Dick Baddour still remembers the phone call quite vividly.
It was June 25, 1997 — the day of his wedding anniversary — and at the time, Baddour and his family were on vacation at Kure Beach, N.C.
That day, Baddour let his wife and children enjoy themselves on the beach while he remained at the family’s cottage, cell phone in hand, anticipating the announcement of UNC’s new athletic director.
“I got the phone call, got offered the job and went running down on the beach to tell my family I got it,” said Baddour, recalling the excitement of the moment.
Now 14 years later, that feeling has been passed on to someone new.
With Baddour set to step down on Nov. 14, the University named Tulsa’s Bubba Cunningham as his replacement last Friday, marking the end of a nearly seven-week search process.
But while that process itself was reminiscent of the one Baddour experienced 14 years ago, the circumstances under which it occurred were not.
“It was similar, but it was a different time of year,” Baddour said. “It didn’t have the sense of urgency.”
Baddour’s appointment was, in essence, a promotion after spending 11 years as a top assistant to John Swofford. But Cunningham’s appointment comes in the middle of an NCAA investigation, with a search for a new head football coach poised to commence after the season.
That’s why after Baddour announced his plan to resign in July, he stressed the importance of finding a successor in a timely fashion, recommending mid-October as a potential deadline.
