What ever happened to: Bruce Parker

Posted with the permission of Jim Cnockaert, Chronicle Sports Writer, Bozeman Daily Chronicle

HELENA - More than a few friends thought Bruce Parker was crazy earlier this year when he withdrew his name from consideration for the Portland State athletic director opening.

Bruce Parker has been the athletic director at Helena's Carroll College for five years, after leaving Montana State University's athletic department. Last year, Parker took his name out of contention for a job at Portland State, saying he was happy in Helena. How could he not want to step up into the big time from tiny Carroll? How could he pass up a chance to take over an NCAA Division I athletic program?

Those were thoughtful questions, Parker admits, but he says he view his decision from a different perspective. After giving the matter much thought, he says, he decided he was right where he belonged.

“(Carroll football coach) Mike Van Diest has a favorite saying: ‘The big time is where you're at,'” Parker said. “I always think about Mike's quote. I'm not sure who said it. I think it might be John Gagliardi (a former Carroll coach who's gone on to become the all-time winningest coach in college football history). But it's right on the money.

“People ask me: ‘How could you not take the Portland State job?' And I answer: ‘I've got stuff here that's going on. We're winning. The recognition is good. My wife (Lisa) teaches at Helena High School, and she likes where she's at. We like our lifestyle here. There is a lot of good here.”

The 50-year-old Parker, who is beginning his fifth year at Carroll, directs one of the nation's most successful athletic departments.

The football team has earned seven consecutive Frontier Conference titles, won four NAIA titles in a row (2002-05) and (by Parker's estimation) would rank third in the Big Sky Conference in total attendance.

The men's and women's basketball teams are regulars in the NAIA tournament, and the women's soccer team qualified for the tournament for the first time last season. The volleyball team has won the conference and been to the regional tournament.

“Athletically, we've been very successful, and the best part is that we are doing it with real talented student-athletes,” he said.

“They are all good students. This is a tough academic institution, and that comes first. The rest of what we have done is gravy.”

Though Parker has built an impressive reputation at Carroll - he's been honored as both the Frontier Conference and NAIA regional and national athletic director of the year - he gained most of his experience as a college administrator at Montana State.

He joined the MSU staff as sports information director just after he graduated from Eastern Montana College (now MSU-Billings) in 1979. He left in 1988 to work as a technical sales representative for Eastman Kodak Co., but he returned to MSU in 1990 as an associate athletic director. He stayed until 2003, when he was hired at Carroll.

A sports columnist once wrote that Parker has lived a charmed life as Carroll's A.D., but he would suggest that that's been true of his entire professional career. Parker played football, basketball and tennis at Billings Senior High. As an 18-year-old, he was the radio Senior and Eastern Montana football and basketball. He kept it up once he got to college, and the more he did it, the more he decided he wanted to be involved in some sort of media career.

“I guess you could say I stumbled into it,” Parker said of his career choice. “When the sports information job opened up (at MSU), I jumped at it. I think, at the time, I was maybe the youngest sports information director at a Division I school. I was 22.”

Parker says he left MSU the first time because he wanted to try the corporate world. His job with Eastman Kodak took him to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he worked in the company's health sciences division. But he quickly discovered that he missed the competitive aspects of intercollegiate athletics.

In 1989, the MSU football team played at Sam Houston State, so the Parkers made the five-hour trip north to Huntsville, Texas. Parker watched the game from the sidelines, while his wife sat in the stands with old MSU friends.

“On the way home, she said, ‘You really miss athletics, don't you?'” Parker recalled. “I said, ‘Yeah.' She said, ‘Let's get you back into it.'

“I was used to the upbeat part of athletics, where you can lose a game and still have a chance to win the next one.”

Parker spent six months at Eastern Washington before Doug Fullerton (now the Big Sky Conference commissioner) brought him back to MSU as an associate athletic director in 1990. Most of his responsibilities involved external activities, including corporate partnerships, marketing, and working with members of the media.

Parker's sons, Ryan and Brett, are both Bozeman High graduates. Ryan played on the Hawks' 1998 Class AA state championship basketball team. Brett, an all-state soccer and basketball player at Bozeman, went on to play soccer at Kansas' Ottawa University, where he now works as an assistant men's and women's coach.

As much as he appreciates being a part of Carroll's athletic success, Parker said he is most proud of the way in which the Fighting Saints have accomplished it. The NAIA annually honors programs it calls “Champions of Character,” and Carroll is a regular recipient. Parker says that's because Carroll recruits the best “character-type athletes you can find.” He knows that, he says, because he invites the members of each Carroll team over to his house for dinner before the start of each season.

“If you look at our football team, we have never been the biggest or the strongest or the fastest,” he said.

“We've been the smartest and the most disciplined and the best coached. We bring in kids who are smart and who understand what they need to do to be successful. They prioritize academics and athletics. Some student-athletes go to school only to participate in athletics. Our guys are here to get their degrees.”

Jim Cnockaert is at jcnockaert@dailychronicle.com.