Gerald J. Harrison

What's the journey been like since deciding you were interested in being the athletic director at Marshall University?

It's been a quick process, from the time that I was reached out to by the search firm and I said there was interest to the time that I came. I did a Zoom interview on Wednesday. The next Wednesday, I was on campus and the next Wednesday, I had a press conference - so from start to finish, the whole thing took less than a month. It was a true whirlwind.

What kind of reception have you received from Marshall and the Huntington community?

It's been tremendous. Having never been here, I had heard about the tradition and the hospitality of the folks of West Virginia, and you hear all the great things about Marshall, but you really don't know it or understand it until you experience it.

In my few weeks here, it's been an ongoing process that's still continuing - they stop you in the grocery store and they give you the "Welcome home" or "Welcome to Huntington," and that makes you feel good. When you are in a new place away from family and friends, to have a group of people that are not just passionate about Marshall football or their own aspect of Marshall - they care about Huntington, they care about Marshall, and they genuinely care about the community and the people who are in it - that is what makes this a great job.

Who are those in your career who have shaped the athletic director you are today?

I touched on this a little bit in the (introductory) press conference. It starts with my parents and grandparents. I'm very fortunate to have a lot of great mentors in that standpoint, and I don't ever take that for granted. The foundation that I have came from them.

Then beyond that, the opportunity to work with a Hall of Fame football coach in Phillip Fulmer, David Cutcliffe, Kevin White, who is probably the Godfather of Athletic Directors - I think Kevin's got 35 or so ADs on his tree already - and Stan Wilcox. It's just unbelievable, the people that I've been around. The great thing about it is I took a little bit from each of them and added it to my South Carolina roots and my foundation at home to create what people see today.

At your press conference, it was apparent that you are true to yourself - why is authenticity so important to you?

I think people want to deal with real people. Even though we know reality TV is a little scripted, why did reality TV or game shows become a thing? Because it's people watching real people. The same goes forward. I think people want to interact with real people. It's easy to put on a sport coat and a tailored shirt and walk around and be a CEO of a 30-plus- million-dollar enterprise, which is what Marshall Athletics is, but that's not who I am. I am Gerald Harrison, who enjoys, loves and has a passion for the student-athlete experience, has a passion for people.

I love what I do every day. I don't go to work. I show up, and it's just a great day. Being authentic makes that real. If I was fake, I couldn't do this. You can't rise up every morning and give your best to do better every day if you are faking what you are doing. There is no faking about what we're doing. I want people to know me for who I am - good and bad. I'm not perfect. But, like I said with our athletics department, I'm on that relentless pursuit of being better every day.

What does success - both professionally and personally - look like to you?

Success professionally is simply knowing that you've done a good day's work every day. Yes, we all have legacies, and I'd love for the people at Austin Peay years from now to say, "Hey, the seven years with Gerald Harrison leading the athletic department were impactful," and I'd love for student- athletes to invite me to their weddings and all that - that's what you want.

You start step-by-step, deciding every day that we are going to impact people's lives and that we are going to be better. That's success, professionally. Obviously, everyone dreams of getting the biggest job at the biggest school, but that's not really my focus. My focus is being where you feel welcomed, you feel appreciated, and you can still accomplish your goals.

Personally, I just want to be a great father, a great husband, a great son and uncle and all those things. That's what is important to me. People talk about family values and that family is important. Really, the only people that I've got to please or show out for on a daily basis are those folks. At the end of the day, life gets short, and it's time to go and pass away from here, I want people to say it was a good job and he ran his race and did his thing. That's really all I want. I don't have to make the most money - I like money, so don't get me wrong - but I don't have to make the most money and I don't have to be in the biggest school. I just have to be in a place where I'm accepted, my family is accepted, and we can still find levels of success.

I'm looking forward to the first championship trophy we hold up at Marshall. In the 13 championships we won at Austin Peay, I have a photo from every one of them with my family. That matters to me, and those are the most cherished pictures that I have.

What do you see as your biggest challenge as you transition into the new role?

I think the biggest challenge is that Marshall is a place with great history - some of it tragic and some has been born from the rise and resurrection of the football program and how the community has rallied. There are so many things, you just have to be careful - as an AD, you come in with a lot of ideas and you want to implement a lot of them. There are several you think would make Marshall better, make Huntington better, help grow our athletics department. You have to be willing to take the time to do that. Marshall is not a three-year job, if you want to do it right. It takes some time. Right now, I've got to go and - not listening circuits, necessarily - but you have to talk to people and figure out how fast you can go - where to push, where not to push, what excites them, what doesn't. That's the challenge. You have got to learn your environment. Being a young AD at Austin Peay, the one thing I learned is that you can't do everything in the first six months. The first 90 days, you want to do something big, typically, but that's not necessarily how that's going to play here. We need to talk about it, evaluate it, make subtle changes. There are things we can do for the student-athlete experience and things like that, but stuff that's going to impact this base and this town will probably be the bigger challenge than what's happening within the walls of the 18 athletic facilities that we have.

Looking ahead, what's something that excites you?

What excites me is the same thing that is a challenge. What excites me is that you want to do good for these people. That excites me. I want The Joan, The Cam and all these places filled, and I want people feeling like the show - what happened in and around a Marshall athletic event - is just outstanding to where everybody wants to be there. We have the bones to do that because people are so passionate about the Kelly green and white.

So, the biggest opportunity that I'm looking forward to is finding ways to pull and get them into our venues and not just support us by wearing a green shirt on Fridays for our Kelly Green Fridays, but to actually get people to come in and meet our student-athletes to understand why we do what we do and, in turn, we need to get back into the community and learn why they do what they do. When you get it going together, it's success.

I'll give you a story. I'm from a small town in South Carolina. Everywhere in and around us on Friday nights when someone is trying to play a football game, the town shuts down. This is a one-school town - so everyone is cheering for Darlington High School. So from the start of (Route) 52 all the way to the end down by the race track, everybody is there on Friday night. I want that same passion, energy and I want to see that become a thing for all our sports here in Huntington. It's there! We've got the pilot light lit; now, once we get this thing going, there's going to be a whole lot of hot water. We're going to be ready for it. I want it like that.

What's the most important thing you want the Marshall community to know about you?

What I want them to know about me is that you've got a person that is going to try. There's nothing I ever do to hurt anybody. If we make a change in a policy, it's not trying to blow up tradition or anything like that; it's just trying to find a way to do things better, so long-term we can recruit and retain our student-athletes, recruit and retain our staff and so we can grow our department.

It may be, at times, a little uncomfortable to where it's, "Why's he doing that?" That's fine. Just ask me. Let's not get into gossip and don't talk about me when I'm sitting in the pews at church. Just let us play it out, and if things aren't right, I'll change it.

I am literally here because I want to be. I had a great job at Austin Peay and I had a contract that was unbelievable with a great president, but I chose to come to Marshall. I didn't need it for my next upward step; I chose to come to Marshall because I believe in the Marshall people. I believe in the creed, and I believed it when I read Brad Smith's work with "Marshall For All, Marshall Forever." I'm drinking the Kool-Aid, too. So let me work, and I'll deliver what you want.