Celebrating 90 Years of Leading the Way - Dr. Patterson's Strong Leadership Helps Steer Conference Carolinas Into NCAA Era
Conference Carolinas is highlighting some of the biggest achievements in conference history. The 90th anniversary of the formation of Conference Carolinas is on Dec. 6, 2020.
HIGH POINT, N.C. - When you’re celebrating the 90th anniversary of the founding of Conference Carolinas, clearly one of the first people to toast is Dr. Alan Patterson.
After all, Dr. Patterson was hired as the conference’s commissioner in 1982 at the ripe age of 37 and subsequently spent the next 37 years in that post. It is by far the longest tenure in Conference Carolinas’ history.
In many ways, he helped navigate the league’s athletic fortunes during the most challenging times ever, a period of school membership changes and a transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II competition.
“You didn’t have a lot of competition for the job,” said Patterson with a grin. “When I first became commissioner, it was only a part-time job. The position essentially consisted of assigning game officials. When I came on board, we established a supervisor of officials and my job moved into administrative, sports-oriented areas such as scheduling conference championship tournaments and addressing other competition areas.”
Patterson, a former student-athlete at Saint Lawrence University in upstate New York, remained employed as head of the physical education department at High Point University during those early part-time years of commissionership. While still in a dual role, he later served as athletic director at Catawba College from 1984-89 before leaving that position to start his own real estate investment business.
Two years into the commissioner job, Patterson added Lenoir-Rhyne, Guilford, St. Andrews and Mount Olive to the league’s membership. As more and more schools around the nation chose to move up from NAIA to NCAA Division II, and others decided to change from NCAA Division II to Division I, it became a veritable “Wild West” among conferences as schools jumped from affiliation to affiliation.
In 1989-90, Patterson’s conference lost four members--Catawba, Elon, Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate--who withdrew to compete in the South Atlantic Conference, which had transitioned into NCAA Division II. However, he replenished the league with the additions of Belmont Abbey in 1989, Coker in 1991 and Lees-McRae in 1993.
Yet, it was clear that the NAIA-to-NCAA exodus was becoming a national trend. In the early 1990’s, the decision was made by member school presidents that the conference would also transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II status. It was not until the process was complete in 1995 that Patterson’s commissioner role became full-time.
“By that time, many of our members started joining the NCAA while staying in the NAIA for postseason competition,” Patterson recalled. “We had new members join us who were total NCAA. They approached our other members, asking them to join the NCAA as well.”
According to the former commissioner, their proposal made lots of sense and was quickly adopted.
“First, schools had to budget extra money every year if they qualified for the NAIA Championships,” he said. “But the NCAA covered all those costs, so it was a financial savings and made sense. Second, the NCAA brand was more recognizable and raised the conference’s profile.”
In the first year of NCAA competition, the circuit changed its name from the Carolinas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAC) to the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference, which better described the membership which added Longwood of Farmville, Virginia in 1995.
Despite the fluidity of conference members during this volatile period, Patterson’s steady hand and people skills kept the league on even ground and its new NCAA status soon added new-found revenue through television contracts and other means.
“It was just a process,” he shrugged. “Certainly within NCAA Division II you had a lot of conferences that were not pleased that new conferences were coming in. We were kind of looked at as stepchildren. Also we had a lot of people in the league who were comfortable with the NAIA, particularly coaches who liked competing where they were. But any opposition really was not overwhelming.”
As would be expected, the transition required more paperwork, particularly in the compliance area. Yet, it didn’t take long for member schools to appreciate the move to NCAA Division II.
“There were some tremendous advantages,” said Patterson. “We met with other conference commissioners more often and shared best practices and common experiences. With TV money, we began to have more funds to work with. And the public recognition of being an NCAA member was a brand name associated with something bigger.”
And with the increased budget, the conference office expanded. Instead of student interns, Patterson was able to rely on a new full-time position in charge of sports information and assisting in the management of sport championships.
The new NCAA revenues also allowed the conference to add sports.
“More and more, we went through a period where there was a tremendous expansion of sports,” said the former conference chief. “Altruistically, you hope to give more students the experience of intercollegiate athletics. It’s an educational endeavor, placing students in a unique athletic competition that will teach them values and skills you can’t duplicate anywhere else.”
Patterson said that adding sports teams provided college presidents with an invaluable by-product as well.
“The addition of those sports impacted small colleges and universities who are dependent on enrollment. It really helped members sustain their viability. Every small school needed to attract students, and more and more the athletic department provided the vehicle. It also added diversity to the student bodies and brought new cultures to the campus.”
On Patterson’s watch, the number of conference-sponsored championships increased from 14 to 23 sports, and conference schools won national titles in basketball, baseball, lacrosse and soccer. In his honor, the top award given in the conference is named the Body, Mind & Soul Dr. Alan Patterson Cup, which measures athletic and academic achievement.
Originally founded as the North State Intercollegiate Conference in 1930, the conference has been renamed three times. It has flown the banner of Conference Carolinas since 2007.
“Since I first became commissioner, Barton (formerly Atlantic Christian) is the only active member left in the conference,” said Dr. Patterson. “Yet, the group of schools each year are always competitive and believe in the same educational mission.”
Patterson credits that unity to school presidents and athletic directors being willing to sacrifice individual interests for what’s best overall for the conference.
“One of the most important jobs for a commissioner is to establish trust between the various constituencies among members. Our athletic administrators have always been very competitive but they also had a sense of the common good. Sure, we had arguments. But ultimately, our members were willing to always look at the bigger picture.”
In semi-retirement, Patterson lives in HIgh Point, N.C. and keeps busy with his real estate investments, golfing three times a week, coaching high school basketball and spending time with his four grown children and eight grandchildren.
The former commissioner, who once coached two of his daughters to North Carolina 2A State Basketball Championships at Ledford High School some three decades ago, is now serving as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Westchester Country Day, a private high school in High Point.
He reports to the head coach, his son Brook, who also served Conference Carolinas as an associate commissioner for many years.
“It’s a role reversal,” laughs Patterson. “It’s totally fun. I’ve had the opportunity to work beside my son, something a lot of fathers never get to experience. Plus, we get along. I’ve been so blessed.”
As for the future of college sports, Patterson sees many differences then when he first was named commissioner.
“It’s a hugely different landscape,” he said. “There’s a lot more challenges or opportunities, depending how you want to look at it. They were just starting to discuss Esports when I was leaving the job. So many young people are playing it these days and it kind of requires that you provide an avenue for them."
Looking back, Patterson is no Sinatra. While he may have done it his way, he doesn’t have any regrets.
“I never looked at life with that perspective,” he admitted. “Sure, I made a few mistakes, but you learn from them and move on. I thought we tried very hard to make sound decisions that would benefit student-athletes and our members. I never thought of it as my conference. It was our conference. Over the years, I worked with so many great people and we accomplished a lot together.
“I guess my only regret was I didn’t get to deal directly with students as much as I would have liked. But that’s the nature of the job. My job was to build consensus, create ownership by all our members and hopefully provide opportunities for student-athletes to reach their potential. I think the current commissioner and his staff are doing a good job with the same objective.”
While watching the conference from afar, Patterson understandably remains keenly interested in Conference Carolinas. When you spend almost half your life as its commissioner, you tend to build a bit of equity.
“I follow many of my friends who are still in the conference and wish all of them well,” he said. “Maybe we don’t get as much publicity as the bigger conferences, but I know we make a profound difference in young people’s lives. I take great pride in that. Commissioner (Chris) Colvin and all the conference schools are carrying that tradition on in a very commendable way.”
Bob Rose is a longtime sports public relations executive who has worked for the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, the NFL Cardinals, Cal, Stanford and other organizations. Conference Carolinas’ official storyteller, Rose will incorporate unique features through his “Body, Mind, and Soul” series into the 90th anniversary celebration.