Quote from: nescac1 on January 18, 2026, 05:35:14 PMJefffan, ironically losing Tom Parker to Amherst (which coincided with the start of Amherst's golden age of athletics before things rapidly changed in recent years) I believe was when things started to change for Williams. Beyond that, I really don't know, although it's clear we haven't had a President or Trustees who really seem particularly interested in athletics for quite some time. I think there were some segments at Williams (particularly faculty some of whom had some nasty public commentary about athletes) who were never terribly psyched about Williams former reputation as a jock school and I'm assuming those factions became more influential over time.
I'd also note that competition got a lot tougher. Midd and Trinity always had powerhouse teams but Tufts and Wesleyan just never seemed to care about sports at all until that changed radically over the past 10-15 years. They were always sleeping giants as bigger more urban proximate schools with grad programs. And Colby is clearly trying to join that group, thus far without the same sort of results, but they will get there I suspect. So not only did the institutional emphasis gradually seem to change at Williams - and later Amherst, more dramatically and suddenly, but it was the same time that the competition got much tougher. Look at hoops - as many non W/A teams made final fours in the past two seasons as the 30 prior years.
The recent golden age of Williams Athletics ended when (1) in 2009 Morty Schapiro, the Williams President, left to take the job as President of Northwestern, and (2) in 2010 Harry Sheehy, the Williams AD, left Williams to take the AD job at Dartmouth. Williams won the the Directors Cup every year that Sheehy was AD and Schapiro was President. Schapiro was a big supporter of Athletics at Williams and Sheehy was a brilliant leader of the Athletics Department.
Adam Falk was a disaster as President of Williams when he followed Schapiro. Maud Mandel (current President) is apathetic (many will say pathetic) when when it comes to sports at Williams. Melendy took over as AD for Sheehy and she has presided over the decline of Williams' sports.
The Trustees are in the midst of preparing a significant plan for a major and much needed upgrade of the sports facilities at Williams. Realistically, it's at least five years (likely more) before anything significant is completed to upgrade the sports facilities. Williams will continue to fall further behind other NESCAC schools.
