CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - When Robert N. Shelton was informed he was the new president of the UA, one of his first reactions was, “How can I get two basketball tickets?”
Shelton, the executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill will sit behind the Arizona bench when the Wildcats face the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday at 11 a.m. Although Shelton still has a semester of work to do at UNC, he said he will “shift his allegiance out West.”
Athletics is an integral part of a university’s ability to achieve success as well as an important way for the university to connect with the community and the alumni, said Shelton, who was a tennis and basketball player in high school as well as a soccer referee.
“It’s important to try to compete broadly and not be a one-sport school,” he said.
Shelton said he understands Division I athletics due in part to his daughter, who played field hockey at Stanford University.
“I have a great admiration for student athletes,” Shelton said.
In his early days as a professor of physics at Iowa State, Shelton found himself on the opposite side of current Arizona basketball head coach Lute Olson, then a coach at rival Iowa. He remembered fondly the beatings Iowa State took at the time and said he looks forward to meeting with Olson at some point this weekend.
It is only fitting that Shelton now becomes a part of two of college basketball superpowers and was selected for the job just one day before the schools’ first ever regular-season meeting.
“(There’s) one thing in common,” he said. “Both schools demand excellence.”
As for possibly changing the landscape of Arizona athletics, Shelton said he has no such interest.
“I’m not someone who comes in and makes changes,” Shelton said, because he was chosen to be the UA president, not an athletic director or coach.
He did not directly deal with the athletic department or the athletic director, who reported to the chancellor. However, he was able to view the department’s budget and also led the campus re-certification in accordance with NCAA policy.
During his visit to Tucson on Jan. 20, Shelton met with Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood and said Livengood has “a very high reputation in athletics.” Shelton said he was looking forward to working with Livengood and the rest of the Arizona athletic department.
After answering questions from reporters over the phone, Shelton, in true former athlete form, talked sports and wanted to discuss ways to increase attendance at lower-profile sporting events.
Shelton said receiving the top UA job meant more to him because this was not something he was passive about, but something he truly wanted.
Just hours after becoming president, Shelton sounded like he wanted to get in the game himself.
“I’m pumped,” he said.