I also posted this on TOS as well.
I don't know what any of you think of the man, but I have the upmost respect for him. I have had 2 brief encounters with him at gymnastic meets recently. A couple of weeks ago while I was sitting in the handicap section with my daughter who was in her wheelchair and he was busy entertaining our new president he walked by us, stopped, and said hello. Not a big deal but I thought it was awfully nice of him to do so considering who he was with. On Saturday I take my daughter to the Big Ten Gymnastics Championship. As I am wheeling her to the handicap section Haller comes up to us and greets us again. He then proceeds to clear a path for us to the handicap section (and that path was packed), shows us where we could park ourselves, and then runs off to get me a companion chair. He didn't ask someone else to do it but he did it himself. This is what I would expect from a small town HS AD, not an AD from a Big Ten College. Later on he stops by and asks us how we were doing and if we needed anything. He was friendly, respectful, and genuinely concerned about us. Now before you say "big deal", let me remind you that he was not only running a day long Big Ten Championship event, he also had a hockey championship about to take place across the street, a HS girl's basketball tournament going on, and I am sure an interest in the hoop team that was playing down in North Carolina at the same time among other more important concerns. Yet he personally made sure that this old Spartan and his daughter were well taken care of. I have no idea what his tenure will be like as AD, but he is already a winner in my book!
I don't know what any of you think of the man, but I have the upmost respect for him. I have had 2 brief encounters with him at gymnastic meets recently. A couple of weeks ago while I was sitting in the handicap section with my daughter who was in her wheelchair and he was busy entertaining our new president he walked by us, stopped, and said hello. Not a big deal but I thought it was awfully nice of him to do so considering who he was with. On Saturday I take my daughter to the Big Ten Gymnastics Championship. As I am wheeling her to the handicap section Haller comes up to us and greets us again. He then proceeds to clear a path for us to the handicap section (and that path was packed), shows us where we could park ourselves, and then runs off to get me a companion chair. He didn't ask someone else to do it but he did it himself. This is what I would expect from a small town HS AD, not an AD from a Big Ten College. Later on he stops by and asks us how we were doing and if we needed anything. He was friendly, respectful, and genuinely concerned about us. Now before you say "big deal", let me remind you that he was not only running a day long Big Ten Championship event, he also had a hockey championship about to take place across the street, a HS girl's basketball tournament going on, and I am sure an interest in the hoop team that was playing down in North Carolina at the same time among other more important concerns. Yet he personally made sure that this old Spartan and his daughter were well taken care of. I have no idea what his tenure will be like as AD, but he is already a winner in my book!
