When Northeastern made Peter Roby its athletics director last June, the university was installing a figure with not just a wealth of experience in the sports world, but a range of different experiences.
For those who have either forgotten or may not know, Roby was a college basketball player as well as a coach in the sport, the highlight being a six-year stint as Harvard head coach. In 2002, he joined Northeastern as the director for the Center for the Study of Sport in Society, a position he held until his promotion.
But between his coaching career ending and the time he became part of the Husky family, he was with the Canton-based Reebok company as its vice president of American marketing. Essentially, he was the man behind the brand’s marketing plans throughout the 1990s and into the current millennium.
Now, it appears that the Connecticut native will get to tap into all the tricks and lessons he learned as a top executive inside a global sports empire.
While his announcement Tuesday on the state of Northeastern athletics featured him recommending that all 19 programs, including football, remain intact, he also said he’ll start a major fundraising campaign that will hopefully take care of a litany of “to-dos” facing Husky sports, including: updating current facilities, increasing scholarships for student-athletes, energizing the alumni base and gaining support for that elusive on-campus sports facility, among other things.
He’ll get his first crack at netting some coin for Northeastern after an end-of-month meeting for the school’s board of trustees in Florida, where he’ll seek approval for the recommendations of his Athletics Review Panel. But in addition to checking off all the items above, Roby is also hoping that these recommendations will help Husky sports succeed in the long haul.
“Our goals are to achieve and sustain excellence long-term, to enhance the academic experience of our athletes, to serve as a catalyst for creating a sense of community on our campus and throughout our alumni base and to serve as a sense of pride for all stakeholders at Northeastern,” he said during a press conference Tuesday at Matthews Arena. “I’m motivated every day, because of the quality of the student-athletes that we have. I’m energized by the energy of our alumni, and I’m humbled by the opportunity that I’ve been given to lead a group of coaches and administrators that care so much for our student-athletes and that have so much talent and commitment.”
Upon his promotion to athletics director, I mentally noted that it could only be a matter of time before Roby got a chance to use his sports business acumen for the good of Husky sports. Now it appears that chance has arrived. It’s safe to say Northeastern athletics could use an overhaul and, considering his pedigree in sports business, Roby may be tailor-made for the job of pitching the program to the masses and gaining the funds needed to ensure its presence for the future.
But he must also remember to get the student body at large on his side. Arguments can be made that the alumni were at the forefront of the football program’s survival. The men’s basketball team is next-to-last in CAA home-court attendance. Even the undefeated women’s swimming and diving squad is seemingly flying under the radar on campus. I personally haven’t seen a sign for their exploits even taped to a residence hall.
It appears that Roby has a plan with a wide scope and far-reaching potential that could help Northeastern athletics improve its on-field performance and increase its off-field visibility. For that, he should be commended.
However, if he is unable to get the students to support his movement for a better sports program, his plan may not be worth it.
– Chris Estrada can be reached
