It took a while, but Bill Hayes has finally made his way back home. Winston-Salem State University Chancellor Donald Reaves today announced to the university trustees and coaches that Hayes would become the university’s athletic director effective January 1.
His past and his future immediately endear him to Rams alumni and supporters. His record as a football coach at WSSU is without parallel; his success as a black college athletics executive unmatched.
But will his reintroduction to Ram Land still all of WSSU’s troubled water? There is financial strife and division among the supporters on the botched Division I transition; issues that desperately require immediate attention and even swifter solutions.
A part of me wants to believe that Hayes and the magic of his familiarity with WSSU will make it all better, but objectivity leads me to a different place. There is a strong possibility that contemporary black college sports has passed Hayes by.
His time at FAMU was well spent from the outside view. He helped oversee Joe Taylor resurrecting the football program, and was the point man on some significant national media opportunities for the program. But there are some in the Rattler family who would argue that he was more passenger than captain on the ship, which made his departure from the university less of a disruptive scenario than many, myself included, would have imagined.
The website never saw significant changes, the marketing didn’t drastically improve, and mistakes were made with personnel decisions; most notably, the hiring and consequent resignation of Walter McCoy.
Will WSSU immediately step back into contention in the CIAA? Will they integrate technology to effectively market the program? Most of all, can he be the mediator between Ram fans and the willingly confrontational Chancellor Reaves?
We’ll soon see if going home again works out for the great Bill Hayes.
