Allen was the Jayhawks’ AD from 1919-1937 and, as Frederick noted, “The job has changed a lot since then.”

Now in his 14th year in charge of the Kansas University Athletics Corp. the department’s official name Frederick oversees a $23 million operation that includes 20 men’s and women’s sports.

Frederick, who earned a doctorate in education on Mount Oread, is proud as he should be of the academic strides student-athletes have made under his watch.

“We have a great academic support program,” Frederick said. “It’s one of the two or three best in the country, but we spend a lot of money there, too.”

Over the last decade, Kansas student-athletes have earned 41 Academic All-America certificates.

Academics, however, are low-profile. Winning grabs the headlines and lately, except for a few sports, the Jayhawks have not challenged for Big 12 Conference championships.

Despite a strong monetary commitment to women’s sports, the Jayhawks finished last in the Big 12 in overall on-the-field performance during the 1999-2000 school year. On paper, it appears the KU women are headed for another last-place league finish in the 2000-2001 year as well.

Football, forever on a roller coaster at Kansas, has also been problematical. KU has had four straight losing seasons under coach Terry Allen.

While many were calling for Allen’s head in this age of instant gratification personified by Oklahoma’s two-year rise to the national championship under Bob Stoops, Frederick stuck with the Jayhawks’ embattled football boss.

Frederick, who will turn 61 in

March, and his wife Margey, who works at the KU Visitors Center, are having a new home built in western Douglas County. It should be completed in July. They have four sons ranging in age from 26 to 16. The two youngest are still in high school.

“My family and I really love it here,” Frederick said. “We had some friends who wanted us to move to Bend, Ore., after we retire, but we plan to spend the rest of our lives here.”

On the national level, Frederick’s name has clout. He spent two seasons as chair of the prestigious Division One men’s basketball committee and is chair of the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct.

Frederick’s salary of $161,460 ranks in the middle of the pack among Big 12 Conference ADs.

With that background, following is the basic text of a recent interview with the Journal-World.

Q A rumor has circulated that you might shuck the AD post and take a university administration position in Chancellor Robert Hemenway’s office. Is that a possibility?

A That’s not something anybody has ever talked to me about. That’s a new one on me.

Q In the 14-plus years you’ve been on the job, you have obviously taken some heat. Has it been become more intense lately?

A In the last six or eight months, I’m aware of it, but only because other people have been telling me what’s on the Internet. I don’t get involved in those chat rooms, or whatever, myself. I think it’s a small number of people generating lots of misinformation. This is a hard job and we’ve been unfairly criticized about the overall performance of our teams.

Q In a survey done by the Kansas City Star, Kansas ranked last overall in competitive performance during the 1999-2000 school year.

A Actually, it was 11th. They made a mistake in math, but we did not have a great year. It’s interesting that survey came on the heels of the Sporting News ranking us in the Top 25 among the colleges based on graduation rates, competitive success and avoiding NCAA violations. That’s what the university is talking about, being in the Top 25.

Still, I know there’s been criticism about that 11th-place finish, but we have a lot to be proud of. We’ve had mistakes among our kids, but we have a lot of nice ones here, too. We have a survey we give to student-athletes every year to ask how we’re doing and we get unbelievably high marks.

Q In assessing the overall on-the-field performance of KU teams, some people suggest that you have hired good people as coaches, but that these good people are not necessarily good coaches.

A When I was hired, I told (Chancellor) Gene Budig I wanted to run a program that had quality people who would recruit quality student-athletes. I think our competitive success suggests otherwise. Nobody said that in 1993.

Q In 1993, Kansas became the first NCAA school to go to a bowl game, reach the Final Four and compete in the College World Series in the same school year. That was obviously the zenith of your tenure. Is the formation of the Big 12 Conference in 1997 the reason for KU’s decline?

A We used to finish 3-4-5 in the Big Eight and that sounded OK. You add four Texas schools that are competitive across the board and you say 6-7-8 and it doesn’t sound as good.

To give an example, if we were still in the Big Eight, our volleyball team probably would have qualified for the NCAA tournament

Q Not a single KU woman’s sport is likely to contend for a league championship during the 2000-2001 school year. Why is that?

A I think we have six head coaches in their first or second year. We’ve made a lot of changes and we have a young coaching staff.

Q What about football?

A I’d be dishonest if I didn’t say I was disappointed. I thought we had a great opportunity to have a winning season and be in a bowl game. We fell flat at SMU and that affected us the entire year. But I’m enthused by last year’s recruiting class and from what I hear of this year’s recruiting.

Q KU ranks 11th in Big 12 home football attendance and could dip below woeful Baylor in 2001. Are you worried about selling football tickets this fall?

A We have one of our most attractive home schedules in years. UCLA is coming and so are the national champions (Oklahoma). It’s a tremendous home schedule and I’m optimistic about next year. With some changes, I think we can be competitive.

Q By changes, do you mean Terry Allen has been told to make changes?

A In his coaching staff, yes, and I think Terry’s got to do some things differently.

Q Can you be more specific?

A Just the way he does everything I think will be different. I’m committed to Terry because I think we’ve seen in the past that constant changes don’t necessarily assure success. I just want to give him the opportunity to succeed.

Q Is 2001 a do-or-die year for Allen?

A No more so than any other year.

Q It seems Kansas has spent a lot of money on football over the last few years with not much to show for it.

A That’s one criticism I want to address. People have talked about this university’s (lack of ) commitment to football. Nobody in the Big 12, except maybe Texas, has spent as much on football over the last six years. We’ve spent $40 million. We’ve refurbished the stadium and press box, we’ve built the Wagnon Center and we’ve upgraded Anschutz Pavilion.

Q And you need to spend more money, too, specifically on a new strength and conditioning center. What’s the status of that project?

A We need $8 million in hand. That’s because we can’t borrow any more money until we pay off our debt service. We can’t incur any more debt at this time.

Q Generating revenue is the No. 1 priority of every university athletics director. What is your biggest concern?

A The cost of scholarships. I’ve talked to other athletics directors about this and they all wonder where the money is going to come from because the cost of tuition and housing goes up every year. Next year, for instance, our budget will go up $1 million to pay for tuition and housing for our 450 or so student-athletes on scholarship.

Q How long do you plan to remain Kansas University’s athletics director?

A I hope to be able to continue for probably at least five more years. (Smiling) I’m an old man with young children so I need to work for a while.