By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- His first visit to New England was in the spring of 1991 for a job interview.
John Harper, a native of New York state, was working as an associate director of athletics at Wichita State University when he came to Massachusetts nearly three decades ago.
He was hired as the director of athletics and recreation at what was then known at Bridgewater State College and made the move back east from Kansas.
“My wife, Ann, and I were both born and raised about 60 miles north of New York City and we had always said we wanted to live in New England at some point,″ said Harper. “But we wound up going in the other direction to Missouri and Kansas and Maryland. I had never been here, never experienced it.″
So after graduating from Ithaca College in 1971, receiving a Master’s degree from Indiana in 1974 and working at Missouri State University (1974-82), George Washington University (1982-87) and Wichita State (1987-91), Harper was in New England running his own program.
There was plenty of work to be done with outdated facilities in need of upgrading at the school now known at Bridgewater State University.
“My office used to be in the library and I always told people that as far as I know, I’m the only athletic director with an office in the library,″ said Harper, who retired eight years ago this month. “I could see the campus tours come down the street. They wouldn’t even go in (Kelly Gym). They’d say, ‘This is the gym’ and they’d go on.
“You’d hear kids say, ‘My high school gym is better than this one.’ It was important that we were able to improve that. We knew it was going to take time financially. We had to prove something to the institution that we were worth supporting that way.″
Harper was in the lead as Bridgewater State built Alumni Park, giving the baseball and softball teams new fields in 1996, and six years later, the Adrian Tinsley Center, which houses the gymnasium, workout space and the athletic department offices.
That was followed by a nearly $5 million renovation of Swenson Field for the football, lacrosse, field hockey and track & field teams.
The Bridgewater State teams flourished under Harper. The Smith Cup, which goes annually to the top Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference program, was won by the Bears 11 times while Harper was there after earning it just once in the previous 19 years.
Harper’s achievements have earned him a spot in the third class of the MASCAC Hall of Fame. His induction was announced recently, and he will be joined by retired BSU football coach Pete Mazzaferro, baseball standout Ed Grueter of Brockton and the 1994 Bears softball team that finished second in the NCAA tournament.
"We won some games and hopefully we affected more people because of the quality experience rather than the wins and losses,″ said Harper. “Probably what I’m most proud of is the fact the faculty and staff wanted academic success above all. Sure, you want to win the games, and winning the Smith Cup 11 times was great. Wonderful.
“But it was the academic success that made it easier for the coaches to recruit. You could sell the institution. You tell a kid, ‘If you want to play ball and study, think about coming here. If you want to just play ball, go somewhere else.’ ″
Harper, who also was the commissioner of the MASCAC from 1997-2000, said that after working at Division 1 schools, the atmosphere in the Division 3 conference was so different.
“John Galaris, who was Mr. Salem State, was a success at everything he tried and he did not have to help me because Bridgewater was sort of Salem’s main aggressor,” said Harper of the Vikings former director of athletics. “He helped me endlessly. We had a really good time with each other. We competed against each other but we really enjoyed each other’s company. That was the best.
“We had eight state schools, so you sort of knew everybody was on the same page. That’s one of the reasons we were able to create that bond among the athletic directors. We all liked each other and that was pretty special.
“Coming from Division 1, you couldn’t have those kind of relationships. That made the MASCAC special.″
Harper saw the softball team nearly win the national championship in 1994, losing to Trenton in the final. The baseball team finished third in the NCAA tournament in 1996 and was seventh a year later. The men’s basketball team reached the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tourney in 2009.
“That four or five-year span in there with baseball and softball were some of the most exciting times,″ said Harper. “I had come off 1989 when Wichita State had won the College World Series, which was fantastic. I had never been part of a national championship.
“Now all of a sudden, our teams are pretty good. Softball was six outs away from winning it and baseball was close. I’m thinking, ‘This is going to happen every year.’ ″
Harper kept building all of the BSU programs to the point where there was consistency each and every year, witnessed by the 11 Smith Cup victories in the MASCAC.
Harper was unsure how long he would be staying at Bridgewater State, thinking about someday moving his family back to his native New York.
But he stayed on the job for 21 years and now resides in Bridgewater with his wife, happy about the move that was made to New England nearly 30 years ago.
“We got here and we loved it,″ said Harper. “The plan was for me to stay for four or five years and move on. Once I got here, we decided this is a pretty special place.
“Adrian Tinsley (the retired school president) had an awful lot to do with that. That was a special time. That whole administrative group, that we were with, (vice president) Lynn Willett, we were all basically on the same page.
“When you talk about fit, you know when the fit is right. That’s why we never decided to go anywhere else. The fit here was perfect for us. This is where I wanted to be. The match was perfect. Why look anyplace else?″