Q&A: UNCW athletic director Jimmy Bass looks back at last dozen years before retirement

UNCW athletic director Jimmy Bass is ready for golf. 

In addition to being a member of the committee for the NCAA men’s golf championship in May, he’s also prepared to hit a few shots himself. He will have plenty of opportunities soon.  

The leader of the Seahawks since December 2010 will retire March 31, capping a 42-year run in athletic administration across North Carolina. 

He and his wife, Sarah, have sold their Wilmington home and been living in an apartment until his time comes to an end next week. They’ll be moving to Lake Norman to be closer to their grandchildren and rooting on the Seahawks from afar.  

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Before he hands the reins of the department to incoming AD Michael Oblinger of Connecticut, he sat down for one more interview with the StarNews. We’ve highlighted a few questions here, and his answers are lightly edited for clarity. 

Did you expect your tenure as UNCW athletic director to last this long? 

I’ve worked for five chancellors and usually it’s the other way around – they run through ADs pretty quickly. The university’s been able to grow … and so we’ve had to continue to go and push and be fluid with athletics and grow and climb along with the university. And that’s been fun. 

I’ve been doing this since 1980, and I’ve never dreaded going to work a single day. Wilmington is a very, very special place. 

I’m a master storyteller now. I just told Michael Oblinger that, ‘Call me, I’ve got the stories down pat.’ 

When we moved here, my wife looked at me and said, ‘Jimmy Bass, we’re not moving again.’ She never calls me by both my names, so I figured we should stay here. 

UNCW’s athletic history seems to be directly tied to its past. What is the evolution you see for the fan base and growth of athletics? 

There’s tremendous tradition here, and sometimes we use tradition and legacy too much and too loosely. But it’s here, and the Seahawks are New Hanover County, and the hometown team. Regardless of what their alma mater is, folks want to see this university grow and expand, get better and better.  

I’m excited for Michael, it’s time to take the program to a different level and I think he will. 

The last three years, college athletics has not had change, but turbulence. How do you feel UNCW got through all that? 

For me, I’ve always looked at UNCW athletics, and college athletics at the Division I level, to be a transformational operation. You bring a kid here, you put them into an educational setting, you let them grow, you let them start making their decisions, you let them make mistakes and learn from that. You let them compete at the highest level, and when they’ve been here 4-5 years, they’ve transformed themselves into a functioning human being. 

Now we’re transactional. What are you going to give me now? Are you going to give me something to come play there? Once I’m there, what are we going to do with NIL? That’s a challenge.  

On the other hand, I spoke up (at the CAA presidents and athletic directors meeting) and said that we might have an advantage. The programs in the CAA have an opportunity to get players coming back the other way. They may go to a Power 5 program and may have been offered incentives to play there, but they want to play. … And they’ll come back to play at a UNCW, or a Charleston or a Hofstra. 

Was it harder than you thought to get things built? 

It was eye opening. When we got here, a lot of things we discovered -- the women’s soccer team when they traveled would pass a loaf of bread down the aisle with peanut butter and jelly to eat lunch. I cried when I heard that. I really did. It embarrassed me. We made changes. Our kids travel well now.  

When I got here, there were more than two kids staying in a room. Now: one kid, one bed. No sofas, no rollaways. We put people in charter buses for safety reasons. We’ve doubled our sports medicine staff in two years. We’ve created an academic support area, we added three full-time people to the one that was here (for academics). We’ve expanded the strength staff. 

We spent a lot of time and resources early getting that done. And we’re changing chancellors as that’s going on.  

Now, it’s the same objective that we had when Gary Miller was here (from 2011-2014): We need a fieldhouse for our outdoor sports that provides locker rooms and sports medicine and offices and meeting space and storage space. That’s the fair thing to do – the kids deserve it. We need to fix Brooks Field. We need to fix the tennis courts. … What we haven’t been able to do, the university has not been able to help us identify major gift prospects that can make transformational gifts (for sports).  

We’ve tried. I think we have a chance with Chancellor (Aswani) Volety. He gets it, he really, really does. But someone’s going to have to find some major gift prospects. We can sell it. ... 

We have tried really hard. We’ve failed. We’ve had a donor for three years that we’ve been working for tennis. Stuff evolved. … There’s a willingness here, we’ve just got to find a way. 

It seems like your proudest moments have come away from the field. Is that fair to say? 

I think the budget was $7.5-8 million in 2010, now we’re really close to $16 million. Over the years, people have asked me what I do, and I’ve said, ‘Create opportunities for young people.’ That’s the way we’ve approached this thing. The services for the kids’ health and well being, we’ve bolstered that. We’ve got a lot of people now that work with the kids every day. A ton of resources on mental health for our student-athletes. That’s not inexpensive. And the university has a tremendous need for that all across campus.  

It’s not inexpensive, it takes time to plan it. When you get folks here, you’ve got to have the people, you’ve got to have the programs and you’ve got to have the budget to make sure all those things are supported. 

Yes, 32 CAA championships and however many individuals, and that’s important. But bringing kids here in an academic environment where people really care? That’s what’s worked so well. You asked if it would last that long, well it has because we have an academic environment that supports our kids, but doesn’t give them anything. They earn that. 

You’ve said, ‘I’ve never felt like I had to go to work,’ but at the same time, are you ready for the next thing? 

No doubt. Someone asked about it, and I am. I’m thrilled to death for Michael, he’s stepping into a good situation. And one thing I’ll say, this program is in a lot better shape than it was when I got here in November 2010. Some of the things Michael can focus his areas of expertise on. 

But yeah, it’s time to move on.