jobs as an athletic director, and on his flight to Hawaii he was in a middle seat for 11 hours.
Another three hours resulting in a divided vote of confidence but enough to get the job?
No sweat.
Craig Angelos was approved as the new athletic director of the University of Hawaii on Thursday, but not before some “robust discussion” by the UH Board of Regents. They spent most of the afternoon in private executive session at Honolulu Community College debating the merits of the only candidate’s name they’d been given by UH President David Lassner.
Meanwhile, Angelos waited it out in what he later called “the green room.”
Eventually, more than enough regents said yay to Lassner’s choice, which was among three-to-five finalists given to the president by a screening/advisory committee — but the only one provided by Lassner to anyone else, including the regents.
Angelos, 61, takes over for David Matlin, and at the same salary of $325,212.
The final vote was eight in favor and two — Gabriel Lee and Laurie Tochiki — against. One, Abigail Mawae, abstained.
“No rubber-stamping allowed here,” said regent William Haning, chair of the BOR’s committee on intercollegiate athletics — a committee of which Tochiki and Mawae are members.
Overall, the regents’ discomfort was not as much with Angelos as it was with having no one to compare him with.
Also, the state Sunshine Law required that Angelos’ nomination be made public for six days, but the regents were not allowed to discuss him as a group until Thursday.
“How about the totally cloudy law?” regent Diane Paloma responded, when it was suggested to her the Sunshine Law be renamed the partly cloudy law.
“(The six days) makes for an awkward space which generates uncertainty,” Paloma said.
The regents were not allowed to interview Angelos.
When Lassner and the regents emerged from the executive session, the president apologized publicly to them for the less-than-ideal, but law-abiding, process. Then, each regent took a turn to comment, several taking shots at the process, but most also saying they’d vote for Angelos or support him if he got the job.
Paloma said her questions about if Angelos could succeed in Hawaii without prior experience here were addressed.
“I can confidently say all of my questions were adequately answered (during the executive session),” she said, after voting for Angelos.
Others were not convinced enough to make it unanimous.
“People care. It’s a big decision,” said Mawae before abstaining. “I’m struggling with how we’ve gone about this.”
Lee was blunt.
“I’m against the candidate and will be voting no,” he said. “(But) if he’s voted in I’ll do everything I can to support him.”
Tochiki said: “This is an important decision. It’s one the state invests a lot of money in. … I would like this kind of process to be more transparent.”
As for Angelos, he said he’d never experienced a job-seeking process quite like this one, and he has been through many.
By many measures, his one stint as an AD, at Florida Atlantic University for 10 years, was a success — it even included a road win by FAU’s fledgling football team against the Timmy Chang-quarterbacked Warriors at Aloha Stadium in 2004. And a 30,000-seat on-campus stadium was built in Boca Raton on his watch, via a combination of pubic and private funding.
But after a change in university presidents, his contract was not renewed in 2012.
Since then, Angelos has been the No. 2 administrator in several athletic departments while looking for opportunities to be No. 1 again. After seven years as second-in-command at Temple, he was passed over for the AD post in 2022.
That led him to the senior deputy athletic director’s post at Long Island University, which he is leaving for Hawaii.
He promised to win over the doubters when he takes charge of the highest-profile sports program in the state, by far, on June 5.
During his first address to media wearing the “H” cap, Angelos compared his long flight in the middle seat to get here to where he intends to take UH sports: to great heights.
“We’re going to go as long as we need to go, we’re going to go as fast as we need to go, we’re going to go as far as we need to go. And we’re going to do it even if we’re uncomfortable.”
CRAIG ANGELOS
>> Born: Dugway, Utah
>> Age: 61
>> Family: Wife Kristin, six children
>> Education: Brigham Young University, Creighton University School of Law
>> Athletics: Three sports, including state Player of the Year in football at Skyline (Utah) High School, baseball at BYU, professional baseball in Italy
Relevant work history:
October 2022-present
>> Senior deputy director of athletics at Long Island University
June 2015-July 2022
>> Deputy director of athletics at Temple University
May 2014-June 2015
>> Senior associate atheltic director for revenue enhancement at Florida International University
September 2012- May 2014
>> Senior executive associate athletic director/senior associate athletic director at University of South Florida
June 2002-May 2012
>> Director of athletics at Florida Atlantic University
January 2001-June 2002
>> Deputy director of athletics/chief operating officer at Indiana University, Bloomington
February 1994- January 2001
>> Senior associate athletic director/associate athletic director/assistant athletic director at University of Miami
April 1991-April 1994
>> Legislative assistant for NCAA
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