The Michigan Daily - Monday, August 9, 2004 - 160
Lee Bollinger (blue ring)
called Bill Martin (grey
ring) to clean up the
Michigan athletic depart-
ment. Gerald Ford (yellow
ring) formed the U OC in
the 1970s.
Martin replaced Marty
Mankamyer (green ring) as
USOC president. Peter
Ueberroth (red ring) took
the reigns as chairmen
when Martin's term ended.
JANITOR OF THE RINGS
By Josh Holman Daily Sports Writer
Bill Martin is the last one to leave
the office at Weidenbach Hall on
State Street. He roams the hall-
ways making sure all the lights are
flicked off. He still has two outdated
file cabinets taking up space in a corner
that he'll have to sort through eventual-
ly. And when there's a mess, Martin is
the one people call to clean it up.
Take a quick look down his resume.
Have you figured out exactly what Bill
Martin does?
"When there's a problem, people say,
'Martin, come and bring your broom
and clean it up," Martin said. "Every-
body nicknames me at times The Jani-
tor. When organizations get in trouble, I
come in and clean them up."
Entire organizations might seem like
a lot for an ordinary janitor to clean up,
but Martin isn't your ordinary janitor.
On top of his responsibilities as
Michigan's Athletic Director, Martin
just closed out an 18-month run as act-
ing president of the United States
Olympic Committee.
If there was ever an organization that
needed cleaning up, it was the USOC.
In May of 2002, President Sandy Bald-
win resigned amid rumors of reportedly
using inaccurate academic credentials.
Baldwin's replacement, Marty
Mankamyer only threw the USOC fur-
ther into disarray. After months of
infighting, Mankamyer and CEO Lloyd
Ward were both eventually ousted from
their positions.
Martin had only recently been elected
Vice President/Secretariat in December
of 2002, a few months before
Mankamyer's resignation.
"Literally, the very first meeting I
attended in that room of the Executive
Committee our president had to
resign," Martin said. "When that hap-
pened, unbeknownst to me because I
never looked at them, our bylaws say
that the Vice President/Secretariat
automatically becomes president. So
all of the sudden I went from being
one of a 125-person board to being
president."
Martin had been thrust into a spot-
light he didn't ask for. He was the
interim president of an organization
rocked by scandal, plagued by budget
problem and in danger of losing mil-
lions from sponsors that were ready to
pull the plug.
Conveniently, Martin had been in that
position before. In 2000, then-Michigan If there's one place for any sort of ter-
President Lee Bollinger came running rorist organization to send a statement
to Martin to help bail out an athletic to the world, the Olympics are that tar-
department mired in budget problems get. It already happened in 1972 in
of its own and a basketball scandal in its Munich, when members of the Palestin-
early stages. ian group Black September took 11
The budget ship is balanced once Israeli athletes hostage in the Olympic
again at Michigan, and the basketball Village, eventually killing them all.
team is free of its sanctions from the "We'll all be holding our breath
Ed Martin ordeal. No wonder Martin - during the Games," Martin said. "But
Bill, not Ed - came with such high having said that, is there any place in
recommendations. And, as his track the world that's really secure? I don't
record shows, he didn't disappoint the think so."
USOC either. Martin experienced the tightened
"Along with some other people, we security firsthand when he visited
put together a good team that knew Athens. Shortly after he arrived, a
how to straighten the organization up," Greek man clad in a black suit and tie
Martin said. "And all of us had no woke Martin from his bed to intro-
evils. None of us had duce himself as
any objective to move "When there's a problem Martin's per-
on." sonal chief of
That team-first atti- people say, 'Martin, come security.
tude completely and bring your broom and "They never
changed the USOC. clean it up.' When organza-told me about
Martin - a banker and tions get in trouble I come this," Martin
real estate man by trade in and clean them up." said. "There
- cut all the fat out of were seven guys
the committee. He - Bill Martinthat guarded me
trimmed down the the entire week.
excess budget and replaced the sen- They wouldn't let me go any place
ior leadership from the start. An without them. A little bit of an organiza-
organization that had suffered from tional challenge right there. I was con-
internal feuding was working togeth- sidered a high-risk target."
er and making some real changes. It's no secret that this year's host city
The most notable change was an has given all sorts of reason for the
entire reform of the USOC structure. international community to be con-
Martin and his team downsized the cerned. It seems as though Athens will
Board of Directors down from 125 to barely finish its facilities on time, and
11 and eliminating his own position, questions have been floating on how
appointing a Chairman to head the seriously Greece has taken security
operations. threats. The U.S. and its international
After Martin got the organization to allies decided to take matters into their
stop worrying about itself, it was able own hands. NATO will now be present
to turn its attention to two monstrous at the Games, and 125 of the U.S.'s own
issues facing the coming Olympic state department security people will
Games. protect athletes and officials.
dred medals," Martin said. "We
changed that here a few months ago.
We don't care if we win a hundred
medals or 50 medals, as long as they're
all clean medals."
It's anyone's guess whether the dop-
ing has been blown out of proportion,
but it will stay on the front pages until
the start of the Games, thanks to the
very public cases of Tim Montgomery
and Marion Jones, who face allegations
of drug use and the possibility of severe
consequences from the United States
Anti-Doping Agency.
"That is entirely in the hands of
USADA," Martin said. "And they are
seeking a lifetime ban for Tim Mont-
gomery. The Marion Jones case is yet to
be heard. It may be she made the team
in the long jump and it's yet to be seen
what's going to happen on that."
Montgomery and Jones both failed to
qualify in their strongest event this year
- the 100-meter dash - saving the
USOC from the trouble of deciding
whether or not to bar two of its
strongest athletes from the ultimate
world stage. According to Martin,
though, if there was any evidence
against them, they were likely to see
consequences from it.
"I liken track and field (and) our
Olympic sports like I had 45 kids and
one of them you had to take out back to
the woodshed," Martin said. "That's
what I did with track and field."
The Jones and Montgomery cases are
only the most public of cases. If any-
thing positive can come from them, it
allows the USOC to make an example
out of even the highest profile athletes.
The problem is still out there, but peo-
ple are at least talking about it.
"I believe we need to have a national
discussion on should we or should we
not have a consistent drug policy across
all sports," Martin said. "I'm talking
from kindergarten through professional
sports, Olympic sports, collegiate
sports. One standard."
Martin has righted the ship at the
USOC, and for him, that's good
enough. He would have been more than
welcome in Athens during the Games,
but instead, he's decided to vacation on
the shores of Lake Superior.
"I don't think it's appropriate to go
and be there when the new leadership is
there," Martin said. "It's their day, not
my day. My day has passed. I don't
want to be any sort of side act to them
because I know all the press and any
issue that would come up the press
would come up and ask me."
It's hard to imagine Martin stealing
the spotlight away from new chair-
man Peter Ueberroth, a former com-
missioner of Major League Baseball.
But through all of this, Martin made
quite a name for himself. He led a
team composed of all-stars like Hol-
lywood producer Frank Marshall
("Raiders of the Lost Ark") and Bill
Stapelton - Lance Armstrong's
friend and agent.
"Everybody just check your ego at
the door and sit down and figure out
what's right for the American
Olympic movement," Martin said.
"You've got to have the right people
who have the organization's interests
ahead of their own."
Given the people Martin has been
directing, keeping a sensible head may
seem harder-than you'd think. He
speaks with Ueberroth on a consistent
basis, and even keeps in touch with for-
mer President and Michigan alumni
Gerald Ford, who played a large part in
forming the USOC in the 1970s when
he was Vice President.
Through all of this, Martin has man-
aged to keep from being star-struck and
even remains humble. That can proba-
bly be attributed to his role here at
Michigan. He's been through the ups
and downs of a national organization,
but when's it's all said and done, he's
still the athletic director at his school.
His reputation precedes him, and peo-
ple often come calling to have him
clean up their own athletic departments
and organizations, but Ann Arbor is the
place to be.
"I'm a Michigan guy," Martin said.
"This is my home. I'm very honored
every time I get those calls, but I'm not
leaving here. Would I look at some-
thing else? I don't know. My objective
is I put Michigan on the right track
financially now"
So now it's time for a much-needed
vacation. Martin can put away his
broom and worry about something a lit-
tle less stressful, like whom to root for
if an American athlete matches up
against a foreign-born Wolverine, like
New Zealander Nick Willis.
"I'm rooting for both of them," Mar-
tin said. "I'm saying may the best man
win. I'mjust proud of both of them, and
I'm happy that they're there."
SECURITY
A lot has changed since the Sydney
Games in 2000. The country's war on
terror and its effect on this year's games
in Athens, Greece is substantial. Fear of
another attack at the Olympics is on
everyone's mind, and it was priority No.
I for Martin.
"I can't tell you how many hours over
the last year I've spent dealing with
security," Martin said. "Everything
from briefings we've had with our own
internal security people to briefings
we've had with our U.S. Ambassador
Tom Miller, to state department staff."
"With NATO coming in, and every-
body else, it's been stepped up
immensely," Martin said. "I feel confi-
dent that the American team will be
secure. I'm not worried about that"
DOPING
When Martin isn't worrying about
how to protect his team's athletes, he's
usually trying to figure out how to keep
them clean.
This year's hot topic seems to be dop-
ing, and everybody has an opinion on it.
Martin's opinion is clear - keep it
clean.
"We've talked about winning a hun-