Jeff Hathaway, University of Connecticut

As the top lieutenant to athletic director Lew Perkins at the University of Connecticut for 11 years, Jeff Hathaway saw the school’s amove to Division I-A football go from idea to fruition, riding a roller coaster of emotions through a series of starts and stops that began in 1993.

When construction crews finally began pouring concrete for the foundation of a 45,000-seat football stadium in July 2001, he celebrated.

“And then a month later, I left,” said Hathaway, who departed Connecticut in August of that year to become athletic director at Colorado State.

Fast forward to June 2003, and Hathaway was back at UConn, replacing Perkins, who left to become AD at Kansas. He returned just in time to meet donors at the gate for Rentschler Field’s first open house.

Appropriately, Hathaway was there to close the circle.

When UConn began its push toward I-A football in 1993, the school was losing about $2.5 million a year on the sport. It faced a quandary that many at that level were wrestling. It could continue to try to subsidize the losses through the success of its basketball programs. It could reduce them by dropping football to Division II. Or it could risk moving up to I-A, which would require a larger investment but could yield a better return.

The university chose to move up. Even Hathaway, who was bullish on the move, could not have predicted that it would turn out this well this quickly. UConn made its debut in the Big East in 2004 with a victory in the Motor City Bowl. Last year, the Huskies rose as high as 13th in the BCS standings, marking the second-fastest trip there by a new I-A football program.

“You get into the BCS, and the Big East, and you’re getting a share of the bowl revenue … and you’re playing in front of 40,000-seat sellouts,” Hathaway said. “Your radio rights go up. You can demand more for corporate partnerships. All of this has put us in a situation where not only are we not losing $2.5 million, but we are finishing on the plus side financially.”

Hathaway oversees a department with a budget that reached $55 million last year, with about 200 employees supporting 650 athletes. All those years as Perkins’ No. 2 prepared him for the rigors of the job. But he’s not certain he would have been given the chance if he hadn’t gotten out of his mentor’s shadow for those two years and proved he could lead.

After Perkins took the Kansas job, one of his first calls was to Hathaway at Colorado State to tell him he’d recommended him as a successor. Later in the day, UConn’s president called to ask if he wanted the job.

Hathaway said he knew for much of his career that he wanted to occupy the lead chair at some point. Early in his time at UConn, he heard the school’s former men’s basketball coach, Dee Rowe, advise assistant coaches that they should “act like an assistant, but think like a head coach.” He embraced that philosophy, and when his chance came, he was ready for it.

“It’s advantageous for anyone in his position to be able to go out and steer their own ship,” said Chuck Neinas, a consultant for coach and athletic director searches. “As an assistant coach once told me, it’s a lot easier to make suggestions than decisions. That’s not completely applicable to an athletic director. But it’s always nice to be able to get the experience of being at the helm. I’m sure that made him a stronger candidate for the (UConn) job.”