The Ole Miss A.D. who hired Mike Bianco is elated over Rebs' title run
John Shafer watched every pitch of Ole Miss’ NCAA Tournament run, and when the final out was recorded on Sunday, he stood up in his Richmond, Virginia, living room, hugged his wife, Diane, and cried.
He’d just watched the man he hired to deliver the Rebels a baseball national title make good on that promise. Ole Miss beat Oklahoma, 4-2, to sweep the College World Series championship series.
Shafer, who was the Ole Miss athletics director from 1998 to 2002, became emotional because of his respect for Mike Bianco and the appreciation he developed during their time together — and that has grown from a distance since then.
“I just sat here and cried,” Shafer said on Tuesday. “All the feelings we have for Mike and his family… (Diane and I) were in silence and embraced. I may be the proudest former AD in America.”
When Shafer fired Pat Harrison at the end of the 2000 season, Ole Miss had been to two NCAA Tournaments (1995 and 1999) since 1977. Swayze Field was barely 10 years old, and fans weren’t filling it. Shafer, who played and coached baseball at Auburn, believed there was a baseball power buried in the mediocrity. He just had to find the right leader.
"You scratch your head and wonder why Ole Miss hasn't had more success," Bianco said to the Daily Journal days before interviewing for the position in 2000. "They have a great facility. I don't see why they can't win a national championship.”
Bianco, who was persistent in his pursuit for the job from the moment he saw Harrison resigned in USA Today, and LSU assistant Turtle Thomas were the finalists for the position. Shafer interviewed both candidates and took each man and his wife to City Grocery for dinner on successive nights.
But before he made the final decision, he wanted input from LSU coach Skip Bertman, who coached and who coached with Bianco and was currently coaching with Thomas. Bianco won three national titles on Bertman's staff at LSU.
Shafer met Bertman at a hotel bar in Birmingham, Alabama, during the SEC Tournament, bought him a scotch and asked him about the two men.
“I compared notes with Skip, and he didn’t want to show favoritism, but I backed him in a corner, and he confirmed what I was feeling all along,” Shafer said.
The swing moment in the decision was breakfast with Bianco at University Inn in Oxford. Bianco gave Shafer his plan for the entire program, from selling tickets to promoting the sport in the community to recruiting and roster management.
In 2000, Ole Miss’ largest non-LSU weekend home attendance was 1,869. Now, the Rebels sell more than 8,000 season tickets and routinely have crowds in the five digits.
“He told me he was going to win a national championship,” Shafer said. “I believed him. It was this vision. He’s done everything he said he was going to do and better than he said he would do it. He doesn’t get enough credit for the health of that program in structure and discipline and the way it’s a model around the country.”
Bianco has been to the postseason 18 times in 21 opportunities, won eight regionals and taken the Rebels to the College World Series twice. Ole Miss went 10-1 in the NCAA Tournament and 5-1 in the College World Series after being 7-14 in the SEC on May 1 and getting the last at-large spot in the field of 64.
Shafer texted Bianco while watching the broadcast of the on-field celebration. The two text routinely and talk occasionally.
“I told him in my text that few men get to have a vision and dream and have it come to a fruition,” Shafer said. “He deserves it. He’s a man of substance in a way you don’t see as much anymore.”
Soon after Shafer sent the text to Bianco, calls and texts came to him, congratulating Shafer on a hire from 22 years ago. He joked that he was a lot smarter back then but said it was a no-brainer, knowing that Bianco had the chops to win but has been most impressed with his adaptability to the changing game over the course of two decades.
While he appreciated the well-wishers and the conversations, Shafer thinks he avoided screwing it up as much as anything else.
“I got a text that I opened the door for Mike Bianco,” Shafer said. “Mike opened his own damn door.”