Rod Broadway Is Named New Head Football Coach At NC Central University


B

Bro. Askia

New Member
OFFICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 27707
JANUARY 8, 2003
http://www.nccu.edu/Events

CONTACT: Kyle Serba (919) 530-7054 Sharon Saunders (919) 530-6295

NCCU NAMES BROADWAY NEW HEAD FOOTBALL COACH
http://www.nccu.edu/campus/athletics

DURHAM, N.C. ? North Carolina Central University Chancellor James H. Ammons announced today that the University has selected Roderick C. Broadway, a 24-year coaching veteran, as head coach of the University?s Football Program.

?I am extremely impressed with Coach Broadway?s record and the passion he has about this new opportunity,? said Ammons. ?During the interview with Coach Broadway, I found him to be very personable and a man of integrity with the ability to attract top talent to the University.

I would like to thank our 15-member search committee for its extensive work in narrowing the candidate pool down to three top applicants.

Now that we have new leadership, we can begin to develop our young men to become champions on the gridiron. As a matter of fact, our new slogan for the new season is ?A New Coach + A New Attitude = Champions.?

Broadway has signed a four-year contract with the University that guarantees him $100,000 a year. He is scheduled to report to work on Friday, January 10, 2003.

?We had an outstanding pool of qualified candidates,? said Rosalind Fuse-Hall, executive assistant to the chancellor who served as chair of the NCCU Head Football Coach Search Committee. ?Our selection reveals how tough this job was. I believe Roderick Broadway is a stellar choice for NCCU.?

A native of Oakboro, N.C., Broadway graduated from West Stanly High School and was recruited to play football at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he earned a bachelor?s degree in 1977 in recreation administration.

During his college football career, Broadway received the ?Outstanding Freshman of the Year Award? and was named to the All-ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) Football Team and selected as the ?Most Outstanding Senior? by the Education Foundation. He went on to play professional football in the Canadian Football League.

Broadway has served as an assistant football coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2001-2002), University of Florida (1995-2001) and Duke University (1981-1994).

Broadway has coached in nine bowl games, including the Sugar Bowl in 1997 when the University of Florida beat Florida State University to win the national title.

During his 24-year tenure as coach, only three players did not receive their undergraduate degrees. Eight of his former players are currently in the National Football League.

?I have proven that I have the ability to motivate, inspire, and build character around the fundamental principal of being able to relate and respond to the needs of my teams and individual players,? said Broadway.

Broadway is married to Dianne Bynum and they have a 17-year-old son, Kenneth.
 



The last Coach (Rudy Abrams) had been signed to a Five Year 95,000 per Year Contract, before he resigned in November 2002.

What is the Avg. Head Football Coach salary in the SWAC???
 
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NCCU hires Broadway
http://www.nccu.edu/campus/athletics

By NEIL AMATO, The Herald-Sun
January 8, 2003 4:51 pm
http://www.herald-sun.com/sports/nccentral

Rod Broadway always had his eye on the football coaching job at N.C. Central. Wednesday, he began living the dream at a school he first visited 37 years ago.

Broadway, 47, was introduced as the Eagles? 18th football coach at the Alfonso Elder Student Union, promising to educate his players and keep the scoreboard operator active.

Broadway, a 24-year college assistant, actually sought the job 10 years ago when Bishop Harris left the post. Broadway, then an assistant at Duke, lost out to Larry Little, but he never lost interest in the Eagles.

"I?ve followed Central all the time," he said. "I got to know Larry Little. I used to watch basketball games, softball, volleyball. I?ve had a lot of interest in Central for many years. This is a dream come true."

Now, it is the NCCU community that will be watching him. Broadway, an All-ACC defensive tackle at UNC, coached at East Carolina, Duke and his alma mater. John Bunting hired him at UNC in 2001, but Broadway was let go last month.

Athletics Director Lin Dawson said that the search committee had to ask questions about the abrupt departure.

"We are confident that what happened at North Carolina between two people was isolated," Dawson said. "We believed he was the best choice for us."

Broadway took questions from alumni and others on a variety of topics Wednesday, including the rivalry with N.C. A&T and making up for lost time in recruiting.

He also got a straightforward question from Clyde Price, a rising senior wide receiver: Are you planning to throw the ball?

"My plan is to be wide-open," Broadway said. "I want to score as many points as we can, as often as we can, any way that we can. We?re going to spread the field and throw it down the field."

Broadway?s sister, Bonnie, graduated from NCCU in 1966, marking his first visit to a college campus. It was then that he remembers getting a "maroon windbreaker that I wore completely out."

Chancellor James H. Ammons presented Broadway with another jacket Wednesday, a more sturdy one but still Eagles maroon. Dawson promised to develop a tour of sorts in the off-season, getting Broadway and other coaches face-to-face with alumni up and down the East Coast.

"He?s going to be the headliner," Dawson said. "If we?re going to make a difference in this program, what we?ve got to do is get him into the public."

Broadway signed a four-year deal worth $100,000 annually. His salary at UNC was $114,125.

Broadway was one of three finalists for the job. Ammons declined to name the other two, but he said that one was not Florida A&M offensive coordinator Jimmy Joe, who was thought to be a favorite given that Ammons came to NCCU from FAMU.

Ammons and others on the 15-member search committee said they were impressed by Broadway?s enthusiasm for the job and his emphasis on academics.

"Coach has made a commitment that we are not only going to have a team of athletic champions, but we are also going to have a team of academic champions," Ammons said.

Search committee member James "Butch" Williams, a prominent local attorney, said a combination of qualities set Broadway apart. Dawson said he received 59 applications for the job.

"His coaching experience, his local ties and the key word ? integrity," Williams said. "That and his leadership ability can help him turn the program around."

The Eagles haven?t been doormats in the CIAA, but they haven?t been champions, either. Moments after the 2002 team finished 4-6, Coach Rudy Abrams announced his retirement. Abrams, 60, was 18-21 in four seasons after a more successful, five-year run at his alma mater, Livingstone.

NCCU has had two winning seasons in the previous eight. The last four under Abrams were marked by solid defense and a run-heavy offense. That?s why players such as Price and rising junior Michel Cunningham were eager to hear Broadway?s thoughts on opening up the attack.

The players grew tired of Abrams? double-slot offense, which required mainly blocking from the wide receivers.

"Since I?ve been here, I felt that my talents, well, I thought I?d be utilized more," Cunningham said. "We didn?t enjoy the old style that Coach Abrams ran. Now, hearing [Broadway] say he?s going to air it out, that?s generated some excitement."

Excitement was a word Ammons used in describing what he sees Broadway bringing to the team, which has 22 rising seniors.

"We want to have a program where people will mark their calendars every Saturday and say, ?I have to be wherever the NCCU Eagles are, because I don?t want to miss it,? " Ammons said. "We feel that Coach Broadway brings that to this university."

Broadway said his first tasks were recruiting and building a coaching staff. He said changes on the current staff were likely and that candidates called him "every five minutes" Tuesday night. He said that local recruiting was a priority, as well as getting the community involved again and perhaps starting a letterman?s day in the off-season.

"We?re standing on a sleeping giant," Broadway said. "If we can pull this together, we?ll be the envy of the CIAA."

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Dupree: A new beginning for N.C. Central
http://www.nccu.edu/campus/athletics

By JIMMY DUPREE, The Herald-Sun
January 8, 2003 11:33 pm
http://www.herald-sun.com/sports/nccentral

Coaching changes are about new beginnings. That may never be more true than Wednesday?s introduction of Rod Broadway as N.C. Central?s head football coach.

You see, Broadway was a coach without a school, having recently been relieved of his duties as an assistant at North Carolina.

But don?t get the idea the NCCU post is a consolation prize. Broadway had pursued the job 10 years ago before NFL Hall of Famer Larry Little was named head coach. And he may be the man to guide the Eagles through a move up in classification.

After filtering through 59 r?sum?s and an unannounced number of interviews, NCCU?s search committee concluded that Broadway was the guy to take the Eagles to the next level.

In the short term, that means more than an occasional win in the rivalry with N.C. A&T. After all, the victory over the Aggies last season wasn?t enough to give former coach Rudy Abrams job security.

"We want to win the championship this year," NCCU chancellor James H. Ammons said after Wednesday?s festivities.

That wasn?t a mandate. It was his final point after discussing of another topic ? N.C. Central?s plans to move up to NCAA Division I-AA and Division I in all other sports.

"We?re going to prepare for that almost immediately," Ammons said. "We have had a committee that?s working on putting a proposal together that would go to the NCAA. We know that we?re going to have to expand our stadium, there are going to have to be some upgrades to facilities, we?ll have to be able to offer more scholarships than we?re offering now. But that committee is working to put all of that together.

"Once they do that, then we?re going to go out and do whatever it takes in order to get there."

It won?t be an easy task to accomplish, by any means. The step up the NCAA?s ladder won?t be cheap. NCCU will have to virtually double its annual athletics budget, according to NCCU athletics director Lin Dawson. That would cover the cost of increasing the number of scholarships provided, along with other operating expenses.

One phase of the upgrade involves exposure, something Dawson said will involve a "tour" of North Carolina by Broadway and key personnel in the department. Recruiting involves more than just players ? they?re going to be on the trail of donors.

Nonetheless, Broadway?s first task is finding players, and he knows where the Eagles stand in that process ? "Way behind," he said.

Yet Broadway gives NCCU a veteran recruiter who is familiar with the region, having begun his college coaching career in 1979 at East Carolina. But he doesn?t want to wander far from the NCCU campus to find talent.

"There?s a lot of kids in the state of North Carolina, ? the first area we want to hit, we want to hit Durham," Broadway said. "There?s a lot of good students here in Durham. We want to get Durham involved. We want to get students from Hillside, we want to get students from Jordan, Riverside. ? That?s where we want to start."

Again and again, "students" ?? not "student-athletes" ?? were the focus on Wednesday.

"When I began my interview with Coach Broadway, I know that he may have thought that I was going to talk first about football," Ammons said. "Well, as a former provost and vice-president of academic affairs, we talked about academics first. We talked about the graduation, retention of our student-athletes. Coach has made a commitment that we are going to have not only a team of athletic champions, we?re going to have a team of academic champions."

Dawson cited a recent 8 percent increase in the graduation rate of football players as a sign the program already is headed in the right direction academically. NCCU requires study halls for all freshmen and any upperclassmen with a GPA below 2.5, and class attendance reports are monitored by the department.

"They got the message very fast," Dawson said. "If he?s not going to class, he?s not going to play for us."

The Eagles can succeed on the football field ? they?ve done so in the past. Earl "Air" Harvey set records while leading NCCU to the Division II playoffs in the late 1980s.

"North Carolina Central University has had high moments in the history of its athletic teams," said Ed Stewart, chairman of the NCCU board of trustees. "Last year, it was the ladies basketball team. Then there were championship performances by members of our track team. The volleyball team excelled. One year, our basketball team won the national championship.

"The football team has had their moments of glory in the sun, also.

"Recently, those moments have been brief. But we love our football team, ? because we know, on that team, we have some dedicated and talented players. We know that they are loyal to this university; they only are looking for leadership."

Now Rod Broadway is that leader ? a new beginning for a coach and a program.

You may contact sports editor Jimmy Dupree by phone at 419-6674 or by e-mail at [email protected]

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From News & Observer Thursday, January 9, 2003 12:00AM EST

Broadway to coach NCCU
http://www.nccu.edu/campus/athletics

Broadway expects to be a winner in first job as a head coach.

By J.P. GIGLIO, Staff Writer

DURHAM -- A veteran assistant football coach, Rod Broadway knew there would be another job after he was fired last month by the University of North Carolina.

Broadway, 47, got the one he wanted on Wednesday, when he was hired as head coach at N.C. Central.

"A job was never the problem," Broadway said. "I could get a job, but I got the right job."

The job is Broadway's first as a head coach after 24 seasons as a defensive assistant at East Carolina, Duke, Florida and the past two years at UNC.

UNC coach John Bunting fired Broadway on Dec. 5 after the Tar Heels went 3-9 and their defense allowed 452.4 yards and 35.1 points per game, both of which ranked last in the ACC.

Broadway said Wednesday was a "positive" day and refused to talk about his dismissal at UNC. Instead, Broadway, talked about turning around the Eagles' program.

On Nov. 9, Rudy Abrams resigned after a 4-6 season, his fourth season in Durham. He had an 18-21 record at the school.

NCCU alumni and students greeted Broadway with cheers and good wishes at Wednesday's news conference at the student union center on campus. NCCU opened last season with a stunning, 33-30 overtime win over N.C. A&T, but otherwise, Eagles fans have had few reasons to cheer.

The Eagles haven't won a CIAA championship since 1980 and have had only one winning season in the past seven years.

Cutting an imposing figure in his gray pinstriped suit, Broadway, a defensive tackle at UNC from 1974-77, promised a better future.

"We're standing on a sleeping giant over here," Broadway said. "If we can pull this thing together ... as one family ... we'll dominate the CIAA."

NCCU athletics director Lin Dawson said the decision to give Broadway a four-year, $400,000 contract was an easy one.

Of the final four candidates the search committee interviewed, Broadway was the most experienced and most impressive.

Dawson especially liked Broadway's local recruiting ties after 13 years at Duke (1981-94) and two at UNC.

"It was rare to have all this experience in a local package," Dawson said.

Broadway coached nine seasons under Steve Spurrier at Duke and Florida. His new players are hoping he adopts Spurrier's passing offense.

Clyde Price, a sophomore receiver in the audience, asked Broadway if the Eagles, who ran an option offense under Abrams, would be a passing team.

"My plan is to be wide open," Broadway said. "I plan on throwing the ball a lot."

The Eagles attempted 212 passes last season and ran the ball 430 times. During Abrams' first season in 1999, NCCU threw the ball only 77 times.

"We did want a change," said Sean Williams, a sophomore quarterback who was on the search committee. "We're excited to have a coach who wants to pass more."

Broadway, who will have 22 seniors next season, didn't set a timetable for when he would name a staff or when he would meet with the returning players.

A native of Oakboro, Broadway said he first visited NCCU in 1966, when his sister Bonnie was a student there. He said he spent more time on the campus when he was coaching at Duke and was interested in the job in 1993, when Larry Little was hired.

"I've always wanted this job," Broadway said.

Now it's his.
 
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