Who Will Replace Frank?

Quickly, name the top candidates to replace Frank Broyles whenever he does decide to end his 29-year stint as the men’s athletic director at the UA.

Buried in UA Chancellor John White’s lengthy notes regarding the decline and fall of Nolan Richardson was a comment about Broyles putting a possible timeline on his employment. Broyles said he was committed to White for two more years. The news came in a response to Richardson, who was asking how long Broyles planned on being the A.D. This was the first time Broyles has hinted at retirement. He’ll be 78 this year.

The name most people assume will get the first look is Oklahoma State A.D. Terry Don Phillips. A former UA football player, former Broyles’ assistant and former head of the Razorback Foundation, Phillips has been at OSU for eight years and could be so entrenched enough in that community to remain there.

It has been widely rumored that White would seriously consider UA women’s A.D. Bev Lewis for the role. She’s done a great job with the women’s program, but she has never hired a football coach. And that’s a whole new ball game in more ways than one.

The most recognized woman leading a major men’s athletic program is the University of Washington’s Barbara Hedges.

Lewis may not even be the best female candidate on campus. Many feel Broyles’ senior associate A.D. Katie Hill can do the job. We also hear Chuck Dicus, president of the Razorback Foundation Inc., has no shot because he’s made too many enemies.

Either way, we hope that White is already making a list of candidates. It is a post that would need to be filled quickly when — and if — Broyles ever steps down. He became A.D. when Richard Nixon was still president in 1973.