Rich Johanningmeier has a unique perspective on the state of intercollegiate athletics. In the past 45 years of his professional career, he’s seen many sides of college sports — serving as coach, athletics director and in enforcement.
Johanningmeier had a 10-year stint guiding the Missouri State Football Bears amid a long coaching career. He currently works as associate director of enforcement for the National Collegiate Athletic Association in Indianapolis, Ind., a position in which he investigates possible violations of NCAA rules by member institutions.
A large percentage of rule violations occur in the recruitment of prospective student-athletes, a function with which Johanningmeier was heavily involved during his years as an assistant coach, head coach and director of athletics at a half-dozen NCAA schools.
“There are a number of others working in enforcement, but none of them have my coaching background,” he said.
“Our staff investigates whether there are reasons to believe major violations have been committed by institutions. That football background helps, and, if a violation has occurred, it has to be written up.”
Johanningmeier is part of an enforcement staff of more than 30 people. Investigations can be a lengthy process involving high-profile universities and coaches, as well as athletics staff members, administrators, student-athletes, boosters and others.
The search for facts in a case is challenging. Schools found culpable of committing violations can face considerable penalties.
“The thing that’s interesting about an investigation is that everyone holds us (the enforcement staff) responsible for these rules,” Johanningmeier said. “But, if legislation is passed by the NCAA membership, we’ve got to enforce whatever it says.”
Johanningmeier has been in the athletics “trenches” since his days as a two-way tackle for the Bears under head coaches Aldo Sebben and Orville Pottenger from 1960-63. He earned All-America honors on an unbeaten MIAA championship team as a senior before a brief time in professional football.
After more than a decade as an assistant coach at three schools, Johanningmeier returned to Springfield as head coach in 1976. His 10-year record of 58-44-5 makes him the Bears’ second winningest all-time football mentor. He took the team to its final MIAA title in 1978, then guided the program’s move into the Mid-Continent Conference and Division I-AA in the early 1980s.
A 1988 inductee into the Missouri State Athletics Hall of Fame, he took his first job with NCAA enforcement in 1986. He was director of athletics at Washburn University from 1990-95, head coach and athletics director at Illinois College from 1995-99, and returned to his current NCAA post in 1999.
With each passing year, the need for money to sustain college athletics programs becomes more crucial.
“The landscape is changing in terms of the corporate involvement that’s important to a great many schools,” said Johanningmeier.
“New business models are created as companies retool themselves. They may no longer have the money to fund the sponsorship that schools have grown accustomed to. Schools have to keep developing new revenue streams.”
It’s because of his belief in the need for that sustainability that Johanningmeier has chosen to donate to his alma mater. He supports athletics endowment funds which provide scholarships to future athletes, choosing specifically the funds created for Aldo Sebben, assistant Ed Lechner, Johanningmeier’s long-time assistant Bill O’Neill, and team physician and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Harvey Michael.
“An athletics program that is well-endowed financially is in the best position to weather the storms of economics and to be successful. Year in and year out, even with investment peaks and valleys, these programs will have the foundation needed to operate successfully. That money is not going to go away if it’s put into endowments.”
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