Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM AUGUST 2023 21 refused, believing her to be too valuable to be "caught in the dragnet of COVID." "It was the right decision," Solomon said. "I needed him to make that [deci- sion], because I didn't not want to be on the ground, leading the team, but he made the tough call for me, and I was very impressed by that." Much of Bevacqua's tenure at NBC coincided with the pandemic, which was a time when NBC employees were concerned about their jobs for obvious reasons. Bevacqua regularly held town halls to inform people about what was happen- ing, and he made it a point to be acces- sible for everyone at the company. Bevacqua helped weather the storm and keep NBC Sports on the right track. "We came out strong," Phillips said. "We came out with the Big Ten deal. English Premier League s o c c e r. T h e re 's b e e n some big deals that have h a p p e n e d o n P e te 's watch." 'IT'S ABOUT ACTION' Asked what Bevacqua's impact on NBC's workplace culture was, Storms said she remembers the Chief Financial Officer for NBC Entertainment Group walking into her office and express- ing how sad she was that Bevacqua is leaving the company, even though she doesn't work in sports. Zenkel lauded how transparent he was, especially as the pandemic began, and how he kept everyone involved in the loop. Bevacqua's biggest impact on the cul- ture at his previous company, however, might have been in diversity, equity and inclusion. In 2020, Bevacqua hired Phillips (pre- viously the senior vice president and general manager of NBC Sports Wash- ington) to lead the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program at NBC Sports. When Phillips took that job, he wanted to be sure the company's leader was truly committed to that. Bevacqua, who also co-chairs RISE — which describes itself as "a nonprofit coalition of major U.S. sports leagues and media networks that uses sports to eliminate racism and champion social justice" — was all in. "It was important that diversity and inclusion reported directly to Pete," Phillips said. "From a diversity and in- clusion standpoint, Pete is hands-on. He's hands-on with our workforce ini- tiatives, he's been hands-on with our content initiatives, as well as what we do in the community. You need that type of executive-level support." Storms agreed that NBC's DEI efforts advanced during Bevacqua's tenure. He made sure the conversation around it wasn't just happening once each year. "He was always talking about it, al- ways making sure that we were mindful of it and making sure that we, as lead- ers of the organization, were taking the right steps and implementing the right tools to ensure that we were making gains in the future," Storms said. Bevacqua's approach in this area was two-fold. First, he made sure NBC Sports cast a wide net when it came to open roles and promotions. And sec- ond, he emphasized development. He asked himself and asked Phillips, "Are we building a diverse pipeline?" "I want to make sure I emphasize this," Phillips said. "Pete has been a true champion of diversity and inclusion. It's more than just words with Pete. It's about action. And I respect that a lot." FORWARD THINKING If you regularly watch college sports, read about college sports, listen to talk shows about college sports or have even just opened Twitter in the past two years, you know the landscape is changing. NIL. Transfer portal. Coaches and administrators have to navigate an in- creasingly difficult and under-regulated world, along with the mountain of re- sponsibilities they already faced. "College sports is being disrupted right now," Bevacqua said. "You need a leader who understands this landscape and has the experience to get Notre Dame to the finish line, whatever that finish line is." Bevacqua, with NBC, has faced a sim- ilar challenge. "When you think about this transi- tion from linear to streaming television, he's been in the trenches, understand- ing it, making decisions about it," Sol- omon said. "When you look at being a college athletics director these days, with image and likeness, with decisions about staying independent. … Pete has that background. I really think that's unique for an athletics director." "It's a multifaceted role," Lazarus said. "I think he has had very much a multifaceted role at our place." Lazarus named external organiza- tions, ad sales clients, distributors and even internal negotiations as tasks Bev- acqua had at NBC Sports. In dealing with all of that, Bevacqua never was the person who said, "We're going to do it this way because this is the way it's al- ways been done." His adaptability is one of his greatest strengths. "He saw the new fron- tier," Solomon said. "He dared to go there. And you've got to have peo- ple that are taking smart risks, taking swings, being at the fore- front of technology. He understands it all in a very unique way." All of this is to say that Bevacqua's former colleagues who spoke to Blue & Gold Illustrated universally agree that he'll be successful as Notre Dame's di- rector of athletics. Zenkel pointed out one more reason he believes Bevacqua will succeed. At his core, Bevacqua is a longtime Notre Dame fan. Beyond that, he's a sports fan. He built his life, after a brief stint as a New York City lawyer, around sports. And he knows what sports mean in South Bend. "I think Pete has a huge appreciation for the power of sports, as part of a big institution like Notre Dame," Zenkel said. "He appreciates the tradition, which I know is so important there. … I think he appreciates how magical having an op- portunity to participate in the Olympics is, and how important the NCAA system is to the U.S. Olympic success. I have no doubt Olympic sports will thrive, as so many other sports do at Notre Dame." Bevacqua is currently serving as a special assistant to the president for athletics, and he'll assume the director of athletics role when Swarbrick retires sometime in the first quarter of 2024. ✦ "I think one of Pete's talents is he's a very clear thinker. He carefully analyzes the challenge or the issues and gives tremendous feedback." NBC OLYMPICS AND BUSINESS DIVISION PRESIDENT GARY ZENKEL ON BEVACQUA