http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/sports/columns/040721.shtml
Progress is showing in Tuscaloosa
TUSCALOOSA — The brief stretch of Bryant Drive allows a panoramic view of the north end of The University of Alabama campus.
As Mal Moore's white Infiniti reaches it, one of the more powerful men in town can't help but point and smile like a child on Christmas morning.
"That's nice, isn't it?" asks Alabama's athletics director.
Only a few years ago, the area off University Avenue surrounding the school's student recreation center was bare. Now there's a renovated rec center, a softball stadium, a re-furnished soccer stadium and a sparkling new tennis stadium nearing completion by the end of August.
The view doesn't include the new academic center being constructed in Bryant Hall. Or the new athletic building that will house the football team's new meeting rooms, weight room and dressing rooms when practice starts in a few weeks. Or the new golf clubhouse at Old Colony, or the new entrance to the school's track. Or the blueprints for sweeping changes to Coleman Coliseum and the north end of Bryant- Denny Stadium.
Like a proud grandparent, Moore likes to show visitors every last project. He tours the sites, answering "Hey, chief" greetings from builders while maneuvering his 64-year-old frame through sawdust and boards.
Call it a new day for Alabama sports, hopes and dreams of championships being born in the hammers and hot sun of a summer afternoon.
It marks quite a change for a department that for so long clung to its roots as signs of a better day. For the first time in a long time, Alabama is looking to the future to keep up, not just its tradition.
When he was passed over for the athletics director job for Bob Bockrath, Moore suggested the university needed these facilities to be competitive in recruiting.
So now, this is Moore's legacy to his alma mater, and it's the most important part of his role as athletics director. This is what Moore envisioned when he took the job and survived perhaps the most tumultuous period in the school's athletic history. In his mind all this construction work is the key to Alabama's rebirth.
"These are things that, over a 10- or 12-year period, this where we've fallen behind and other schools have pulled away from us," Moore said. "But I fully expect, and I've said to our coaches, and they expect greater things from their programs. I certainly do."
Given the recent NCAA sanctions, coaching changes and losses, Alabama football has taken its hits. But the entire athletics department hardly took a blow like the one it received this past winter.
Each year, the Director's Cup ranks the top athletics programs in the nation according to sport-by-sport finishes. At one point, Alabama was last in the Southeastern Conference and 80th in the United States.
Actually, the spring sport totals pushed Alabama to 41st in the final 2003-04 standings, ninth in the SEC ahead of Kentucky (45), Ole Miss (64) and Mississippi State (67).
But the backlash from the earlier report spawned negative headlines, some subtle, some not. Moore answers the criticism by pointing to the new facilities, emphasizing their role in redeeming Alabama's reputation, damaged so much by the NCAA run-in and the Mike Price scandal.
"The one area most damaging to us has been the academic center," Moore said. "Tennessee, three, four, maybe five years ago, built an outstanding academic center for their athletes. Georgia built one. LSU dedicated a brand new one about four years ago. Florida has one.
"Basically, we did not have an academic center. When recruits come in here of all sports, not just football, they recognize this. When we're showing recruits around, that has been a weakness that we've had, but we're making the difference in all of that."
Roll Tide!! Rick
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