'The Architect' has Cardinals breathing rarified air
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Posted: June 22, 2007

Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A decade into Tom Jurich's tenure at Louisville, the only thing about the school's athletic program that looks the same as it did when he took over is the man himself.

Jurich's TV-star black hair is thick as ever, his skin still has a preternatural tan. The only evidence that nearly 10 years have passed since Jurich began revitalizing the school's athletic department are the small black circles under his eyes, an occupational hazard that comes when your job sometimes limits you to a couple of hours of sleep a night.

"It doesn't seem like 10 years does it?" he said, somewhat wearily.

Maybe not, but the program Jurich oversees now is not the same one he took over in the fall of 1997. Louisville is going through an unprecedented boom both on the field and off, thanks in large part to the man basketball coach Rick Pitino calls 'The Architect.'

Not that Jurich cares for the label. Or for sitting in his office, kicking his feet up and soaking in arguably the greatest athletic year in school history.

"You know my motto: that status quo means we're failing,"' Jurich said as he nurses his third cup of coffee. "We're going to get better and better."

He's serious when he says this, but you can't help but cock an eyebrow and wonder: how can the Cardinals possibly top 2006-07?

The football team won the Big East title and the Orange Bowl and finished sixth in final poll. The men's basketball finished tied for second in the Big East, made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament and returns almost everybody next fall.

But excellence in basketball and football aren't exactly new developments. What set this year apart from others is what happened elsewhere on campus.

The women's basketball team was ranked for the first time in program history and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament behind the play of Big East Player of the Year Angel McCoughtry. The men's track team finished seventh in the NCAA Championships. The baseball team, which had never won an NCAA Tournament game entering the season, made it all the way to the College World Series.

All told, 17 of Louisville's 22 varsity sports made it to the postseason and a dozen were nationally ranked. While Jurich deflects most of the credit to the players, coaches and his athletic department staff, his fingerprints are everywhere.

When football coach Bobby Petrino stunned his players by bolting for the Atlanta Falcons a few days after winning the Orange Bowl, Jurich needed less than 48 hours to lure old friend Steve Kragthorpe from Tulsa. The city of Louisville finally approved the construction of a riverfront arena that will be the new 22,000-thousand seat home of the men's and women's basketball programs when it opens in 2010. And Jurich has received overwhelming support from donors and local businesses for a massive expansion at Papa John's Stadium that will be ready for the home opener in 2009.

Mention all this to Jurich and ask him what else there is to do, and he doesn't hesitate.

"I want to look forward," he says. "The awards are nice and the championships are nice but we want to be better. We want to be one of the top schools in this country, hands down, and I think we're rapidly getting there."

Faster than everyone but Jurich imagined.

"What's happening at Louisville right now is really something," Pitino said. "It's something, in the late-90s, it seemed impossible."

That, of course, has done little to stop the ever-optimistic Jurich. By the time the new basketball arena opens, every one of Louisville's varsity sports will play in a facility built or renovated during his tenure.

Not bad for a school that University of Kentucky president Dr. Lee Todd hinted "over-marketed and underperformed."

It's a comment Todd may -- or may not -- have meant in jest as a little collegial poke at his school's athletic and academic rival, though it's hard not to notice the number of billboards that have popped up in Louisville in recent weeks promoting the Wildcats' athletic program. Two of the billboards are within a Brian Brohm bomb from Papa John's Stadium. Ask Jurich if it bothers him and his answer is typical Jurich.

"They can advertise in the stadium if they pay the price," he says with a laugh. "We'll put them in there. We're always looking for new revenue."

And Jurich has shown a Midas-like touch in generating new revenue streams for the athletic department, all part of his plan to expand Louisville's athletic brand far and wide rather than play in the shadow of Kentucky's Big Blue Nation.

"I think we look at ours as Planet Red," he says. "Planet Red is what we focus on. I'm not too worried about Big Blue Nation. I'm not too worried about what they do over there."

Not that he has the time. He's busier now than he's ever been and just laughs when he remembers his wife Terrilynn's reaction when he told her he was leaving Colorado State to take the Louisville job.

"She was like, 'What the hell are you doing?"' he says.

Terrilynn doesn't ask that anymore. And though other outlets and organizations have inquired about Jurich's availability, he insists he's not going anywhere.

"There's going to be plenty to do here," he says. "As long as you've got 600 student-athletes and you're trying to achieve your objectives, there's always going to be something to do. I think this is the best college job in America."