Allen Greene's influence growing through 2020

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al.com

 

Allen Greene's influence growing through 2020

By Giana Han

7-9 minutes

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When Allen Greene was named Auburn’s athletic director, he made history as the university’s first Black athletic director. Greene would have been a success and a leader regardless of his race, his college baseball coach Paul Mainieri said, but 2020 has forced it to the center of the conversation.

In the midst of a pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests swept across the country, forcing athletic directors to have hard discussions about social injustice and racism. As Greene has navigated through conversations with donors, colleagues and coaches, he’s heard one phrase repeated — that he’s here for a reason.

Until May 2020 when Candice Storey-Lee was officially named Vanderbilt’s athletic director, Greene was the only Black or minority athletic director in the SEC. He was also the only Black athletic director on the executive board of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. As a former baseball player at Notre Dame, Greene was the single person who could directly speak to the experiences Black student-athletes were going through.

“He’s been active on a lot of different topics throughout his career, but the racial justice narrative and all the stuff that he’s doing, being a leader on that front, I think it’s great,” said Danny White, UCF’s athletic director who worked at Ole Miss and Buffalo with Greene. “I’ve been picking his brain a little in that area.”

When the video of George Floyd’s murder went viral, Greene took action and tweeted out a video condemning racial injustice. When Mainieri, now the baseball coach at LSU, saw the video, he sent Greene a text simply letting him know he was proud of him. Greene called him that night, and they talked for half an hour. The next day, inspired by his conversation with Greene, Mainieri reached out to both his current and former Black players to hear their thoughts.

“So, you know, here I am, probably 20 years older than Allen, and yet he was giving me good advice,” Mainieri said. “Imagine the impact he has on a bunch of 18 to 22-year-olds.”

Greene isn’t just speaking up for the athletes; he’s also bringing his colleagues together. Shortly after Floyd’s murder, Greene sent out an email to a few other Black athletic directors asking if they wanted to set up a Zoom call.

“He said, ‘We’re all dealing with so much, why don’t we just create a safe space where we can share?’” Lee said.

That call turned into a weekly Zoom meeting, which turned into the Black Athletic Directors Alliance. Now, athletic directors across the country hop on the call to listen in. Greene has been “courageous” in speaking up both nationally and in the SEC, Lee said, despite the types of “systemic, entrenched things” she knows Greene has to face, based on her experience growing up in Alabama. His active participation in athletic director meetings helped earn him a spot on AL.com’s list of the top-25 most influential voices in the SEC. More than 30 sources were consulted for the list.

At 43, Greene may be young for an athletic director in the SEC, a NACDA executive board member and a BAA founder, but according to Mainieri, he’s always been a leader.

“There was no question, regardless of where he worked or what position he had, he was going to be a tremendous success,” Mainieri said.

As a player, Greene’s clutch hitting skills were accompanied by an ability to keep the team loose. The players loved him, as did the coaches, Mainieri said. While Greene could make people laugh, he knew when to be serious.

One of Greene’s best attributes is his ability to connect with people. While working at Ole Miss, Greene went out to the baseball field during a series against LSU to meet Mainieri’s players. Within minutes, Greene had the LSU players rolling on the ground laughing as he explained the importance of hitting to the opposite field. The players talked about him for weeks afterwards, Mainieri recalled.

Greene’s colleagues love to talk about him, too. Lee spoke of how Greene took time out of a crazy SEC athletic directors meeting where they were first dealing with COVID-19 to sit and get to know her. White said after he “recruited the heck out of” Greene, they ended up making so many memories together. Michigan AD Warde Manuel said he’s a “great athletic director” who is helping athletes build a “tremendous foundation” for success in their lives. Auburn president Jay Gogue said Greene has an ability to connect to all parts of the Auburn Family, “whether the young fan or those of us who have been around for a while.”

Greene’s experiences across the country have enhanced his ability to connect to people. Greene grew up in the Pacific Northwest, went to school in the Midwest at Notre Dame, a predominantly white institution, and then worked in the Deep South at Ole Miss and the Northeast at Buffalo before moving to Auburn. The sources AL.com consulted for its top-25 list have indicated Greene will have additional opportunities around the country if he decides to leave Auburn.

“It makes you appreciate where people are coming from,” Greene said. “I love being around people who think, who see things differently than I do.”

However, it’s also about the time Greene makes to build true relationships.

“What I like about Allen is that he’s around,” Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn said. “He knows our players personally. He comes to practice. They know him.”

Greene doesn’t just show up for football. He can be seen rocking his fashionable blue and orange wardrobe — something he’s proud of but White likes to mess with him about — as he chats up students, athletes and fans at basketball games, swimming and diving competitions and gymnastics meets. Laughter and smiles often accompany the interactions.

But Greene’s time at Auburn has also tested his backbone. He came into a program while it was conducting an in-house investigation into the basketball program. Auburn had also dealt with a federal lawsuit and multiple Title IX complaints. Greene was aware of the demands and expectations when he was hired, Gogue said, and he has shouldered them well. Greene took a few months to evaluate the situation before making personnel changes as he reorganized the athletics department.

Then 2020 hit, bringing with it protests and a pandemic. At the same time he was discussing if and how sports could proceed safely, Greene led difficult discussions with his staff and students. The process while rewarding was emotionally taxing.

But exhaustion is not enough to slow Greene down. He’s been following his “north star,” which is to educate, support and develop his student athletes.

“I also try to help share with them that in these moments, no different than COVID is that we have an opportunity, the chance to make a difference,” Greene said in an interview with Andy Burcham.

On Friday, Auburn held its first game since the pandemic shut everything down. But Greene knows that’s only the beginning of this new journey. No matter how long it drags out, Greene’s colleagues have faith in his ability to achieve his ultimate goal — to impact the student-athletes in a positive way.

“He’s going to do right by the student-athletes,” White said. “I have ultimate confidence in that. That’s who he is as a person … He’s going to be willing to make tough decisions if they need to be made to protect that number one core value.”