Indiana University Athletics
AT, From Varsity Player to Varsity Club
4/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Former IU standout and Maxwell Award winner Anthony Thompson took the time out of his busy schedule to speak with IUHOOSIERS.com about his current position with Indiana as well as his thoughts on the current program. He also provides some advice to current student-athletes and potential donors to the department.
What is your current position and what does it entail?
AT: "I work with IU Varsity Club, and what it entails is raising funds for our student-athletes and for any building that goes up athletically. We are the fundraising arm of athletics. It is also my job to go out and solicit donors and cultivate sponsorships and stewardships. I have been blessed to be able to play here for four years, coach here for five years and now being in the administrative part of it all. I have seen all facets of the athletic department. I have been truly blessed."
Is there anything specific you would like to say to potential donors that read this interview?
AT: "No matter what the climate is at IU, sport-wise, even if some programs are struggling. Whether it be a change in the administration or in coaches, IU will still be IU. When I am gone, when President Herbert is gone, when coaches leave, IU will still be IU - one of the best universities in the country and in the world. To me, the reason why you give is that you love the university. It is what the university has done for us all as alumni. We want those student-athletes to have those same experiences as a student-athlete as we did. That is why we give. It is easy to give when the basketball team wins the national championship. It is easy to give when our football team is going to bowl games year after year. That is easy to give, but the end user is the student-athlete. That is why I encourage people to give. We want those student-athletes to have those same dreams and same enthusiasm and joy that we had while we were on this campus. Our toughest time as a fundraiser is when our sports teams are not successful. I always ask myself, why do these people give anyway? It is not on the student-athlete. They are trying their best. If they would put themselves in the student-athletes' shoes with how hard they work in the classroom, in their training and the energy that they are putting out. Sometimes, you are going to have a bad year. I think we need to understand that we are still dealing with 18-year-olds. The money that you give is so important. I think that is what I would say to potential donors. When you give, understand why you are giving. Our sports teams are going to have some down years. Get that made up in your mind now. In those lean years in terms of winning, everyone wants to win. The student-athletes want to win just as much as the donors do. It is not that they don't want to win. In terms of your giving, know that you are giving to a worthy cause - to support a student-athlete. In turn, you are supporting a winning program. That is why you give."
You have seen IU as a player, coach and an athletic department staff-member. What differences and similarities have you seen at each level of development?
AT: "I think as a player, coming from Terre Haute, Ind., as a backwards young man and sort of shy, and being able to be around the stardom I was in, I had a lot of good people to help me keep my head level. First off, Coach (Bill) Mallory. My running backs coach, Buck Suhr. Some of my friends back in Terre Haute. Then, as a coach, it is so different. In coaching, you can't do anything about it on Saturday. You put it in to the players and student-athletes and hope that they get it or that they come out and play hard and give it their all. In coaching, you are helpless. At least in a game, you can throw your body into somebody and feel like you did something about it. Sometimes in coaching, I felt bad after the game. At least as a player, I was exerting myself in the game. In coaching, it is controlled violence. It is controlled madness in coaching. That was fun. I missed the high of leading up to the high on Saturday. I missed the camaraderie of the student-athletes and other football players. I missed that. In the administrative part of it as a fundraiser, I get to meet a lot of people that love IU. It is like selling something to your kids. They already know that you love them and that you have provided for them. That is the same way with IU alumni. You don't have to sell the program. They already know the program. You try to give them different areas where they can participate. That has been a lot of fun, and I have met a lot of interesting people. There are a lot of good people out there that love IU. It has been a fun ride. I am expecting to just get better and better at it."
What are your outside interests?
AT: "I am a pastor here at a local church here in town, the Lighthouse Community Church. My interest is people. Being able to speak positive things into peoples' lives. To help them and to challenge them. To help them change in some areas in their life. I try to motivate them and tell them that they can be successful in the game of life. As a pastor, I use a lot of my coaching ability. I look at the congregation as the team. I just coach them, and the Bible is the playbook. I make a game plan throughout the week and on Sunday I preach the game plan. I try to challenge, motivate and inspire them. I try to get some people to come up out of where they are. That is one of my main interests. That is something that motivates me and keeps me going. I am heavily involved in the ministry. That is more than enough on my plate.
I also have my family. I have three children from my wife, Lori. Anthony is 11, Ciara is 9 and Jacob is 5. They keep us busy in their activities and trying to teach them all the history of IU. That has been a lot of fun for me, because now they can understand what IU is about. We have been here in Bloomington since about 1996-97. The kids had never really heard about it. Now that they are in it and are here, they see everything now. That has been a lot of fun."
What do you think about the excitement surging around the program right now with Terry Hoeppner and his coaching staff?
AT: "I first met Coach Hoeppner when he was here for his press conference. I actually met him about 20 minutes before he went to do the press conference. My first impression was `Wow, we got the guy.' I don't know how (Athletics Director) Rick Greenspan did it, but this is The Guy. In just talking to him, I could feel his enthusiasm. This man is passionate about what he does and what he believes in. He has passion for IU, and he knows the climate and history of Indiana Football. That, in itself, goes a long way with the IU culture here. Coach Hoeppner's knowing that and then speaking and knowing how to articulate that, it took him over the hump for me. Just to know that he is a man that treats people right. He is a man that respects the people around him and wants to get all the input he can to be a successful program. He wants people to come and help him in recruiting. He wants positive people to be around his student-athletes so that they can enjoy their college experience. I think he brings a lot to the table with his football knowledge and his enthusiasm. I just think he is the right man for the right time here at Indiana."
What was the 1989 Heisman Trophy process like, with going to the Downtown Athletic Club for the ceremony?
AT: "The Heisman ceremony, I go back to when I was a senior in high school, and I was working out. I was bench-pressing with my buddy. As I was almost maxed out on the last rep, he said do this one for the Heisman trophy. I gutted it out, and I got it. Not knowing that four years later I was going to be at that Heisman Trophy ceremony, I didn't really have any idea about the Heisman. I had no interest in the Heisman in high school. I had no dreams or ambitions at all. To have my name thrown around the Heisman my junior year, that was exciting. To be there, actually at the Heisman ceremony my senior year, I was in awe. I had to pinch myself. You go in this room and see all these pictures of Barry Sanders, Bo Jackson and O.J. Simpson. You see all these pictures. You also see former Heisman Trophy winners there at the ceremony like Archie Griffin. The list goes on. That was exciting and exhilarating. I just remember sitting there and listening to the announcement that Andre Ware had won. It was like a relief. It was like, Wow. It is over with. Thank God. It was so much. The hype was intense. I think there were more people excited for me than I was for myself. I was just happy to be there. I had never been to New York. Out of the four major awards that season, the coaches' choice, the media choice, the Maxwell and the Heisman, I won all three except the Heisman. I did go away with some hardware my senior year. You can't have your cake and eat it too. It was just the experience. The experience taught me a lot about what is real in life. What is important in life?
The thing that was so important to me was my family got to share that. They still talk about it today. They shared those trips when I went to Philadelphia for the Maxwell Award. I'll tell you what is almost on the level as the Heisman trophy ceremony. We were in Philadelphia and this was for the Maxwell Award. Howard Cosell was the emcee. I am sitting at the head table decked out in a tux with my mom and all my family members there. We are all decked out in nice tuxes and everything. They flew us in on the University plane. We were in limo. It was first class. We are at this gala dinner. We had a guy from the media that all he wanted to talk about was the Heisman. Howard got up and said `This is this young man's day.' I remember watching him when I was a kid when he did the highlights. We always used to talk like Howard Cosell. He started saying `This is this young man's day. We are here to celebrate him.' He was going on and giving me props. He was putting this guy in his place. It was me he was talking about. That was awesome. Not because he was getting after the guy, but just hearing Howard talk. We used to mimic him and he was talking about me. That was exciting to me. That ride my senior year was a great one. It taught me a lot of things about life and sharing with my family and friends. That is what made it great for me."
What is the most important piece of advice you would give to a current student-athlete?
AT: "I would say, respect. Respect your coaches. Respect your professors. Locked up in that respect, you work hard and leave everything on the field and in the classroom. You leave this university with a good feeling knowing that you had no reason to come back because you left it all here. Often people ask me if I missed playing football when I was a coach. I don't miss one snap of it because I left it all on the field 15 years ago. I poured out everything. I had nothing left to give. That is a great feeling, because you have so many people saying I wish I could have done this, I wish I could have done that. I wish I would have done this, I wish I would have done that. I have no regrets in terms of football. Academically, I have some regrets. That is a whole different world. I don't miss one snap. That would be my advice, so that they don't have any regrets when they leave this university. Whether it be in your profession career-wise or in football that they leave this university knowing they left everything on the field. That doesn't mean that you've done everything perfect. That doesn't mean that you dotted all your I's and crossed all your T's, it just means that you worked hard, respected your teammates, classmates and that you had fun. Enjoy yourself. College is one of the best times of your life. You grow up in four or five years."
