Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 11, 1995 TAG: 9508110035
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
McCloskey, a biology major, was hired by the Hokies to help resod Lane Stadium when Bill Dooley became Tech's athletic director and football coach in 1978.
She helped lay the sod, then spent hours moving water pipes - even through overnight stays - at the stadium before it had a sprinkler system.
McCloskey's profile in Tech sports certainly has sprouted since then, and Thursday, Tech athletic director Dave Braine announced McCloskey has been named senior associate athletic director.
It looks nice on a business card, but what it really means is that McCloskey is the No.2 person in Tech athletics. When Braine's away, a woman is in charge in what almost everywhere has been overwhelmingly a man's world.
Or, as one Tech athletic staffer put it, McCloskey ``is one heartbeat away from the AD's office.''
Tech also announced another well-deserved promotion, as business manager Jeff Bourne, a Salem native, becomes associate AD for administration.
Bourne was sent into athletics by Tech's administration to help straighten out the financial mess about a decade ago. He did that, and never left. McCloskey already was there.
In a program that just settled a Title IX lawsuit, a program that did little more than tolerate women's athletics until the '90s, this is more than progress.
It's stunning, unless you know Sharon McCloskey. Two men rarely given to overstatement turn Old Faithful-like when asked about McCloskey's promotion.
``She's the best I've ever been around,'' Tech football coach Frank Beamer said.
``Sharon is really a special person, and that's special with a capital `S',''' gushed assistant men's basketball coach Bobby Hussey.
Braine kept telling McCloskey, in her job-performance reviews, that one day she would be where she is today.
``I just didn't think it would be this soon,'' said McCloskey, 39, whose career goal is to become an AD sometime, somewhere.
She came to Tech from Falls Church with hopes of becoming a veterinarian. She said she didn't get the grades, but her smarts in Tech athletics belie that statement.
Turns out that while McCloskey fashioned herself a Dr. Doolittle, she was really a vibrant people person who would - and could - do much.
She was working in banking after graduation but kept pestering Tech assistant AD Don Perry about a job. Her landlord was assistant AD Bill ``Moose'' Matthews. Finally, Perry called with an opportunity.
``Coach Dooley had an opening for a football receptionist,'' McCloskey said. ``I had an interview with him, and I knew he was reluctant to hire me, but he did.''
That was 1984. It wasn't long after that she became the football recruiting coordinator. McCloskey says it was because ``there was only one word processor in the building, and I figured out how to work it.''
When Beamer replaced Dooley as the Hokies' coach, he listened to McCloskey's ideas about playing host to football recruits. She used to watch coaches take prospects into town for dinner.
``I always thought the best thing we have to sell is the campus,'' McCloskey said.
So, she convinced Beamer, among other ideas, to start having recruiting meals in the Bowman Room atop Jamerson Center, overlooking Lane Stadium. It was dinner by candlelight and floodlights.
About the only job McCloskey hasn't had in Tech athletics is ``coach.'' And maybe that's a plus. She has been on several search committees for Hokie coaches.
``You hire people and tell them to coach,'' she said. ``You don't hire them and tell them how to coach.''
McCloskey has been the Tech women's athletic administrator, but she also is the department's university liaison on admissions. And she is the chief administrator for football.
Asked whether Braine or McCloskey was his boss, Beamer, glancing at the ceiling of his second-floor office said, ``I think both of them. They're both up on the third floor. I call Sharon ``Ma'am'' and Dave ``Sir.''
McCloskey certainly is comfortable with who and where she is. She drives a 1991 Chevy pickup truck. She will sit down with an athlete and candidly discuss a subject as well as a coach or fellow staffer. Her office isn't large or ornate.
Hussey said McCloskey's willingness to take time to work with others in thorough fashion is only one of her strengths.
``She adapts to whatever environment she's in so well,'' he said. ``Sharon is so intelligent, and she has such a great disposition. Then, she can bottom-line you in a heartbeat, too. A good administrator can do that.''
One of McCloskey's ideas for football recruiting weekends was to display an invited prospect's name in huge letters on the Lane Stadium message board.
That's the kind of bright-lights treatment McCloskey herself deserves. It just goes to show where you can get when you start with a grass-roots effort.
by CNB