The first CEO of USF Athletics was introduced Monday, and he is ready to roll
TAMPA, Fla. — Building. Campus. Community. Country.
Rob Higgins may not officially begin his duties as CEO of Athletics at USF until October 1, though since being hired September 9 he has been game planning to make the Bulls, each and every team and each and every student-athlete, the best they can possibly be. That means winning at each of the above steps, and in that order.
Of course, it also means those connected to Higgins within the confines of the building, specifically the Selmon Athletics Center, will be a team of winners themselves. After all, people have to demonstrate how committed they are before there can any measurable level buy in outside the walls.
“You can’t expect to win the hearts and minds of campus until we know we have our very own people 100 percent bought in and obsessed with what we get a chance to do every day,” said the 46-year-old Higgins during an introductory event at the Muma Center on Monday morning that attracted a few hundred attendees, including Mayor Jane Castor, Thaddeus Bullard (a.k.a. Titus O’Neill), Derrick Brooks, Tino Martinez and Ronde Barber, who helped emcee the event. “We will have the top sports business talent in the country at USF athletics. Some are in the building now and some are arriving soon.”
Don’t believe him? Well, consider his lean and mean staff at the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, which he headed for 21 years, brought five Super Bowls, four women’s Final Fours, three Frozen Fours, a College Football Championship game and a host of other events to Tampa. Higgins got things done and, frankly, helped shape the region into the top-shelf sporting landscape that it has become.
Higgins’ work address is changing, but the winning attitude and desire to get things done while not looking back and resting on laurels will prevail just as it always has.
“That’s how you win the building,” he said, of his team. “From there, we will win the campus and then we will win the community and the country. We are not taking shortcuts. We have failed in the past, have skipped one of those four steps and got ahead of ourselves.”
The Tampa native and USF alum knows the university and the region, which is why his hiring was critical. His tentacles are far reaching and stretch to the highest levels of collegiate and professional sports. Higgins’ relationship with the school runs deep, beginning as an eight-year-old ballboy with the men’s basketball team. In addition to being an alum, he is the son of parents who attended the university, and whose sister is also a Bull.
Indeed, Rob Higgins bleeds green and gold. And he wants to win. Now.
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