Dave Heeke’s first job in the college athletics business was in the ticket office at Michigan State, selling tickets, working in event management, grinding day to day.
“It served me well,” he says.
On Sunday morning, 90 minutes before tipoff to the Arizona-Cal women’s basketball game at McKale Center, Heeke was grinding again, but it was a different kind of grind than it was 30 years ago in East Lansing, Michigan.
About 1,000 fans — a sea of red as far as you could see up and down Fred Enke Drive — arrived early for Senior Day at McKale, and Heeke stepped into the sea.
“I bought season tickets last year and I’ve never looked back,” a fan told Arizona’s third-year AD.
Another stopped Heeke to say “I love what you’re doing here.”
UA’s Helena Pueyo (13) and Semaj Smith (34) attempt to block the shot of California’s Cailyn Crocker.
A woman stepped out of line to shake his hand. “I haven’t missed a game all year.”
Not a word about Kevin Sumlin or Sean Miller.
Heeke’s long-ago entry-level job as an event manager and ticket-office grinder is a modest reminder of the way college athletics used to be. Today, the UA event-management and ticket office/sales staff directory lists 25 employees. Heeke commands an athletic department of more than 250 full-time employees.
Before he enters McKale to continue his meet-and-greet routine, Heeke stops in the ticket office to engage a busy staff.
“Are we going to have a good number today?” he asks.
Someone says “it’s going to be really good.”
Arizona sold 6,705 tickets for Senior Day — a head-shaking 55-54 loss to the last-place Cal Bears — moving the final season total to 95,098 (5,931 per game). In that respect, it was a very good day for Arizona’s athletic department.
In Heeke’s first full season as Arizona’s athletic director, 2017-18, the UA women’s basketball program sold 28,988 tickets (1,933 per game).
He smiles when he thinks back to the first women’s basketball games he attended at McKale. “I think we had 700 people,” he says.
A tear runs down Arizona center Semaj Smith (34) cheek as she records the Arizona Wildcats senior videos on the Jumbotron during Arizona's 55-54 loss to California at McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz., on March 1, 2020.
You won’t find many Division I athletic directors spending a Sunday morning in the meet-and-greet line at a women’s basketball game, but Heeke knows a good thing when he sees it. His online staff bio includes three photographs — of MLB Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman having his Arizona jersey retired at Hi Corbett Field, of the Arizona women’s golf team celebrating the 2018 NCAA championship and another of Heeke congratulating women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes upon winning the 2019 WNIT.
You embrace the moment when you can; college athletics have become such a fragile and unpredictable enterprise that even the best intentions can blow up in your hands.
Most of Heeke’s constituency — the stakeholders — spend their money on UA football and men’s basketball, both of which have been in decline.
That’s surely not what Heeke expected when he arrived from Central Michigan in the spring of 2017. Khalil Tate was returning from a break-out sophomore season as Arizona’s quarterback, and Sean Miller had just put a 32-5 season in the books, ranked No. 4 in the final AP poll.
So much for a honeymoon. Over the last three years, no athletic director in the Pac-12 has faced the unexpected and often imposing challenges that greeted Heeke. Crisis management? That’s a fitting description for almost every Power 5 conference athletic director, not just Heeke.
“It hasn’t been exactly what I thought it would be,” he says. “We’ve been challenged with a number of different issues that have really been intense and grueling for everyone involved: staff, fans, everyone. It’s been tough to deal with.
“There’s not a lot of relaxation (for an athletic director) any more. You don’t go home on Friday and say ‘hey, we’ll get back at it on Monday.’ There’s no doubt, as an athletic director, you maybe carry a little bit extra on your back; sometimes it feels like an inferno.”
California guard Jazlen Green (10) scrambles for a loose ball while Arizona forward Sam Thomas (14) reacts to getting elbowed in the nose by Green during Arizona's 55-54 loss to California at McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz., on March 1, 2020. Thomas exited the court for a bloody nose following the play.
It is on Heeke to stop the fire from spreading.
On the slow-moving NCAA basketball investigation involving Arizona and multiple schools, Heeke says: “We’ve been sitting on this thing for three years now. It certainly restricts some things we can do. But we support the leadership in our program, we support Sean Miller 100 percent and are moving to make it the best program we can.”
On back-to-back 5-7 and 4-8 football seasons and the school’s lowest home attendance average since 1975: “I believe we can get our football program in position to be successful. The ups and downs of the last 20 years are well-documented, so it’s a little bit of the chicken-and-egg thing. Do we first need to be successful to energize our fans? We believe we’re headed in the right direction.”
Most of Arizona’s total athletic program is healthy; 14 of the 19 sports are contenders for postseason tournaments. The women’s golf and softball programs are national title possibilities..
And every so often, someone like Adia Barnes comes along, stirs community interest, puts a glow on the athletic department and makes the life of an athletic director a Sunday morning pleasure cruise.
Asked what the young Dave Heeke, a ticket office grinder at Michigan State, would’ve done had he looked into a crystal ball to see how college athletics would grow by 2020, he laughs.
“I might’ve gone into a different business,” he says. “But really, college athletics are ever-evolving, ever-changing. And most of it is good.”
