Meet the Hart of Richmond athletic equipment

Equipment manager Ken Hart has seen many changes in University of Richmond athletics over the past 31 years, but one thing has remained constant: Hart's job managing Spider equipment.

Hart took his position in 1981 and quickly made an impression on alumni prominently involved in the department, such as John Averett, RC '60. Averett was a team manager for the men's basketball team when Les Hooker was head coach and has been active in Spider athletics ever since, he said. He met Hart when he first came to Richmond, just six years after graduating from Bowling Green State University .

"I didn't think he'd stay because, of all the equipment managers that I've dealt with, he was on level with anyone as far as his professionalism, his level of intelligence about what he was doing, gear and everything like that," Averett said. "I kept telling Chuck Moon, who was the [athletic director] for us at the time, 'You won't keep Ken Hart, he's just not going to stay,' because I thought someone would take him from us. But he's stayed.

"I think I know why. He came here and got embedded. His wife taught at a school in Henrico County. I think both his sons went to Richmond, and he became such a part of the community."

Hart said his responsibilities had included outfitting, cleaning and distributing the equipment and uniforms for all 15 NCAA sports at the university. Football is one of his biggest responsibilities, with all the equipment and funding involved in the sport, and he's managed to earn respect, which Averett said was rare for someone in his position.

"I see it all the time," Averett said. "The players don't say 'Ken Hart.' If [football player] Kendall Gaskins were to come by, he'd call him 'Mr. Hart' and being an equipment manager in the state of Virginia and being called mister, it just doesn't happen."

Eric Wright, redshirt freshman linebacker, said dependability had been a main reason the team respected Hart so much.

"He's always in his office willing to help out," Wright said, "definitely there whenever you need him."

After so many years in the same position, Hart said he had managed to remain passionate about equipment.

"There's an old adage about look good, play good," Hart said. "I used to think that was up to debate, but I think at this stage of the game, there's more guys on a Saturday afternoon standing in front of a mirror making sure that everything's just right, or they can't play."

One of the biggest changes Hart said he had seen during his tenure had been the increased influence of big-time apparel companies on the landscape of college athletics. Presently, Richmond has a deal with Nike that allows the department to buy products at a direct-purchase price, he said, which allows the university to have more buying power.

Hart said he realized the contract with Nike had been good for the department, but that the apparel companies' influence on college athletics as a whole was bad.

"Adidas and Nike are the two players," he said. "I think that those two companies overshadow the whole business. It's almost kind of taken the little guy out of the business."

Averett worked for Converse, a popular shoe company, in sports marketing for 21 years. He was a consultant for Nike for three years after Nike bought out Converse. He said he thought Nike and similar companies had been good for college sports.

Averett said: "It's saved schools a lot of money. You see it with Kevin Plank, [founder of Under Armour,] at Maryland and Phil Knight, [co-founder of Nike,] at Oregon. As long as they don't meddle with recruiting or anything like that, I don't see any bad in it."

Contact staff writer David Weissman at david.weissman@richmond.edu