Highs and lows of Barbara Hedges' career at Washington

On May 21, 1991, Barbara Hedges was named the 15th athletic director in UW history, following Chuck Armstrong, who had been the interim administrator for five months after Mike Lude quit. She signed a three-year, $110,000 annual contract, making her the highest-paid athletic director in UW history. The only other woman athletic director at a football-playing NCAA Division I school had been Mary Alice Hill, head of the San Diego State program from 1983-85.

Yesterday, Hedges, 66, announced her retirement, saying she wanted to get the focus off of her and back on the athletes. Here are five highs and lows of her tenure, listed in chronological order:

HIGHS

1. Huskies win a share of the 1991 national football championship with Miami. Back then, it was done by the polls, and the 12-0 Huskies won the coaches' poll and Miami won the AP poll.

2. UW softball team reaches College World Series. A program she began in her first year with the hiring of coach Teresa Wilson and the subsequent building of a softball stadium paid off quickly: They made the World Series five times, finishing as a runner-up in 1996 and 1999.

3. The hiring of Rick Neuheisel. It was a million-dollar decision that looked like she had struck gold when Neuheisel was wooed away from Colorado, then, in his second year, took UW to a Rose Bowl victory over Purdue following the 2000 season.

4. A $100 million building campaign. Her tenure saw the building of the Husky Softball Stadium, Husky Ballpark, Husky Soccer Field, the Dempsey Indoor facility, the renovation of the Conibear Shellhouse, the Husky Hall of Fame and the east end football practice fields. She also negotiated a contract with Washington National Golf Club to serve as the home for Huskies teams.

5. The hiring of Lorenzo Romar as men's basketball coach. She looked out for diversity in all that she did, and was the one to hire the first minority to take the reigns of a major sport, men's basketball or football.

LOWS

1. Probation for UW football program; Don James quits. She hadn't been at the helm very long when an investigation into Billy Joe Hobert's improper loan and other improprieties with the UW football program led to probation, loss of scholarships and the resignation of James.

2. The firing of Bob Bender. It was one of her most difficult decisions, she said, but in March 2002 she fired the coach she had sought out in 1993 to lead a program that had been devastated by scandal and controversies under fired coach Lynn Nance.

3. Probation of men's basketball program. The ink had barely dried on Lorenzo Romar's contract when his assistant, Cameron Dollar, was found to have broken recruiting rules.

4. The firing of Rick Neuheisel. The unraveling began when the NCAA continued to investigate Neuheisel for improprieties at Colorado; he was censured by his colleagues; he lied to Hedges and the media about interviewing with the San Francisco 49ers; then finally he was fired for gambling in a high-stakes basketball pool and initially lying about it to NCAA investigators.

5. Dr. William Scheyer and the ouster of Teresa Wilson. In October, another scandal broke before she could deal with the Neuheisel fallout; it was discovered that a team doctor had been allowed to run without supervision. The state accused him of dispensing drugs to athletes improperly, and as a result, Hedges ousted Wilson.