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Thursday, July 2, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS

Director of counseling Harden retires after 34 years

After 34 years at Michigan, 
Greg 
Harden, 
who 
served 
as 
both 
executive 
associate 
athletic director and director of 
counseling has retired, Angelique 
Chengelis from the Detroit News 
reported Monday. Harden joined 
Michigan after being hired by Bo 
Schembechler 1986 and grew the 
prevalence of the mental well-
being 
of 
athletes 
throughout 
his years at the University and 
established 
the 
importance 
of 
mental 
health 
to 
athletic 
achievement.
“So from the moment that our 
student athletes step on campus 
every year they participate in a 
multitude of different trainings,” 
assistant 
director 
of 
athletic 
counseling Abigail Eiler said in an 
interview with The Daily in April. 
“One is the high impact training, 
another is a welcome home event 
where a counseling team does a lot 
of psycho-education about taking 
care of themselves and utilizing 

that wholistic perspective — it’s 
not just your physical health, it’s 
your mental health, emotional 
health and beyond.”
Throughout his time in Ann 
Arbor, Harden has worked with 
athletes like Tom Brady, Desmond 
Howard, Jalen Rose and Michael 
Phelps to help them through rough 
periods of their lives, but has also 
worked with less high-profile 
athletes. His department doesn’t 
just show up to football practices, 
but they have counselors attend 
track meets, hockey games and 
other smaller sporting events.
“We will be working with teams 
on high performance,” Eiler said, 
“all the way up to working with 
students individually that are 
experiencing severe and persistent 
mental illness and so because 
there’s that spectrum there are so 
many different entry points.”
Desmond Howard said in a 2014 
60 Minutes interview without 
Harden, he wouldn’t have won the 
Heisman Trophy during the 1991 
season. Tom Brady, in an interview 
with the Detroit News, said 
Harden set him on a path to “Stop 

complaining and start doing.” His 
story is one that can be told by the 
hundreds of athletes he meets with 
a year, who claim he is the “unsung 
hero” of Michigan athletics.
Harden’s 
philosophy 
he 
bestowed on the athletes was 

to “control the controllables.” A 
simple mantra, it transcends sport 
into life, powerfully resonating 
with athletes who are struggling 
with something outside a field, 
court or rink.
While 
Harden 
is 
officially 

retiring this summer, it isn’t the 
first time he’s thought about it — 
Harden considered retirement in 
2016, but with the hiring of new 
Athletic Director Warde Manuel, 
he stayed on for a couple more years 
to smooth out the transition. Now, 
he leaves behind a department that 
is larger and more vital to success 
than ever before.

KENT SCHWARTZ
Summer Managing Sports Editor

MAX KUANG/Daily
Director of counseling Greg Harden helped athletes with mental health issues across his 34 years with the Wolverines.

Michigan releases athletic budget, projects $26.1 million deficit

The University of Michigan 
Athletic 
Department 
released 
its budget projections Monday, 
predicting a deficit for the next 
fiscal year. 
For the current fiscal year, 
the department expects a one 
million dollar surplus as a result 
of reduced team activities and 
operations expenses following 
the COVID-19 pandemic. The 
official 
department 
revenue 
comes out to $187.4 million while 
accruing $186.4 million in costs. 
During 
the 
2020-21 
fiscal 
year, beginning on July 1, the 
athletic department expects its 
revenue to drop to just $135.8 
million 
while 
its 
expenses 
decrease to $161.9 million, which 
would lead to a deficit of $26.1 
million. The revenue decrease 
is based mainly on a 50 percent 
decrease in spectator admissions 
revenue, while the expenses are 
dropping due to a mixture of 
decreased expenditures in all 

areas, including team and game 
expenditures, and a salary cut 
for senior level employees — 
including 10 percent reductions 
from athletic director Warde 
Manuel, 
football 
coach 
Jim 
Harbaugh and men’s basketball 

coach Juwan Howard. 
“Full-time 
staff 
members 
earning 
between 
$50,000-
$100,000 
will 
have 
salaries 
reduced 
by 
5 
percent, 
and 
employees 
earning 
between 
$100,001-$150,000 
will 
have 

wages reduced by 7.5 percent 
during the same period,” the 
University said in a statement. 
“Staff earning less than $50,000 
will not see any reduction in pay.”
One 
expense 
that 
is 
not 
projected to have cuts is student-

athlete financial aid:
“That category will see an 
increase of $0.8 million,” the 
release 
said. 
“Primarily 
due 
an increase in the number of 
student-athletes 
remaining 
on scholarship following the 
cancellation of the 2020 spring 
athletic season and anticipated 
increases in tuition.”
Perhaps the most lofty goal is 
a decrease in admissions revenue 
by just 50 percent, in a time when 
the United States is experiencing 
a second wave of COVID-19. 
Most of that revenue comes from 
football game days, and until 
Michigan and the Big Ten create 
a policy on how many spectators 
are allowed within stadiums, that 
number will remain an optimistic 
projection.
Michigan, with one of the 
largest 
athletic 
departments, 
is better-suited to withstand 
the detriments of the current 
crisis than smaller programs. 
Still, the downriver effects may 
be significant, especially with 
the 
uncertainty 
surrounding 
whether there will be fans in the 
stadium — or sports at all.

KENT SCHWARTZ & 
NICK STOLL
Summer Managing Sports Editors

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Athletic Director Warde Manuel is predicting a $26.1 million deficit for the athletic department’s budget in 2020-21.

