Tell Tate he's off his rocker here

Steve Stricker, firmly established as one of the world's golf icons, will be honored at a reception and auction tonight at Memorial Stadium. Then 50 foursomes will pay $500 per golfer to participate at Stone Creek in a continuing celebration of his success and the ongoing success of the Illini golf team ... and in providing financial support for the latter.

This is an ongoing example of a former Illini athlete giving back and helping to boost the institution where he or she formerly competed. This is one more example of growth that couldn't have been imagined two decades ago.

Looking back 20 years, when Illini athletic director John Mackovic's fundraising efforts were distracted by coaching the football team and dealing with NCAA basketball allegations, the UI Department of Intercollegiate Athletics was bringing in $2.5 million in contributions. Imagine: $2.5 million.

A few facilities like baseball and tennis had been upgraded over time (well, actually, the Atkins Tennis Center was dedicated in 1991), and Memorial Stadium received some necessary repairs but, in truth, only modest improvements were made in the period from 1930 through the early 1990s.

Along comes Mackovic's successor, Ron Guenther, to rev up a stagnant motor.

Where red ink once flowed, we find financial stability in the most trying of times. Regardless of modest football attendance and a weak economy, the DIA has kept its head above water.

Where there were little or no endowments – in 1995, they stood at $2 million – the pool is now $34 million with another $14 million in pledges.

Where facilities had long lagged behind, the $121.9 million renaissance work at Memorial Stadium has brought the total close to $300 million in roughly 15 years. That's not to say the UI is rocketing ahead of rivals. No, it's mostly been catch-up. But progress is undeniable. Look at the football facilities, indoor and outdoor. Check out the incredible academic center. The DIA didn't even have an administrative building a few years ago.

All this is on top of $12 million in annual I-Fund contributions that include a Loyalty Circle group ($10,000 or more) of 375 members.

Where the UI was on the NCAA enforcement staff's watch list for infractions during a quarter-century after 1966, the Guenther era is marked by compliance work (and retirement of Chief Illiniwek) that has upgraded the UI's reputation around the country. Maybe that's not important to you. It is to me.

Where Big Ten leadership was once at odds with athletic director Neale Stoner, powerhouse Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany has no closer confidant among Big Ten directors than Guenther.

Guenther will be 65 in October. Overlooking a few football scars, he'll be one of the youngest 65s on the planet. Most of his critics, and they have grown with football failures, couldn't keep pace with his workouts and his much-traveled work schedule for a day, much less a week.

Now, with Illinois picked near the bottom by all the football prognosticators, I'm being urged to join the tea party mentality and, in the face of the substantial gains in his regime, to join the blame game.

I get it. Put simply, nothing else matters. Failed football outweighs everything else ... $300 million in improvements, full backing of all programs, strict compliance, etc.

If the football team goes 3-9, fire the athletic director.

Let's see now. I think I understand. For many, the football games are the main connection with the program, and those empty, frustrating rides home are too much to stand. To be sure, the losses are debilitating. But in this corner, that's way too much blame for the boss to absorb for the failures of a subordinate.

The passion is fine, but where is the logic? Every seven years, Guenther spends a few intense weeks trying to find the right fit for a historically erratic program. Then he has to live with it through the years when he has no real control. Outsiders view all those other issues crossing his desk as secondary.

Were his football choices flawed? With 20-20 hindsight, you could say so. Perhaps overestimating the Chicago connection, he thought he had a good one in Ron Turner. Turner inherited an impossible situation, started 0-11, led Illinois to a 63-21 bowl win against Virginia in 1999 and won an undisputed Big Ten title in 2001. From there, Turner's recruiting imploded and, well ... critics deemed it to be Guenther's fault.

Then came the controversial choice of Ron Zook, recently listed among the decade's Top 10 coaching mistakes twice (at Florida and Illinois). He was starting to look good in 2007 with a Rose Bowl trip, but a combination of attrition and recruiting dropoffs put the program back in jeopardy.

Contrary to popular belief, I don't agree with some of Guenther's decisions. He disappoints me at times. But when he makes decisions that seem wrong, it might be more understandable if we knew what his other options were. We seldom do. For example, if not Zook, then who?

And when I'd like to see him become more media- and fan-friendly, I'm reminded he has a full-time job running a complex operation and chasing funds in dire times.

The Assembly Hall renovation is still on the front burner. He repeatedly throws seemingly unattainable goals in front of himself.

I don't know whether he'll re-up when his contract runs out in December.

If he retires, the one-track-minders in the tea party gang need not invite me to the celebration. Or, on second thought, I might attend ... with blinders so I can't see the big picture.

Giving back

This subject took a front burner with me recently when Steve Greene, former fullback under Bob Blackman in the 1970s and now director of development, explained the DIA's fundraising initiative to influence UI athletes to "pay back" the scholarships they received when they played.

Greene reports that 1,036 varsity letter winners contributed $715,000 toward the I-Fund total of $8 million, and 23 others made endowment pledges in the sum of $9 million, which allows the DIA to hold the principle and spend the interest.

Jerry Colangelo, for example, gives $1.25 million annually to cover five basketball scholarships. Doug Mills and son David Mills have endowed money toward head coaching positions. Deron Williams, Fred Wakefield, Kevin Hardy, Rick Schmidt and Brian McClure and wife Kelly Scherr are among those setting up endowments. Others like David Diehl and Art Wyatt have helped fund facilities with contributions that are usually spread over five to 10 years.

Also, 20 UI athletes have established life insurance or estate gifts that amount to $7 million.

The 375-member Loyalty Circle, which requires $10,000 per year, includes such former UI stars as Henry Jones, Jerry Hester, Ken Dilger, Howard Griffith, Darrin Fletcher, John Holecek, Don Thorp, Mike Bass and John Wright. Many more contribute lesser amounts, accounting for 12 percent of the annual fund.

Bumpy road ahead

The preseason magazines are being tough on the Illini. Sports Illustrated predicts Zook's sixth team will finish 4-8, and Sporting News says 3-9 while adding that Zook, Michigan's Rich Rodriguez and Minnesota's Tim Brewster will be fired. Sporting News picked an All-Big Ten team that included players from every school except Illinois and Minnesota.

Zook enters the season with four years remaining on his contract. If the Illini finish, say ... 3-9, and he is on the hot seat, here's what the UI would face: (1) It wouldn't make sense to fire Zook and promote an assistant after such a weak showing, (2) no quality outsider would come in without being able to name his own assistants and (3) it would cost more than $5 million to fire Zook and the staff. Not exactly a pleasant circumstance for a new president, an interim chancellor and an as-yet unsigned athletic director.

That's why, barring an utter collapse, this should be viewed as a two-year operation. The Illini will have eight home games next year, an experienced QB and a boatload of returnees. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to see Jeff Allen, Mikel Leshoure, Corey Liuget, Martez Wilson and Terry Hawthorne projected for honors a year from now. The trick is to reach 2011 in one piece.

Grounding out

OK, a week has passed and the Dustin Johnson case keeps reverberating.

He was penalized 2 strokes and dropped from a PGA playoff because he grounded his club in, if you'll excuse the expression, "a sandy section of wasteland."

It really wasn't a sand trap. It was a hardpan area littered and trampled by fans, who had to be cleared for his second shot on the 72nd hole.

Was it the correct decision, based on a strict interpretation of the local rule at Whistling Straits?

Yes. Warnings were posted. Johnson and his caddie are at fault.

Put under the gun, would I have made the same decision?

Probably.

That said, was it reasonable in the world at large?

No.

Was this a caring and compassionate decision, taking extenuating circumstances into consideration?

No.

Was justice served?

No.

Did it make you feel good?

No.

Did he gain some kind of unfair advantage?

No, his club barely touched the ground.

Would a jury of his peers have reached a unanimous decision?

No.

Was this an elitist decision?

Probably.

You see, every other sport has a ref or umpire making judgments. They don't ask athletes to implicate themselves. Like, "Oh, ump, I missed that tag. You should call him safe at home."

Golfers, on the other hand, have a time-honored obligation to confess.

"Yes, I touched the ground with my club, even though you couldn't see it."

Other than golf, we live in a world where reason usually prevails. Take the case of the Missouri farmer who put his grain in an elevator that then went bankrupt. Under law, the grain belonged to the elevator. But the farmer went in, took it back and was taken to court. It was there that the jury said, "Phooey on the law. It was the farmer's grain. Let him have it."

Was this reasonable? I think so. Did it make you feel better? Definitely. Justice doesn't require a strict interpretation ... which is what we got at Whistling Straits.

Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate@news-gazette.com.