By Mark Edwards, Decatur Daily Sports Editor
For a lifelong Auburn man like David Housel, serving as the university's athletics director should've been the ultimate.
He had worked at Auburn since starting in the sports information department as a freshman in 1965, and when he succeeded Mike Lude as athletics director in 1994, he got the chance to oversee the athletics program of the school he loved so much.
Not long after he got the job, a reporter friend of Housel's told him, "David, this must be your dream job."
However, it wasn't, and Housel said so. In a matter-of-fact manner, Housel replied, "I always dreamed of being sports information director."
Housel served as Auburn's sports information director from 1981 until moving up April 1, 1994, and it's a shame that he couldn't have remained where he was.
He was perhaps the best sports information director in the country. At the least, if you had taken a poll, he certainly would've finished in the top five.
Auburn athletes and coaches trusted him fully. He had charm and Southern manners that relaxed reporters from Alabama to California to New York. However, he was also intelligent, well-read and savvy at how he could help the media while protecting his athletes. That earned him healthy respect from those same reporters.
He accepted the promotion to athletics director because he believed Auburn needed him, and if there was anything he loved more than the sports information field, it was his school.
When the school wanted a well-respected Auburn man for the job, Housel got the call. And because he loved Auburn, he answered.
He announced Tuesday that he will step down as athletics director in January 2005, and in looking back at his tenure, it's clear that he was much more effective and good for Auburn as sports information director.
Make no mistake, however — that's not all his fault.
When he took the job, he was prepared to do more as athletics director than shake hands of alumni, tell folksy tales of past Auburn greats and rubber-stamp decisions made by his superiors. So when he got little accomplished because that's about all that the school's athletics director got to do, he became frustrated.
He was in charge at Auburn about as much as the New York Yankees' general manager is in charge of his team's roster. The Yankees have owner George Steinbrenner, and Auburn has Board of Trustee member Bobby Lowder, and neither leaves any doubt that he's in charge.
Who knows? If Housel had been able to function with the power and latitude that are normally accorded an athletics director, perhaps he would've been great at his job. Perhaps his vision for Auburn would've been better for the school.
Perhaps he would've been happy.
He gave then-head football coach Terry Bowden a contract extension in 1998, but Lowder drove him off six games into the next season.
When Bill Oliver served as interim coach for the rest of the year, Housel apparently promised him he would get the full-time job. Lowder overruled him, and Tommy Tuberville was the head coach heading into the 1999 season.
Eventually, following Lowder's orders was Housel's downfall. Housel, then-Auburn president William Walker and two Board of Trustee members went to Kentucky on Nov. 20 to speak with Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino — before firing Tuberville or getting the Louisville president's permission.
When the trip was exposed, Housel faced significant public criticism for the first time from the Auburn fan base. That made it difficult for him to do the only thing he did well as athletics director — using his skills as a speaker and writer to keep the Auburn masses feeling good about their school.
So Housel is out as a result.
But how much of a loss is this to Housel? After all, he gave up his dream job in 1994, not Tuesday.