When athletic director Torre Chisholm arrived in the South Park Blocks in April of 2007, he said he had heard that Portland State athletics were on the verge of becoming irrelevant. If winning championships is a true rubric for determining prosperity, more than 16 months after his hiring Chisholm’s program is coming off perhaps its most successful run in years.
Earning high marks
When athletic director Torre Chisholm arrived in the South Park Blocks in April of 2007, he said he had heard that Portland State athletics were on the verge of becoming irrelevant.
If winning championships is a true rubric for determining prosperity, more than 16 months after his hiring Chisholm’s program is coming off perhaps its most successful run in years.
The men’s basketball team, women’s golf team and volleyball team all won conference titles in 2007-08, while women’s soccer, softball and women’s basketball were in the mix for a conference title up until the final weekend in the regular season. And the addition of former NFL head coach Jerry Glanville did nothing but increase excitement surrounding PSU athletics.
“An unbelievable year,” Chisholm said. “If you look at where we are as a department compared to where we were 16 months ago, we’ve made some really amazing strides.”
One of Chisholm’s first moves upon taking over was to hire an associate athletic director of development, Zach Wallace, and a director of business development, Dennis Ferguson. Those two have been largely responsible for helping the department establish numerous corporate relationships, one of Chisholm’s initial goals.
The department has signed several deals over the past year, including ones with The Oregonian, Chevron, Cricket and Plaid Pantry.
“Sponsorships are certainly great revenue to support our programs. They are also great marketing. A lot of our sponsorships have co-promotional elements,” Chisholm said. “They have greatly expanded our marketing exposure.”
Despite the on-court successes and inroads in marketing, Chisholm’s first year on the job has also been tempered by multiple setbacks. One of Chisholm’s first goals when he took over was to increase fan support through a grassroots marketing campaign.
While fan support at basketball games increased from just over 700 fans a game to more than 1,300, and football season ticket sales skyrocketed, Chisholm’s fan support group The Horde never took off like it was supposed to.
Last November Chisholm said that he wanted to end the basketball season with 400 members, but the final numbers ended up being less than half that amount. He said he was surprised that the group started so slowly, but that the athletic department is committed to developing it next year.
“I figured that halfway through the basketball season we’d have some traction with it and we didn’t,” Chisholm said. “We’re not going away from it. It’s the right concept. We’ll keep promoting it and find some ways to draw students in.”
Chisholm also said he was surprised that the men’s basketball Big Sky Tournament, hosted by Portland State at the Rose Garden, did not attract more fans.
In 2005, 4,320 watched PSU take a heartbreaking loss to Weber State. This year, 4,113 were in the stands when the Vikings punched their ticket to Omaha with a victory over Northern Arizona in the championship game.
“That’s probably the most surprising thing I saw all year,” Chisholm said. “The first time you do something like that you probably get the most excitement. Other than that, I don’t know. All the games were available on TV, so maybe that influenced it in a negative way.”
Chisholm said that compared to 2005, the department had more time to promote the tournament and that the media attention was far greater this year.
“All the pieces were in place for us to do better attendance-wise than we did,” he said. “We lost a little bit of money. With our budget any loss hurts, but if you trade the national exposure we received from hosting and winning, it’s probably a reasonable trade-off. Overall it was an incredibly positive experience for athletics and the university.”
Overall, Chisholm is generally pleased with his first year at the helm and sees a greater community presence as the biggest improvement.
“We have more front-page coverage than the past decade,” he said. “We’ve got a reality TV show on Comcast. We’ve come a long way. Fans care what we’re doing, and they’re interested.”
After approximately one year on the job, the Vanguard evaluates athletic director Torre Chisholm’s accomplishments thus far.
Development of The Horde — D+The Horde never really got off the ground
Marketing the Portland State brand — B+Established numerous new corporate sponsorships
Producing Championships — A+Volleyball, men’s basketball, golf won Big Sky Championships
