Leadership isn’t a singular word to Ross Bjork.
After all, the Ole Miss athletic director wouldn’t assume one individual could take sole responsibility for helping a school build its athletic budget from $50 million to $96 million in a little more than four years.
But as much as Bjork praised all of the school’s coaches, players, staff members, and fans for being part of a resurgence of Ole Miss athletics on Tuesday at the Columbus Rotary Club meeting at Lion Hills Center and Golf Course, his comments exuded the confidence and poise of a man who understands how to bring people together, how to raise money, and how to chart a course to get everyone to move forward together.
“We’re really nothing without our team,” Bjork said. “When you stand in front of your entire athletic staff and say, ‘OK, I am responsible for their future,’ that is a big responsibility. I take that very seriously.”
The growth of the athletic department’s budget from about $50 million when Bjork arrived from Western Kentucky in 2012 to $96 million for the 2015-16 school year has allowed the school to fund a number of initiatives that have been a part of its Forward Together campaign, including improvements and renovations to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium — the Rebels’ home for football — and the construction of The Pavilion at Ole Miss, a multi-purpose facility that will be the new home for the men’s and women’s basketball teams. Bjork said the building is on schedule to play host to Ole Miss’ Southeastern Conference games in 2016.
Chris Carson, who was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but whose family is from Columbus, said he is a “huge” Ole Miss fan. He backed that claim up by wearing a red polo shirt with a small, embroidered head of Colonel Reb, the old-time mascot of the school. Carson said Bjork has commanded respect and helped energize fans everywhere. He said Bjork has done a great job finding a way to transfer the sense of community Ole Miss fans have into support of the school’s teams.
“He has earned a lot of respect,” Carson said. “That is the number one thing players, coaches, and fans look up to. They want a strong leader, and I think Ross exemplifies a man who deserves a lot of respect. He has brought together all of the coaches, staff members, the players, the fans into that family atmosphere. To have a family, you have to have a strong leader, and that is what Ross has done up until this point.”
Corky Smith has been an Ole Miss fan all of his life. He said he remembers when Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and Oxford-University Stadium at Swayze Field, the school’s home for baseball, weren’t as luxurious. He has seen Ole Miss fans join together behind the school and its athletic teams. He credits Bjork for spearheading that enthusiasm.
“You have everybody really coming together and supporting it,” said Smith, the Rotary Club’s president-elect for 2016. “I think that has translated because I think a lot of the players see that in every sport. It really energizes them.
“You see a lot more people who are willing to give to the program. That is huge. When you have a lot of people who are just there to see what they can get out of a program, it doesn’t do very well. … I think a lot of folks are giving a lot more of their time and a lot more funding. That has really started to play dividends.”
Bjork said he will continue to be a steward of the athletic department who works to help Ole Miss compete with the titans in college sports.
“People look to leadership so they are confident in sending in their ticket donations or ticket renewals,” Bjork said. “If those things are going correctly and we are doing all of the other things correctly, I think people will invest.”
Bjork noted Ole Miss and MSU are “getting to a point” where they will make a decision about the future of the Egg Bowl, the annual matchup between the schools’ football teams. The game will be played again on a Saturday this season, but he said conversations continue about possibly moving the game to another day.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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