By Kelline Linton, Chief Copy Editor
Danny Kittley has resigned from the university after 11 years as director of intramural sports and 23 years with the university.
“I just retired,” said Kittley, whose final day was Monday. He declined further comment.
Dr. Jean-Noel Thompson, vice president and dean for Student Life, said Kittley’s departure will not affect the students’ intramural experience.
“The biggest piece for folks to know is these things happen, people leave, but we are committed to not letting the program suffer,” he said. “On the contrary, we want to use this to grow.”
Thompson said he and Dr. Jeff Arrington, associate dean of Student Life, will begin the search for a new intramurals director as soon as possible and hope to have someone in the position by the summer.
He said they would choose the new director through a standard selection process that includes interviews of the top candidates by a committee that consists of Thompson, Arrington, members of the Student Life staff and students involved in intramural groups. He also said he wants to post the open intramurals director position on the ACU Web site.
Thompson began to oversee the intramurals office, which supervises Champ and Rec leagues, when it was moved under Student Life in January. Before the change, the intramurals office answered to the Department of Athletics and Athletic Director Jared Mosely.
Thompson said the shift to Student Life was made for two reasons.
“Since the primary goal is to focus on student recreation, it made a lot of sense to pull the intramural program under the Student Life model,” he said. “The goal is to make this a student-centered program.”
The move also allowed Mosely more time to focus on the 16 NCAA sports teams he oversees, Thompson said.
“We want to focus more on intramurals and do all we can to bring about the most exciting student-centered IM program we can build,” he said.
Thompson praised Kittley for his years of dedication to ACU and the time he spent helping to design the soon-to-be-built student recreation and wellness center. He said Kittley’s resignation will not affect ACU’s success as it moves forward in building the new recreation center and creating a more student-centered intramural program.
Kittley’s resignation also will not affect the intramural spring schedule.
“The intramural schedule for social clubs should remain the same this spring, aside from rescheduling due to weather, etc., and I don’t know of any direct affect on social clubs,” said Mauri Westbrook, coordinator of Student Activities and Organizations.
In the meantime, Susan Hardcastle, administrative coordinator for the intramurals director, will continue running the intramurals office.
This pleased some social club intramural directors who regularly interacted with her and Kittley.
Jonathon Sanders, intramural director for Gamma Sigma Phi, said Hardcastle was the best person in the intramurals office.
“If we can have more of her, that would be amazing,” said Sanders, sophomore English major from Henderson.
Sanders, who heard the news about Kittley’s resignation Tuesday, said he had heard some criticism of Kittley’s work in the intramurals office.
“I never knew Kittley, but I saw what he did, and I think things could be run better,” Sanders said. “I think that he didn’t do the best job at intramurals. I know there were a lot of changes to be made, and I didn’t think he was going to do them.”
Galaxy intramural director Greg Oglesby said he heard of Kittley’s resignation at the beginning of this week.
“I didn’t know he was going to resign and was surprised,” said Oglesby, sophomore special education major from Abilene. “I do hope to see a lot of changes soon; I want intramurals to be more competitive for all the social clubs as a whole.”
Alpha Kai Omega intramural director Michelle Nix said she did not think Kittley’s resignation actually would happen.
“At the same time, I was not surprised because I knew a lot of people had been frustrated with the intramurals office,” said Nix, sophomore family studies major from Austin. “It was a mixed feeling.”
Cole Watts, intramural director for Frater Sodalis for two years, said the news shocked him as well.
“I am not sure if anything will change just because he resigned but I am excited to see if the new director will get people involved,” said Watts, senior accounting major from Abilene.
Most of the social club intramural directors said they wanted to see changes to intramurals and hoped a new intramurals director would be the medium for those modifications.
“Hopefully, the new director will get us some new sports and more games in the season,” Watts said. “I am excited to see what happens when we get a new person and have a fresh perspective.”
Sanders and Watts said they would like to see flag football and waterball return to the intramural lineup.
“I loved waterball; everyone loves that one,” Watts said.
The last waterball tournament was in February 2008, when GSP and Alpha Kai won the waterball championship titles.
The 7-on-7 flag football made its last appearance in the intramural lineup in the 2007-08 school year.
Kittley changed flag football to 6-on-6 two-hand touch format this year. He said the new format was faster paced and allowed members to feel like vital parts of the team. He also said flag football was discontinued because of injuries; six to eight women broke their thumbs or suffered finger lacerations last year attempting to pull flags.
Watts said he wanted flag football to return because he thought it would foster more member participation, unlike the 6-on-6 two-hand touch format.
“[Frater Sodalis] had a significant decline in our teams because a lot of people did not want to play because they felt excluded in the format,” he said. “Flag football’s format is easier to understand because it is similar to 11-man football.”
Besides the different football format, Kittley also introduced a new co-ed league last fall. For the two-hand touch football, 1,100 students and 58 total teams played in the five leagues: two men’s, two women’s and one co-ed. Compared to the prior year, the new football had one more team participating.
Historically, flag football was the most popular sport offered by the intramurals office. In 1997, 480 students participated in 7-on-7 flag football. Two years later, 1,174 students were playing football in the fall, and that number has stayed around 1,200 since, according to Optimist archives.
Although the change in football did not noticeably decrease member participation, social club intramural directors saw a negative effect on member involvement because of the continued increase in intramural costs.
“I want lower fees on different sporting events,” Nix said. “Intramurals are so expensive that a lot of people can’t participate.”
Oglesby said most of Galaxy’s members said they wanted to see a decrease in fees.
Flag football typically is the most expensive intramural sport. Records from 1988 – the first year records were kept for intramurals – indicate the fee for flag football was $80 per team. It is now $275.
Despite complaints about costs and the number of sports offered, participation in intramurals has grown significantly under Kittley’s leadership. ACU boasted intramurals since the 1950s at a minor level, but when Kittley helped organize an intramurals office in 1988, he did not realize intramurals eventually would involve almost three-fourths of the university. When he became director in 1997, only 780 students participated in intramurals. Today, more than 3,000 students are actively involved with intramural sports.
In a 2005 Optimist interview, Kittley said, “No other schools even get in the ball park of that. I don’t care where you go; nobody has that kind of participation.”
Under Kittley’s supervisions throughout the 11 years, intramurals has included a freshman, co-ed, women’s and men’s leagues, as well as football, soccer, tennis, softball, volleyball, waterball, dodgeball, a track meet, the ACU Rodeo and golf scramble, among others.
Meggan Hill
posted 4/26/09 @ 5:38 PM CST
I think a different perspective should be given to this article since it obviously gives one side of the story. As someone that has worked in the intramural department for 2 years I have been around Danny Kittley and know him on a personal level which many of the people who have quoted negatively about him, do not know. A lot of the time, people tend to feed off of each other and let what other people are saying about the intramural department cloud their judgement and also let that develop their opinion of the intramural department.
There were quotes within the article that baffle me. Like the one about wanting games between social clubs to be more competitive. Unless you are hoping for deaths during the games, games between social clubs can’t get much more competitive. And how in the world is competitiveness between social clubs even remotely close to being the intramural departments responsibility? So that really doesn’t make any sense. Next is the quote about more games and more sports. Let’s break this down. More games means more time, more time means longer season, and longer season’s leave no room for more sports. Unless, there were multiple sports going on at the same time more games in a season would not really work. But with multiple seasons at once means more referees would need to be hired which means that they would probably expect a pay check and a pay check would drive up the costs. So that doesn’t really work either because you have complaints about costs and how fees to play intramural sports are so expensive. Next, the quote about waterball and how it is greatly missed. Although it might be missed, it was for a legal reason it didn’t make it on the schedule this year and was beyond Danny Kittley or the Intramural Departments control. Lastly, the issue of the costs of intramural’s. I believe it is completely irrelevant that in 1988 the cost of sports were $80 while today the cost is $275. Obviously the cost of sports is going to rise in 20 years. In 1988 minimum wage was $3.35 while today minimum wage has risen to $7.25. See the trend? I believe it is completely unfair to place the blame of intramural’s completely on Danny Kittley especially because some of the complaints are unrealistic and not completely thought through. I can’t fault anyone for having incomplete thoughts, not thinking rationally, or placing blame without doing research because I have been guilty of doing so in the past. I just wish that people would think through what they are saying before they make a public statement at the cost of someone else, especially since some of the bold statements were made by social club intramural directors have only been in office for a matter of weeks and have had limited communication with Danny and/or the Intramural Department. I just wish people were better informed about the intramural department and the good they do. But that is unrealistic of me to expect because the world today thrives on the bad and rarely reports the good.
Bryce Doty
posted 4/27/09 @ 2:10 PM CST
Here’s an idea:
Instead of searching for a replacement Intramural director, have students pursuing an Exercise Science degree manage the entire thing. That gives the students valuable experience and would hopefully bring down the cost of intramural sports participation. I wonder how much of the cost of sports went to paying the salary of the director? Whatever the amount, it seems avoidable.
Kate Norris
posted 4/27/09 @ 4:30 PM CST
Every point that was made by Meggan is solid and true. I have also worked in the intramural department for over a year. The people who make these comments about Danny do not know him at all. I also think the people who complain the most are the people that are the problem. The fact that the people who were interviewed, except Cole Watts, have only been in office for a month if not just a few weeks. Therefore, the only knowledge they have of Danny is hearsay because they have never interacted with him as directors. It would have been nice for the Optimist to get an opinion from anyone in the intramural department. Instead, they went to people who know nothing. Has the person who wrote this article every participated in intramurals or interacted with him? Doubtful. Also the people who read this don’t have the stories of the bonehead students that Danny had to deal with on a daily basis. The intramural department and this institution is going to miss Danny Kittley greatly.I hope the next director can even fill half of his shoes.
ps. I don’t know where the numbers for football were found, but we had many more teams in every in basketball and football this year.
Kate Norris
posted 4/27/09 @ 4:39 PM CST
Oh Yeah I think Meggan’s post should be printed in the next optimist!!
