Paul Brechler--Hall of Fame, July 30, 1989
Paul Brechler: Architect of Iowa's success in '50s
By RON MALY
Register Staff Writer
07/30/1989
There wasn't much Dr. Paul Brechler didn't see in his years as a coach and athletic department administrator at the University of Iowa.
He even saw a lot of Pops Harrison's backside.
"That's when I was an assistant basketball coach under Pops in the 1940s," Brechler recalled. "My main responsibilities were scouting and grabbing Pops by the seat of his pants."
The games were played in Iowa Fieldhouse then, and a low canvas fence separated the coaches' and players' bench from the court.
"Well, Pops would sometimes get upset with the officials," Brechler said, "and it was my job to grab him before he went over the canvas."
After leaving the basketball bench, Brechler moved swiftly up the administrative ladder. He became Iowa's business manager of athletics in 1946, then was named athletic director on July 1, 1947.
The years that followed found the Hawkeye athletic program prospering in the arena and the cash register.
During Brechler's 13-year tenure as athletic director, the 1956 and '58 football teams won Big Ten championships and Rose Bowl games. The coach was Forest Evashevski, whom Brechler hired.
It was also in the Brechler era that Iowa won Big Ten basketball titles in 1955 and '56 and finished fourth and second nationally under Bucky O'Connor, another Brechler appointee.
"We had other successful coaches when I was at Iowa," Brechler said, "men like Francis Cretzmeyer in track and cross-country, Dave McCuskey in wrestling, Dick Holzaepfel in gymnastics and Don Klotz in tennis.
"Their accomplishments made my happy. I always thought an athletic director was lucky if he was successful 50 percent of the time in hiring a coach. I figured I had a 70 percent success rate."
Brechler, born in Curlew 78 years ago, today becomes the 122nd member of The Des Moines Sunday Register's Iowa Sports Hall of Fame. He goes in under a new category that honors those who have made extraordinary contributions to athletics in ways other than as competitors.
Brechler was certainly a contributor -- and still is. Despite a stroke in 1985, and three heart attacks before that, he is listed as commissioner of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, a collection of small colleges. The league includes schools such as Adams State and Colorado School of Mines.
The office, says Wanda Brechler, Paul's second wife, is in the basement of their home in Denver, Colo. "Paul has the title of commissioner," she said, "but I do the work."
The stroke robbed Brechler of the use of his left arm and leg. He uses a wheelchair much of the time.
"I can only walk with a can and someone's help," he said.
But there were days when he was much stronger.
It's rare these days to see a collegiate athlete who participates in football and basketball, but Brechler did at Drake University in the 1930s, after his graduation from Emmetsburg High School.
He was a guard and end on the Bulldogs' football squad, and captained the 1933 team as a senior. In that season, Drake lost only to Illinois, Temple and Oklahoma A&M. Brechler was twice named to the the all-Missouri Valley Conference team.
"I played a little bit of varsity basketball at Drake, but football was my main sport," Brechler said.
Brechler coached three sports at Harlan High School and directed the football and basketball programs at old University High in Iowa City, but it was as Iowa's athletic director that he starred.
He had a bachelor's degree in social studies in 1934 from Drake, a master's in physical education from Iowa in 1941, and a doctorate in education administration from Iowa in 1943.
So he not ony was one of the better-educated athletic directors in the Big Ten, he also was the youngest when he was named to head Iowa's program 16 days short of his 36th birthday in 1947.
Brechler was certainly no stranger to controversy in his years at Iowa. There was a bitter public feur between Brechler and Evashevski, the man he hired to resurrect Hawkeye football before the 1952 season.
In 1959, after Evashevski had taken Iowa to two Big Ten championships, he called working conditions at the university "intolerable." Consequently, some of Evy's supporters demanded Brechler's resignation.
Brechler quit, but not until Aug. 15, 1960, and he says the resignation had nothing to do with pressure from fans who were loyal to the extremely popular Evashevski.
Brechler had been courted for numerous other jobs in athletics when he was at Iowa, but the offer that finally sounded attractive enough to get him to leave was to be commissioner of the Skyline Conference, with headquarters in Denver.
When the league folded after Brechler was on the job for two years, he became the first commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference in Denver, serving for six years.
Evashevski was named to succeed Brechler at Iowa, coached only one more season, then moved into the athletic director's job full-time.
Brechler acknowledges that he was warned about possible problems with Evashevski.
"When I was looking for a new coach, I called a few people I respected," Brechler said. "Fritz Crisler [then the athletic director at Michigan, and a man who coached Evashevski in college], was one of them.
"I asked Crisler, 'Is Evashevski [who then was at Washington State] any good as a football coach?'
"Fritz said, 'He's a good man, but he's sure as hell hard to handle.' I never had any trouble with people, and I thought I could get along with anybody. So I wasn't hesitant to hire Evashevski."
Time hasn't wiped away all Brechler's bitterness of his years with Evashevski.
"I wouldn't say we're the greatest of friends," Brechler said, "but we've been at meetings together since we've been gone from Iowa, and Evashevski and I have spoken to one another.
"We had so many differences of opinion that it probably doesn't do any good to bring them up now. When we were both at iowa, he and I had the same problem -- we talked too much in public."
Although a number of universities -- Indiana, Arizona and Pittsburgh among them -- offered Brechler jobs when he was managing Iowa's program, perhaps the most unusual came from CBS-TV.
"I was on the NCAA television committee," Brechler explained, "and met many times with executives of the networks. Once, after a meeting in New York City, I was asked if I'd be interested in joining CBS.
"I said I'd listen. When I went to the network offices, my name was already on the door. When I happened to ask the people who worked there where most of them lived, they said Connecticut. So I hopped on a train to go to Connecticut to check things out.
"But I almost got squeezed to death in the crush of people. I told myself, 'This isn't for me,' went back to New York City and told CBS that I wasn't interested in the job."
One job Brechler wishes he hadn't taken was athletic director at California in 1968.
"That was the biggest mistake I ever made," he says. "To take it, I resigned as commissioner of the WAC -- the best job I ever had."
At California, Brechler got caught in the Berkeley campus uprisings and left before his contract expired.
When asked for an opinion on the present state of college athletics, Brechler has one word: "Terrible."
He thinks too much money is involved and too much emphasis is placed on winning.
"That puts a lot of pressure on the coaches that shouldn't be there," he said. "An athletic director is only as good as his staff."
But, Brechler adds, the problems aren't new.
"My experience has been that whenever people give money to an athletic department, sooner or later they want to help you run it. They even want to name your coaches.
"When I was at Iowa, I belonged to the Elks Club in Iowa City. Some guy might have a few too many drinks, then come up to me and say, 'When are you gonna get rid of so-and-so as coach?'
"I'd go into cities and towns where fans would come up to me and say, 'Here's $100 or $500, use it any way you want to help your athletic program.' I'd say, 'No, I don't want that money.' They certainly wouldn't want that kind of stuff done in their own businesses."
Brechler said even the small league he and his wife now run, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, isn't immune to problems.
"When I became commissioner of this league," he said, "I thought, 'Boy, this is it -- a program that will be good for the athlete, not the coaches or the alumni.'
"But that hasn't turned out to be the case. They cheat at this level, too."
Wanda and Paul Brechler have been married for 32 years. She had been his secretary at Iowa. They were married after his 21-year marriage to Bonnie Brechler ended in divorce in 1957. Brechler has two sons from his first marriage -- Bill, now 48, and Steve, 38. He has six grandchildren.
By RON MALY
Register Staff Writer
07/30/1989
There wasn't much Dr. Paul Brechler didn't see in his years as a coach and athletic department administrator at the University of Iowa.
He even saw a lot of Pops Harrison's backside.
"That's when I was an assistant basketball coach under Pops in the 1940s," Brechler recalled. "My main responsibilities were scouting and grabbing Pops by the seat of his pants."
The games were played in Iowa Fieldhouse then, and a low canvas fence separated the coaches' and players' bench from the court.
"Well, Pops would sometimes get upset with the officials," Brechler said, "and it was my job to grab him before he went over the canvas."
After leaving the basketball bench, Brechler moved swiftly up the administrative ladder. He became Iowa's business manager of athletics in 1946, then was named athletic director on July 1, 1947.
The years that followed found the Hawkeye athletic program prospering in the arena and the cash register.
During Brechler's 13-year tenure as athletic director, the 1956 and '58 football teams won Big Ten championships and Rose Bowl games. The coach was Forest Evashevski, whom Brechler hired.
It was also in the Brechler era that Iowa won Big Ten basketball titles in 1955 and '56 and finished fourth and second nationally under Bucky O'Connor, another Brechler appointee.
"We had other successful coaches when I was at Iowa," Brechler said, "men like Francis Cretzmeyer in track and cross-country, Dave McCuskey in wrestling, Dick Holzaepfel in gymnastics and Don Klotz in tennis.
"Their accomplishments made my happy. I always thought an athletic director was lucky if he was successful 50 percent of the time in hiring a coach. I figured I had a 70 percent success rate."
Brechler, born in Curlew 78 years ago, today becomes the 122nd member of The Des Moines Sunday Register's Iowa Sports Hall of Fame. He goes in under a new category that honors those who have made extraordinary contributions to athletics in ways other than as competitors.
Brechler was certainly a contributor -- and still is. Despite a stroke in 1985, and three heart attacks before that, he is listed as commissioner of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, a collection of small colleges. The league includes schools such as Adams State and Colorado School of Mines.
The office, says Wanda Brechler, Paul's second wife, is in the basement of their home in Denver, Colo. "Paul has the title of commissioner," she said, "but I do the work."
The stroke robbed Brechler of the use of his left arm and leg. He uses a wheelchair much of the time.
"I can only walk with a can and someone's help," he said.
But there were days when he was much stronger.
It's rare these days to see a collegiate athlete who participates in football and basketball, but Brechler did at Drake University in the 1930s, after his graduation from Emmetsburg High School.
He was a guard and end on the Bulldogs' football squad, and captained the 1933 team as a senior. In that season, Drake lost only to Illinois, Temple and Oklahoma A&M. Brechler was twice named to the the all-Missouri Valley Conference team.
"I played a little bit of varsity basketball at Drake, but football was my main sport," Brechler said.
Brechler coached three sports at Harlan High School and directed the football and basketball programs at old University High in Iowa City, but it was as Iowa's athletic director that he starred.
He had a bachelor's degree in social studies in 1934 from Drake, a master's in physical education from Iowa in 1941, and a doctorate in education administration from Iowa in 1943.
So he not ony was one of the better-educated athletic directors in the Big Ten, he also was the youngest when he was named to head Iowa's program 16 days short of his 36th birthday in 1947.
Brechler was certainly no stranger to controversy in his years at Iowa. There was a bitter public feur between Brechler and Evashevski, the man he hired to resurrect Hawkeye football before the 1952 season.
In 1959, after Evashevski had taken Iowa to two Big Ten championships, he called working conditions at the university "intolerable." Consequently, some of Evy's supporters demanded Brechler's resignation.
Brechler quit, but not until Aug. 15, 1960, and he says the resignation had nothing to do with pressure from fans who were loyal to the extremely popular Evashevski.
Brechler had been courted for numerous other jobs in athletics when he was at Iowa, but the offer that finally sounded attractive enough to get him to leave was to be commissioner of the Skyline Conference, with headquarters in Denver.
When the league folded after Brechler was on the job for two years, he became the first commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference in Denver, serving for six years.
Evashevski was named to succeed Brechler at Iowa, coached only one more season, then moved into the athletic director's job full-time.
Brechler acknowledges that he was warned about possible problems with Evashevski.
"When I was looking for a new coach, I called a few people I respected," Brechler said. "Fritz Crisler [then the athletic director at Michigan, and a man who coached Evashevski in college], was one of them.
"I asked Crisler, 'Is Evashevski [who then was at Washington State] any good as a football coach?'
"Fritz said, 'He's a good man, but he's sure as hell hard to handle.' I never had any trouble with people, and I thought I could get along with anybody. So I wasn't hesitant to hire Evashevski."
Time hasn't wiped away all Brechler's bitterness of his years with Evashevski.
"I wouldn't say we're the greatest of friends," Brechler said, "but we've been at meetings together since we've been gone from Iowa, and Evashevski and I have spoken to one another.
"We had so many differences of opinion that it probably doesn't do any good to bring them up now. When we were both at iowa, he and I had the same problem -- we talked too much in public."
Although a number of universities -- Indiana, Arizona and Pittsburgh among them -- offered Brechler jobs when he was managing Iowa's program, perhaps the most unusual came from CBS-TV.
"I was on the NCAA television committee," Brechler explained, "and met many times with executives of the networks. Once, after a meeting in New York City, I was asked if I'd be interested in joining CBS.
"I said I'd listen. When I went to the network offices, my name was already on the door. When I happened to ask the people who worked there where most of them lived, they said Connecticut. So I hopped on a train to go to Connecticut to check things out.
"But I almost got squeezed to death in the crush of people. I told myself, 'This isn't for me,' went back to New York City and told CBS that I wasn't interested in the job."
One job Brechler wishes he hadn't taken was athletic director at California in 1968.
"That was the biggest mistake I ever made," he says. "To take it, I resigned as commissioner of the WAC -- the best job I ever had."
At California, Brechler got caught in the Berkeley campus uprisings and left before his contract expired.
When asked for an opinion on the present state of college athletics, Brechler has one word: "Terrible."
He thinks too much money is involved and too much emphasis is placed on winning.
"That puts a lot of pressure on the coaches that shouldn't be there," he said. "An athletic director is only as good as his staff."
But, Brechler adds, the problems aren't new.
"My experience has been that whenever people give money to an athletic department, sooner or later they want to help you run it. They even want to name your coaches.
"When I was at Iowa, I belonged to the Elks Club in Iowa City. Some guy might have a few too many drinks, then come up to me and say, 'When are you gonna get rid of so-and-so as coach?'
"I'd go into cities and towns where fans would come up to me and say, 'Here's $100 or $500, use it any way you want to help your athletic program.' I'd say, 'No, I don't want that money.' They certainly wouldn't want that kind of stuff done in their own businesses."
Brechler said even the small league he and his wife now run, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, isn't immune to problems.
"When I became commissioner of this league," he said, "I thought, 'Boy, this is it -- a program that will be good for the athlete, not the coaches or the alumni.'
"But that hasn't turned out to be the case. They cheat at this level, too."
Wanda and Paul Brechler have been married for 32 years. She had been his secretary at Iowa. They were married after his 21-year marriage to Bonnie Brechler ended in divorce in 1957. Brechler has two sons from his first marriage -- Bill, now 48, and Steve, 38. He has six grandchildren.
posted by ronald wesley maly at 11:14 AM
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