WSSU fires athletics director of 9 years

Chico Caldwell, the athletics director at Winston-Salem State since 2000, was fired yesterday by Chancellor Donald Reaves.

Caldwell, who was hired by former chancellor Harold Martin, had been instrumental in steering the Rams athletics program to NCAA Division I status. The program is in its third year of transition after having left Division II and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

When reached yesterday by phone and asked why he was fired, Caldwell said: "I don't know -- that's what I'm trying to find out."

Reaves, who was hired in February 2007, did not return a phone call to discuss his decision but said in a prepared statement that it was time for "new leadership."

"A stated goal in my short tenure as chancellor is to implement a talent strategy that has the right people in the right position at the right time," Reaves said in the statement. "The university, including its athletics program, is at a critical transition point where fresh ideas and approaches are needed, and in keeping with my commitment to the talent strategy, I believe that the athletics program and our student-athletes will benefit from new leadership."

Reaves named Tonia Walker, the associate director of athletics and senior women's administrator, as the interim AD. She has been at the school since August 2000, when she was hired as the volleyball coach and assistant AD after spending eight years as the director of public relations for the CIAA.

Walker, a two-sport athlete in college, received a bachelor's degree from Hampton in 1993 and a master's degree from Old Dominion in 1998. At WSSU, she has twice been named the CIAA senior women's administrator of the year.

Caldwell, 61, was just the fourth athletics director in school history. He was hired in the summer of 2000 after Anne Little was fired.

Little was the AD for three years. She followed Al Roseboro, who retired in the spring of 1997. Roseboro took over in 1990 to replace Big House Gaines, who until then had been the school's only AD. Gaines died in April 2005.

One of the biggest issues the athletics department faces is the transition to Division I.

On Friday, the board of governors of the University of North Carolina system will vote on WSSU's request to increase student athletics fees. That vote could determine whether WSSU continues to Division I or returns to Division II and the CIAA.

Caldwell has stayed behind the move to Division I since it was announced in December 2004, but it hasn't been easy. According to the school's budget, the athletics department will most likely be short about $1.5 million at the end of this academic year. That's one reason Reaves requested the fee increase.

WSSU's move also has been slowed by an NCAA sanction for underfunding scholarships in women's tennis, adding a year to the transition and pushing the completed move from 2010 to 2011.

Reaves said that there will be a national search to replace Caldwell.

Yesterday morning, Caldwell attended a committee meeting for the MEAC basketball tournaments, which will be played at Joel Coliseum next month. Caldwell provided a big push, with help from the city, to land the tournaments for the next three seasons.

Candidates to replace Caldwell, sources say, include Tim Grant, a former basketball player and assistant coach at WSSU, and Dee Todd, a former basketball player at WSSU and former AD at N.C. A&T.

Grant, 50 and currently the director of Winston-Salem's recreation and parks department, could not be reached for comment. He played basketball for Gaines, graduated from WSSU in 1980, worked as an assistant coach under Gaines from 1981 to 1994 and also was an assistant athletics director. He is on the school's hall-of-fame committee and its foundation board.

Todd, a 1972 graduate of WSSU, was the athletics director at A&T from May 2005 until December 2007, when she was reassigned to A&T's school of education as the director of special initiatives. "First of all, I have to get over the shock because I thought Chico was doing a good job," Todd said yesterday. "As an alumnus of Winston-Salem State, I really admire what they are doing over there."

Roseboro, who has remained active as an alumnus since retiring, endorsed Grant.

"Based on the position of an AD and what it takes when it comes to being in the community, Tim has all the attributes you would want," said Roseboro, a former football player at WSSU.

Roseboro says there is an obvious gap between the athletics department and some older alumni. "Tim has the people skills, was a former athlete, and he has the respect of a lot of folks," Roseboro said. "It's what is needed right now, especially with what's going on with the question about going Division I or going back to Division II."

■ John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or jdell@wsjournal.com.