Schiller Again Being Mentioned for USOC Job

MINNEAPOLIS — Looking for new leadership to carry the U.S. Olympic Committee through the next 4 years, some executive board members again are pursuing Southeastern Conference Commissioner Harvey Schiller for the executive director’s position.

But unlike last year, when Schiller was elected to the $150,000-a-year job by the executive board without notable dissent, there is opposition to him within the 105-member governing body, which is meeting for the third and final time of the year here this weekend.

Some members said they are still embarrassed by Schiller’s sudden decision to resign last Jan. 19, only 18 days after he had moved into his office at the USOC’s Colorado Springs, Colo., headquarters, and return to his previous job as SEC commissioner at Birmingham, Ala.

The movers didn’t even have a chance to unload furniture from their truck, virtually making a U-turn in front of Schiller’s new condominium in Colorado Springs to start the return trip to Birmingham.

But other executive board members, who did not want to be identified, said that Schiller has had second--or is it third?--thoughts after receiving encouragement from leading officials of the national federations, which are responsible for individual sports within the Olympic movement.

Schiller, 48, is sensitive about such speculation because it is bound to make life uncomfortable for him within the SEC. He had the commissioner’s job for less than 16 months before leaving for the USOC, then had to convince the conference’s university presidents that he was sincere about returning before they decided to re-appoint him.

Although he said from his office in Birmingham this week that he is aware of the movement to lure him back to the USOC, he added that he is not campaigning for the job and that it is not appropriate for him to comment on the speculation.

“I have a job, and there is no job open with the USOC,” he said. “That’s all there is to say.”

The USOC’s executive director is Baaron Pittenger, whose contract expires in February. Associates say that Pittenger, 64, would be extremely disappointed if he were not offered another contract for the next 4 years.

But Pittenger, a former associate athletic director at Harvard, no doubt has learned in his 11 years at USOC headquarters to count on nothing and expect virtually anything.

Named assistant executive director in 1981, he became acting executive director when Gen. George Miller resigned under pressure in August 1987. Pittenger returned to his former position when Schiller arrived, only to be named executive director when Schiller resigned.

International leaders were frustrated with the United States’ performance on and off the field in the Olympic Games at Seoul, particularly with the behavior of some athletes during the opening ceremony. But whether, in the maze of USOC bureaucracy, that was Pittenger’s responsibility is doubtful.

Even those who support Schiller say that Pittenger has provided competent leadership under difficult circumstances. But they add that they want a more dynamic executive director, one who has more experience in marketing and negotiating television contracts.

Others mentioned as potential candidates are Mike Jacki, executive director of the U.S. Gymnastics Federation, and Jerry Lace, executive director of the U.S. Cycling Federation.

The subject is not on the agenda here, but it likely will be one of the most-discussed topics outside the conference room.

“If you hear rumors about me in the hallways, at least you’ll know I didn’t start them,” joked Schiller, who will not attend the meetings because of SEC commitments.

One significant item on the agenda is the presentation of a nominating committee’s slate of officer candidates to serve through the 1992 Winter Olympics and Summer Games.

Robert Helmick, an attorney from Des Moines, Iowa, is expected to be nominated for president, a position he assumed in 1985 after the death of former president Jack Kelly.

No one is expected to challenge Helmick when the executive board votes at its February meeting in Portland, Ore., although William Tutt of Colorado Springs, one of three vice presidents under Helmick, was believed at one point to be considering a run for the presidency. USOC sources said that the nominating committee told Tutt he would not be slated for a vice presidency again if he challenged Helmick.

Helmick was a strong supporter of Schiller during the search last year for an executive director. But USOC sources said that the president, hoping to avoid controversy that would jeopardize his own election, is not playing any role in the draft-Schiller movement.