Mag Exclusive: Del Conte steering Horns ahead

By Tom Buckley

If you think your schedule is demanding, be glad you’re not Chris Del Conte.

The university’s athletic director, who took over for Mike Perrin in December 2017, typically rises before 6 a.m. and might get home at 7 or 8 p.m.

Unless, that is, one of the sports teams he oversees is playing locally — if so, he’ll be there.

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Or unless he’s traveling, as he was the day before this interview, when he flew in from Kentucky, drove to Austin from Houston, and got home after midnight. And unless he’s involved in any of the myriad tasks required of UT’s athletics ambassador.

“Phew,” he exclaims when asked about his schedule. “It’s crazy.”

And Del Conte wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s passionate, personable and possesses boundless energy — which explains the success he’s had first at Rice, then TCU and now in Austin.

“Anyone who loves the University of Texas and bleeds burnt orange wants those attributes in their leader,” notes John Bianco, senior associate AD for communications, who’s now in his third decade at UT. “He brings energy to every room and any discussion he’s in, and he has big, bold visions and high expectations.”

While at TCU, Del Conte developed winning programs — most notably in football — upgraded facilities, improved the fan experience and helped his student- athletes excel both on and off the field.

His tenure there has been described as “historic.” Now he’s continued that record at Texas, overseeing the renovation of Darrel K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium and the establishment of a new basketball arena, overhauling the game day experience for football, and developing, with his staff, an academic plan that’s resulted in an overall GPA among student-athletes that’s north of 3.0.

But what separates Del Conte from other ADs may very well be his dedication to the fanbase. Every “T” is crossed when it comes to improving the fan experience at Texas, all while respecting the pride and tradition central to the University. He refers to fans as “stakeholders,” and was responsible for a group home for foster children in New Mexico. That’s where Del Conte grew up and learned the life lessons he now carries with him.

Del Conte took time out of his jam-packed day to speak with Horns Illustrated recently.

Q: Let’s begin with a softball. Why Texas?

Del Conte: Well, it was the University of Texas — the top brand in college athletics. We have one rodeo in life, and when this job came open — at an iconic institution and an iconic collegiate program — I knew it was an opportunity to test myself at the highest level, not just in terms of competition, but in terms of what the University of Texas means to the state, to its constituents, to college athletics. I wanted to serve the very best. I had to take it.

I have a unique perceptive on three institutions in Texas. I may be the only AD who’s served at three institutions in one state, in fact. Think of the movie Hoosiers. Gene Hackman coaches that little team from Hickory, Ind., and that team starts to progress to the playoffs. Well, Rice is 3,000 students with 30,000 living alumni, and passion for the Owls runs deep.

Then Hackman’s team wins the district and goes to the sectional game at a bigger gymnasium. That’s TCU — you’ve got 8,000 students and 50,000 living alumni, who have great passion for their school.

Now we’re at Hinkle Fieldhouse for the state championship — and that’s the University of Texas … 50,000 students, 600,000 living alumni. Now what does Gene Hackman do? He tells the players it’s still a 10-foot rim, a 15- foot free throw and a 94-foot court. It’s just the scope that’s bigger.

Here you have the eyes of Texas upon you at all times. You have the state capital right here. You have historic relevance. There’s a sign in the weight room I love — it reads, “The pride and winning tradition of The University of

Texas will not be entrusted to the weak nor the timid.” That sums up the University of Texas — whether you’re on the playing fields, whether you’re in the classroom, wherever you go … this program is always, always the hunted. That’s different than being the hunter.

There are pros and cons to that.

DC: Right. The upside is you have 600,000 people who are with you. The downside is that when it’s not going right, you have 600,000 people who go, “What’s going on?!” Expectations are great, and our kids feel it … our coaches feel that weight … the community feels it.

If you think about athletics, it’s the front porch of a university. We’re here because of the University of Texas, first and foremost. The University of Texas is why we’re here. The athletic department is just the front porch that invites holding the first-ever Texas Athletics Town Hall so he could listen to their ideas.

Such dedication and drive definitely has not gone unnoticed.

“He gives Texas a knowledgeable, powerful and impactful voice among the leaders of the Big 12 and in the world of college athletics,” Bianco adds. “He’s constantly looking at ways to make things better for coaches, student- athletes, staff and everyone who supports our programs.”

And he makes himself available — to coaches, to staff, to student-athletes, to media, to fans and supporters, and for community events. That’s something he learned from his father, Robert Del Conte, who was famously known for never saying no, and who started 100,000 people on a football weekend, 15,000 for a men’s basketball game, 10,000 for women, 8,000 for baseball, 5,000 for volleyball … they come to celebrate their university. And our student-athletes are representing them on the playing fields. With that comes a lot of passion, and that’s what the University of Texas has … a passionate fanbase.

It’s a challenge, too. Darrell Royal used to say, “Once the BBs are out of the box, it’s hard to put them back in.” I look at it another way — once the BBs are out of the box, you have to get your passionate fanbase to help you pick them up one at a time. That’s how you stoke momentum, and when you stoke momentum, it’s not a tsunami that’s coming your way, it’s a reckoning.

In what way were the BBs out of the box when you arrived here?


DC: Start with the psyche. We’ve had three chancellors, two presidents, three football coaches, four ADs, two basketball coaches and two baseball coaches in five years. There’s a lot of BBs out there, baby. [Laughs] Just think that through. That’s where we’re spending a lot of our time — just focusing on asking people to put the “T” back in Texas.

Now, someone will say, “It’s always been there,” and they’re right, but we’re asking you to emphasize it by being a part of what we’re doing — whether it’s buying a season ticket, buying a T-shirt, going to a volleyball game, supporting a brand new football facility and basketball arena … and a new Texas Athletics Hall of Fame. That’s a capstone right now. We’re building a massive, 30,000-square-foot Hall of Fame in the north end zone — the first place on our campus that’s had all of our trophies centralized. People will walk in and go, “Wow, this is what it means to be a Longhorn. Right here.” That will be awesome, and it will open on Aug. 31.

So when I say the BBs are out of the box, our recent history has seen a lot of upheaval. So we’re asking everyone, “Hey look — we are the University of Texas. Here’s our vision.

Here’s how we’re going to go about it. Here are our core values.” And my personal core values are to be honest, to be humble in the things we do and to serve other people — and if you serve other people and you’re humble doing it, great things can happen.

How do you emphasize the student part of student-athlete?

DC: I tell every student-athlete who comes here on a recruiting trip that “Athletics is what you do. It’s not who you are.” The university is going to get the very best out of you — that’s what the university does.

But young people identify who they are based on what they’re good at — whether it be an athlete or a musician or whatever else helps you gain self-confidence. And a professor’s job is to say, “Hey, you’re really good at this as well.”

So I tell athletes,“What you do is play sports. Who you are and who you’re going to develop into will come from the university and who you surround yourself with, and the growth that comes from being at the University of Texas.”

What specifically are you doing to emphasize academics?

DC: We make it a priority. We have an unbelievable academic staff. We celebrate academic success along with athletic success. The reality is, if I make it a priority for our staff, for our coaches and for our student-athletes, that becomes a systemic vein within our core organization. I may not be there every single day with them, but when you make it a priority, that vein becomes such a part of your core makeup that when we’re at a staff meeting we’ll talk about the fact that we have 300 kids with a 3.0 GPA … that we have 50 with a 4.0 GPA. We talk about “4Ever Texas” and how you can get a job beyond the handshake.

We’re ensuring that when you go to school here, the employment opportunities are phenomenal in the fields you want to study. So it just becomes a core part of our ethos. But for me personally, it’s making it an emphasis.

To me, it’s a little bit different because I grew up in a children’s home — there were 85 of us. Sports was a way for us to get an education, for us to become popular. So I understand what the power of athletics can be.

But there’s that “a- ha” moment when you realize you received a scholarship based on what you do. Who you’re ultimately going to be is about the professors on this campus and who your friends are and how you mature and grow. And you’ll look back on your college years and think, “Boy, that was an awesome time for me. I found myself. They set me on a path for who I am today.”

But it’s not just talking about it — it’s going over our academic plan and deciding what our “4Ever Texas” plan is going to be. We sit down … we write the core curriculum out, and we discuss it.

We’re involved in it. I have a marketing director who writes out the entire marketing plan for football, and I sign the marketing plan, the head coach signs the marketing plan, and the marketing director signs it, too, so we know exactly what we’re doing throughout the year. Same with academics. We’ll make a curriculum for a kid — and that kid will typically have that “a-ha” moment their junior year of college. That’s when I had mine…when I realized,“I’m not going to the Olympics.”

That moment is awesome. And we capture that with each student — “Here’s what you can be, here’s what we can do.” Coming to the University of Texas isn’t a four-year decision — it’s a 50-year decision. And here’s how we’re going to be “4Ever Texas.”

What prompted you to transform the football game day experience?

DC: You’re familiar with R&D — research and development? Well, I’m a big fan of R&D, too — only mine is rip off and duplicate. Yesterday, I flew to Alabama, then to Kentucky, with a group of donors. I wanted them to see what those schools are doing, to hear from their ADs, to look at their physical plan. And part of that is just gleaning things.

When I go to an away football game, we’ll get there four hours before the game, and I’ll tell our marketing director, “OK, you need to go pay attention to how they do their in-game … how they run their ads, what they’re doing with their public address system, tell me about their food … everything.” Then I’ll have another guy walk all the parking lots — see how their tailgating is set up … where they’re located, what they do. Another guy will go through all their pregame seating. Someone else will gather all their media guides and look through those. Then we’ll come back and say, “OK, what did we like?”

But really, this idea of a game-day experience came from Disney. I had them come in, and I spent a lot of time talking with them about how they operate. And they said, “You know what? We outsource some concessions, we outsource parking, we outsource other things … but we make all those people feel like they’re Disney employees.”

The Disney experience starts when you buy your ticket — when you make that emotional purchase, and you’re coming to Disneyland.

Look at how it’s packaged.

Our new packaging for our ticket renewal this year was “Come Celebrate Texas,”and we put a big Bevo on it. We talk about when that person makes that buy — how it starts with that ticket.Then they travel to the game, then they park in their parking lot — is it clean, is it friendly, is there an attendant there? Then they come on campus, and what do they see?

When you go through the gates at Disneyland, you see all the sights and smells of Disneyland, and you wait for three hours for the Matterhorn, because the line is so long. What is Disney doing around that … to create energy while you’re waiting for that ride? It’s no different than a football game. Then after the ride’s over, you’re exhausted, and your kids get home at night, and they go, “Dad, that was the best!” Then you go back the next weekend.

I took that model, and laid it around the football game. I said let’s talk about how we design the ticket package. Let’s talk about the parking experience. How’s the tailgate experience? And when fans walk on campus and get in front of the stadium, are there sights and smells? And why not have our student-athletes walk down in front of the stadium?

A lot of coaches have the Bevo Walk … or the Walk of Champions, or whatever. Why don’t we create a place where fans celebrate, and they can walk through that? We came up with a great place for that. And we have the very best mascot — Bevo — and that mascot ought to lead the charge in. And we have an unbelievable band.

So we just started playing with the parts. What is Austin known for? Food trucks — you know, food connoisseurs, different types of beverages — and music. So we laid out a plan to see if we could create a different way to celebrate our university — especially at Texas, where we have parking garages everywhere and not surface lots. We were always thinking, how can we create a different dynamic with things around campus to create a different environment?

Then they go into the stadium, and we changed that experience, too. We lowered our prices dramatically, so a family of four can come and say, “That was worth every single penny.” And we added a pregame concert and a post-game concert for our students, because on our campus there are only 7,000 beds — the rest of those kids are living off-campus. We need to get them here early.

What’s the response been like?

DC: Fans like the pomp and circumstance — and just seeing something new. It really is a celebration — the cheerleaders, the band. We have a lot of improvement to do, but we’re making strides, and that’s all I can ask for.

This year was all about throwing it out there to see what would happen, and we evolved throughout the year.

Success helps. When you combine all the festivities with winning and our student- athletes doing an amazing job on the field, it’s fantastic. Plus, we had a lot of close games, so there was great energy we kept feeding off. But regardless of that, we were just going to change the dynamic. And admittedly, there was a lot of “Let me dip my toe in, and see if it works.”

So here’s your big chance to reveal what will be different about the experience this year.


DC: Remember Gomer Pyle? Surprise, surprise, surprise. [Laughs]

You’ve got a lot on your plate, but I’m curious if you’ve thought about adding sports like, say, men’s soccer.

DC: I haven’t considered it. We’ve been focused on improving the plan for the 20 sports we do offer — improving those sports with the goal that every one of those teams will be a top- 10 team. Because if you’re in the top 10, that means you have the chance to compete for a national championship.

Now, you never know when a team is going to galvanize — like Loyola of Chicago in men’s basketball last year — and have one of those magical runs. But if you’re consistently working on it, more often than not your team can compete for a title. And that’s what we’re trying to do.

What do you look for in a coach?

DC: A great work ethic — they’ve built programs, they have great character, they graduate their kids. They’ve won on and off the field. But you also have to look for the right fit. You can have a great coach at Providence College who might not be a great fit for the University of Texas — just geographically, maybe from a recruiting standpoint or maybe because their family wouldn’t want to come here. But if they have all the qualities I’ve articulated and they’re a good fit, oh boy, it’s magical when it works.

Of course, the University of Texas isn’t a starter job either. You have to hire someone who’s had success where they’ve been, with what they’ve built, and who wants the challenge of coaching at the University of Texas. Because for every sport we participate in, it says “Texas” across the chest. And that opposing team is going to give you 20 percent more effort when they play Texas rather than someone else, because again, we’re the University of Texas, a program that has great history and tradition, and you’re always the hunted. And you have to embrace that and know that going in.

What’s the toughest thing for an AD to deal with?


DC: Managing passion. I’m running an enterprise based on people’s passion. And very rational people can become irrational when it comes to passion — whether it’s the student- athletes or the coaches or the staff or University leadership. My mantra has always been, “Just be honest. Always tell the truth. And serve others to the best of your ability.”

It strikes me that those are qualities your dad possessed.

DC: Yes. And if I didn’t value those qualities, he’d let me know. Every child … their emotional intelligence comes from their folks. Their academic knowledge comes from what they’ve been taught. And those two things form their opinion. So my emotional intelligence comes from my mother and father, and my academic intelligence comes from what I learn and read today and continue to strive for.

But I’m always observing and adding things to the tool kit to improve my- self and the organization to which I belong.

What’s been the highlight of your time here thus far?

DC: There are so many. Last year’s graduation … watching those kids graduate, even though I’d only known them for six months. Graduation is such a great day. Only 30 percent of the U.S. population has a college degree, and now you’re one of those … at one of the top 10 public institutions in the world.

And our baseball team going to Omaha … that run we had was awesome. And our football team this year having that run. And really, little successes — like when a kid who’s been struggling in a class comes in and says, “I just got a B.” And you cerebrate that B, because you know where he came from, and how difficult that B was to attain. But he got that B, and I’m like, “Dude, are you kidding me?! That’s the best!”

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