Unexpected path is the right one for UW

Scott Woodward never planned it this way. He was just living his life. But, in hindsight, it seems as if everything he has done has led him to this place and this job.

Whether it was selling peanuts at LSU football games when he was 10, or traveling around the country playing in junior tennis tournaments.

Whether it was running political campaigns in the bare-knuckled world of Louisiana politics, or working as a liaison for president Mark Emmert, first at LSU and then at the University of Washington, he was heading for this job and the enormous task of running Washington's athletic department.

At age 10 he was a peanut vendor on madhouse Saturday nights inside Tiger Stadium.

"Sports drew me to the campus," said Woodward, sitting in a chair Wednesday afternoon at Washington's Founders Club after Emmert introduced him as the school's athletic director. "And once it drew me to campus, it was like there wasn't any way I wasn't going to go to college there.

"So part of my college experience, which was transformative for me, not only was intellectual, but sports was a huge piece of it. It gave you pride. It gave you a sense of community and, I think, that's important. For me athletics have been a love affair, and I've paid close attention to them for a long time."

Woodward remembers getting Alabama coach Bear Bryant's autograph after a game, as Bryant, wearing his signature hound's tooth hat, leaned against a goal post. He remembers LSU defensive back and future Pro Bowler Tommy Casanova tossing him a wrist band after a game. All these years later, Casanova and Woodward are friends.

"Games there were better than life," he said. "It was a dream come true. You're actually giddy at those games. I have these vivid images I'll never forget. Just fond, fond memories of loving college sports."

There was quarterback Bert Jones' game-winning pass to Brad Davis in a 1972 win over Mississippi that the locals call, "the day the clock stood still."

And Woodward was in Tiger Stadium for the "Earthquake Game," in 1978 when LSU's Tommy Hodson connected with Eddie Fuller for a last-second touchdown against Auburn. The rumble that resonated from the stadium registered on the campus Richter scale.

"That's how I first saw LSU," Woodward said, "and that's when I knew I wanted to go to LSU."

It has been like that before at Washington, and one of Woodward's charges is to make it like that again on Montlake.

He has to resell the program, and defending his skills as a salesman, Woodward says, he was an "awesome" peanut vendor.

"I was one of the youngest guys," he said, "and the frat boys in the student section would hold me up on their shoulders and they'd yell, 'We've got to sell this boy's peanuts out.' And they would do it."

At the same time, Woodward was traveling around the country playing tennis. From age 8 to 13, he competed nationally, and rose as high as sixth-ranked in Louisiana.

It wasn't as glamorous as you might imagine. Players often traveled alone, were met at airports by host families and stayed at the houses of strangers, while they played highly competitive tennis.

"I think I could have been better, but I got tired of living a myopic life," Woodward said. "I wanted broader experiences. I feel like I grew up too fast. I look back on it as a great experience and it made me fiercely independent and not afraid to do anything, but also you get out of balance. You get out of whack.

"I mean you're out there on an island playing tennis. You're it. After I bagged it, I tried to find some better balance in my life. But I will say that when you go through that, you do get competitive as hell and you get cocky in a good way and cocky in a bad way. You get fearless."

Now, fearlessly, Woodward will have to reconnect with a large base of Washington's athletic donors. His predecessor, Todd Turner, never connected with Seattle or Washington's donor base. He was an outsider who never found a way inside.

Woodward, 45, is different. He makes connections easily. His background in Louisiana politics has made him a good listener and toughened him for the inevitable fights that will occur in his new job.

"I'm trying to get out and cultivate as many relationships as humanly possible," Woodward said. He said he has had to reopen some donor doors that closed during Turner's reign.

"In this job, you have to be external," Woodward said. "You have to be a manager. You have to understand budgets. You have to understand complicated contracts. It's a different set of skills, and I've been lucky in my life. I've been around a lot of media, fought a lot of media as a political consultant. I've had a pretty broad and diverse education."

Woodward got his introduction into politics, as well as college athletics, at LSU. He worked with longtime family friend James Carville in the mayor's office in Baton Rouge, La. Later he worked with Carville to help get reform governor Buddy Roemer elected.

"I learned from James that you can't BS people," Woodward said. "You have to shoot people straight and what you see is what you get. That's the beauty of James. He is genuine, the kind of guy who is as straightforward and honest as he can be."

Fresh out of college, at 22, Woodward managed a Louisiana congressional race for Tommy Hudson. At 24, he worked in the governor's office.

"Outwardly Scott is a very affable person, but he's very, very, very tough," national political strategist Carville said by cellphone this week. "He's a tough guy. He wouldn't be around Mark [Emmert] if he wasn't. And I know he has a passion for athletic administration. He talks about it a lot, and when he talks about it, he knows the issues cold. And he's kind of fascinated by it."

There is a great, familial pride in Carville's thick Louisiana accent as he talks about Woodward.

"I'm an LSU guy and I have a great admiration for Mark and Scott for what they did at LSU," Carville said. "It's hard to know the whole history about LSU and understand all that Mark, with Scott's help, did down there. I've never seen any university improve like LSU did when they were there."

This isn't the path Woodward expected to take when he graduated from LSU. But looking back, it is a career choice that fits.

"If you had told me this was going to happen five years ago, I might have been surprised," said Carville. "But if you had told me this three years ago, I would have been less surprised. It seems like the last three years he has really taken an interest in doing something like this.

"Everybody that I ran with at Louisiana had a real, real passion for sports and college sports in particular. And Scott's always had it and taken a real interest in it. And I'll tell you something else about him. He'll build the whole program."

From peanuts to politics, subconsciously maybe, Woodward has been apprenticing for this role. And he is absolutely the right call for a very difficult job.

"He knows what he's doing," Carville said. "He'll do the job."

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com