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| GCAC Commissioner Steve Martin with GCAC Digital's Casey Ferrand |
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- It's the final day of the 2018 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Annual Meeting, the conference's yearly gathering of its coaches, faculty athletic reps and athletic directors. It's been a productive meeting in Little Rock--one of the best in many years, reminiscent of the "old GCAC," according to one athletic director--and now the final meeting of the conference's executive committee is set to begin.
GCAC Commissioner Steve Martin, a giant of a man standing six-foot-four with deep set eyes and a freshly shaved bald head, is restless.
The meeting was set to begin at 9:00 a.m. It's 9:05 a.m. One athletic director is late; others are still enjoying the continental breakfast. Martin, however, is ready for the day's business to commence.
"I didn't sleep well," he mumbles, opening his laptop to take notes. It's become a common theme for Martin--a growing urgency, a gnawing sense of unease.
Martin has enjoyed the camaraderie of being among his colleagues as he enters his 5th year as commissioner. But the pontification and lecturing have gotten trite--it's time for the work to begin.
That, too, has been a theme of Martin's life. The 56-year-old former NBA executive has always had an intolerance for minutiae. He is, as a 1991 Collegiate Collection trading card bearing his visage suggested, "at his best in big games."
Martin's instinctive ability to rise to the occasion is, perhaps, his biggest strength. And it's a characteristic that has suited him well as commissioner of the GCAC. Sure, the conference has experienced growth under his watch--a conference-wide deal with apparel brand adidas, sponsorship by the Wyndham Garden hotel--but Martin is unwilling to dwell on past successes.
To Martin, it's always a 7-game series. And whether he's up 3 games or down 2, he always approaches his work with the same sense of purpose. It's become his calling card, dating back to his days at Georgetown University. Whether it's a bad back, a dislocated shoulder, or a broken finger, you just couldn't keep him out of the game.
THE GAP
Martin's tireless work ethic was borne out of his parents' example. He grew up in an area of New Orleans unofficially called "The Gap," a predominately black, working class neighborhood in New Orleans East.
Martin is the youngest of 8 children born to George and Naomi Martin, who instilled in both he and his brothers and sisters a puritanical work ethic and sense of purpose.
"I did come from a two-family household, but my family worked, on average, 3 jobs. On average. He was never home because, you know, he had to support 8 kids. He wasn't home, but we always felt his presence."
Success runs in the Martin family. His eldest brother, George, Jr. is a decorated Vietnam War veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart for his service (Martin admires him the most). D'Artagnan was drafted in the fourth round of the 1971 NFL Draft, and played defensive back for the New Orleans Saints. Carvelle, too, was athletically inclined. He played basketball at Dillard University, and had a tryout with the Detroit Lions.
Those were tumultuous times in the city, and in the nation--a time of civil and social upheaval. The Martin family was, like most, divided by the means by which equality could be achieved.
"I grew up in the time of civil rights," recalls Martin. "My mother was a hardline believer in Martin Luther King. My brothers, which were teenagers and older, hardline believers in Malcolm X. So you come into a house where one faction has to do with Martin Luther King and one faction has to do with Malcolm X, you're going to learn something."
A native of New Orleans, Martin attended New Orleans' historic St. Augustine High School, one of the nation's first all-boy's private, predominately black Catholic schools in the nation, graduating in 1975.
At St. Augustine, Martin excelled as a member of the "Purple Knights" basketball team, where he was a two-year starter. As a senior, he was named All-District, All-City and All-State and served as captain of the varsity team. Martin also achieved in the classroom, earning academic honors each year at St. Augustine. He was also named New Orleans Player of the Year
To this day, Martin is still regarded as one of the 'Top 100 high school basketball players in New Orleans history" by
SportsNOLA.com.
After graduating from St. Augustine in 1975, Martin attended Georgetown University in, where he continued his basketball career under legendary Hoyas Head Coach John Thompson. Martin was the first player from New Orleans recruited to the institution, which sparked a tradition that stands to this day of the Hoyas recruiting in the Crescent City.
Thompson was impressed by Martin's ability to adapt to the team's needs.
"The best thing about Steve is his flexibility," said Thompson. "He can play quick forward or either guard position. When you need scoring, he scores. And when you need rebounding, he rebounds."
After graduating with a degree in accounting in 1979, Martin was drafted in the 10th round by the Washington Bullets. Martin would later go on to work as an accountant with Ernest & Ernest before beginning his career in athletics as director of corporate affairs for the NBA, a role he served in for more than a decade.
In that role, Martin gained a keen appreciation for the multifaceted aspects of sports, and the hard work it takes to effectively run a sports organization. Martin was one of about 20 employees working at the league office at that time.
After leaving New York, Martin accepted a role as as senior vice-president of the New Orleans Hornets, working under then-owner George Shinn. Martin was directly responsible for a number of community outreach, development and beautification efforts for the team--a legacy that endures to this day on public basketball courts around the city such as Shakespeare Park (now A.L. Davis) and Digby Playground, which still bear the Hornets team logo, as well as libraries at Walter L. Cohen High School and John Dibert Elementary.
STOPPING THE BLEEDING
A respected figure in local and national sports, Martin joined the GCAC in 2014 following the retirement of Dr. Thomas Howell, who had served as the conference's commissioner since its inception in 1981.
What he found was a conference in disarray, struggling to adapt to a changing sports landscape and experiencing a mass exodus of member institutions, including the recently-departed Fisk (Tenn.) and Voorhees (S.C.) universities.
Belhaven, The University of Mobile, William Carey, LSU Shreveport and Loyola had all departed some years earlier, bolting for competing conferences.
"We did have some teams leave when I first took on the role,' Martin said. "We needed to stop the bleeding first, and then build to see how we could get other schools on board. We needed to hold the line and get schools on board and get them to stay with us. We started by making sure those who were with us stayed with us, and then I started asked the presidents to use their influence to bring on new members. So, that was a challenge. Finally, we were really able to stabilize, and now we're seeing the growth."
In order to make the conference attractive to new member institutions, the GCAC needed a facelift, and Martin was, in characteristic fashion, in big game form.
"When I first started in this position, I did a presentation to the Council of Presidents that consisted of a 5-year strategic plan, and then within that plan it consisted of marketing, branding, stability of the conference," said Martin. "It also consisted of growth of the conference, sponsorships--all of those elements that that time I thought would really project to make us a much better conference overall, and a more desirable conference."
Martin has accomplished much of what he laid out in that 5-year plan.
He began with a comprehensive rebranding effort, retooling the conference logo and Web site, introducing social media to the conference, and overseeing a process to streamline the conference's by-laws. He asked for, and was granted, greater autonomy over the conference's championships, focusing on improving the overall fan experience, as well as the venue quality.
Martin also entreated the Council of Presidents, the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference's governing body, to hire full-time athletic directors, as well as invest in their sports information, both through funding the sports information director position, and through modernizing their sports information by upgrading their Web sites, developing social media strategies, and live streaming their games and matches--an idea that's still central to his overall strategy as commissioner.
"When I first started, none of our schools were live streaming, and I thought that was an important element to give us extended exposure outside of our markets," said Martin. "So we started with no schools live streaming, and now we have just about everyone live streaming. Live streaming became extremely important. These elements gave us the ability to extend our brand outside of our gyms, arenas and outside of our markets."
Former Dillard University Head Volleyball Coach Yolanda Brown, who served under both Commissioners Howell and Martin, immediately saw the impact of Martin's changes.
"I see the stability in the conference," said Brown. "From conference wide partnerships, apparel and hotels. I appreciate the conference being more involved with championships and establishing a standard of excellence."
Tougaloo (Miss.) College Director of Athletics Dr. James C. Coleman also lauds Martin's work as commissioner.
"He has brought about transformative changes to the conference such as sponsorships, staffing, brand and marketing collaborations," said Coleman. "He has been a great asset to the GCAC and I honored to work with him."
Improving the quality of the conference's tournaments and championships was also key to Martin's retooling efforts. Martin sought to move the championships to what he terms "world class venues," including historic Tad Gormley Stadium and Mississippi's renowned Choctaw Trails.
FOCUS FORWARD
As Martin embarks on his 5th year as GCAC Commissioner, he remains as optimistic as ever about the direction of the conference, even as some criticize his leadership style.
Martin's work speaks for itself. There is a single item from his initial 5-year plan has eluded him: increasing the number of schools within the GCAC to an even 10.
"One thing that I didn't fully accomplish in 5 years, my goal was to have 10, maybe 12 schools within a 5-year period. Right now we're at 8, I feel confident we'll have 10. But it takes work. It takes work to expand."
Under Martin's leadership, the GCAC has grown to 8 members, with Rust (Miss.) College joining in 2018. Two other schools have recently expressed interest in joining the conference, as well.
Still, Martin drew heavy criticism in 2017 when Stillman (Ala.) College opted to join the Southern States Conference, despite having initially declared intent to join the GCAC. Some blamed Martin directly for the college's decision.
When asked how he responds to his critics, Martin keeps things in perspective.
"I try not to," laughs Martin. "But you have to look at who is being critical and for what reason they're being critical. When you take that into consideration, then you may not need to respond. It's the factor of who's being critical, and why they're being critical that factor, for the most part. That will dictate how and if I respond."
The role of a commissioner can be daunting, requiring the management of multiple interests and juggling competing personalities.
"The most difficult part is building consensus," said Martin. "Because you have to build consensus from the president's standpoint, and then you have to work it down to the athletic directors, and even to some extent down to the coaches. I can sit and I can have a vision of what I see, but I still have to sell that vision to our council of presidents, and they have to buy into it...building consensus, getting everyone on the same page.
GULF COAST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEDIA RELATIONS
