EAST LANSING, Mich. — Alan Haller had just returned home from work on an evening in early August when he immediately was greeted by his daughter, Allison. A junior at Michigan State, Allison stood in the kitchen, awaiting her father’s arrival so she could pepper him with questions. Like many others that day, she had heard the news around campus. Michigan State was searching for a new athletic director, and her father, a longtime member of the Michigan State athletic department, was in the mix.
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Haller explained that there was a process to these sorts of things. A search committee would need to be formed. External candidates would need to be interviewed. He knew there would be plenty of interest and plenty of competition for an opening like the one at Michigan State — a Power 5 program with a history of success in its revenue sports. Haller wanted to prepare his daughter — perhaps himself, too — in the event things didn’t go his way.
But before he could finish, he was cut off.
“Dad,” Allison said. “Why can’t you be the athletic director? YOU should be the athletic director.”
This is a question that Haller has asked himself for decades, long before he eventually assumed the role as Michigan State’s athletic director. Everything in his past has helped shaped his future. Every decision, every career move, essentially guided him to this point in time. And it all started in Lansing.
Haller was born into a family that serves: his father, a pastor; his mother, a high school math teacher; one sister who’s an attorney in Denver and another who works at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing. He moved to the area in elementary school and has called this town his home ever since.
His early memories include trips to Kresge Art Center and getting dropped off for football camps at MSU. Always one of the best athletes in his class, Haller was a two-sport star in track and field and football at Lansing Sexton High School. A budding football career helped him earn scholarships offers from a number of programs. He had a chance to go elsewhere and leave the state, possibly altering the trajectory of his life in the process. Instead, Haller stayed home to play for George Perles and MSU.
Both the Lansing community and Michigan State have had a profound impact on Haller. When he was growing up in Lansing, there was an officer in his neighborhood, Sgt. Parks, who saw value in knowing his community. He was friendly, personable and would have conversations and get to know the people. He was someone Haller idolized as a child, which is why he studied criminal justice at Michigan State. While in school, Clarence Underwood — a high-ranking member of MSU’s athletic department who later was named MSU’s AD — was a mentor and a presence in Haller’s life. Haller said he was Underwood’s apprentice. Seeing someone who looked like him, in a position like that, let Haller know more was possible, even though the job wasn’t on his radar back then.
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“Dr. Underwood kinda took me under his wing and made me feel special,” Haller said. “I learned during that time how to treat people and how to conduct yourself and how to look for the future. Dr. Underwood went on to be the 16th athletic director at Michigan State. I said, ‘You know what, I’m gonna go through this life, and I’m gonna try to have an impact on young people the way Dr. Underwood had an impact on me.’”
Following a standout playing career and a few years in the NFL, Haller put his degree to use and joined the Michigan State University police department. He didn’t join simply to make traffic stops and arrests. He wanted to make a difference in a community he has known since childhood. He stayed involved. He listened. He engaged. He took the time to learn the issues facing the campus and worked to find solutions.
Haller made sure to attend meetings and show his face around campus to offer a direct line of communication. One initiative he pushed for was donating police hours for events and fundraisers run by student organizations, rather than charging them a set price that would take away from their annual budget. Back then, Haller said, three police offers working security at an event for three hours could be costly, putting a dent in any funds generated that day. Offering security for free created a level of trust between the two sides and allowed those organizations to reallocate those funds elsewhere. He was a constant presence, the same way Sgt. Parks was for him as a kid. His methods were very much intentional.
“I really tried to use my platform in a way to connect the community,” Haller said. “That’s really how I chose to serve in that role.”
Former AD Mark Hollis kept tabs on Haller’s career, viewing him as a respected voice who knows what the community and Michigan State athletics are all about. When football head coach John L. Smith was fired in 2006, Hollis sought out Haller to join the search committee — one that ultimately would select the school’s all-time winningest head coach, Mark Dantonio. Four years later, now in charge of MSU’s athletic department Hollis, again, sought out Haller. This time, with Haller facing a crossroads in his life.
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It was 2010, and Haller had interviewed for jobs across the Midwest, hoping to become a university police chief. Haller was set to leave Michigan State behind for a new start until Hollis called with an opening in his athletic department as an associate AD. It was a job unlike anything Haller had done before, and yet, it was all too familiar. He would be working with students, making a difference, just as he set out to do as an officer. Haller viewed it as a chance to continue serving — albeit, with new challenges along the way at the place that helped mold him. He wasn’t going to pass it up.
“It was kind of a no-brainer for me to accept that position,” Haller said. “I really think my unique experiences over my lifetime have created a desire to invoke change and to be involved with people and to build relationships. I wanted to be that voice that might be a little bit different — that may look different, that may come from different experiences — but use that voice in a way to allow people to see another point of view that they may not have seen.”
He’s now been working in the athletic department for more than a decade.
In 2020, following the death of George Floyd, Haller and the athletic department reached out to athletes to make sure they knew they were supported. He organized virtual town halls with student-athletes via video conference that summer when they were away from campus. Mental health resources were provided to athletes to establish an environment of safety.
“One thing I’ll forever be grateful for is Alan’s genuine care for student-athletes,” said Brooke Bogan, a fifth-year senior on MSU’s track and field team. “He’s somebody who, when our team was at our high and low points, I could definitely count on seeing him on our Zoom calls. A couple of summers ago when things got a little bit rocky with things surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion, he was somebody who was there to offer support, and that spoke a lot of volumes to me because it showed that he cared about us — not only on the track, on the field, on the court, but also off.”
Since joining the athletic department, Haller has learned the business side on the job and has continued to climb the ladder. He was promoted to senior associate athletic director in 2015, added the chief of staff title in 2017. In 2018, following Hollis’ resignation in the aftermath of the Larry Nassar scandal, Bill Beekman, then the secretary of the university’s board of trustees, was named MSU’s interim AD. That interim title was removed months later when MSU announced Beekman would become the school’s full-time AD.
Haller was there as a resource for Beekman, as he learned his way around the department. Beekman promoted Haller to deputy AD in 2019. A year later, Beekman, Haller, fellow deputy AD Jennifer Smith and consultant Glenn Sugiyama formed the search team tasked with replacing a legendary head coach in Dantonio, who retired in February 2020. Haller, in particular, was instrumental in the hiring of Mel Tucker, who only had been at Colorado for a year. They’ve since developed a strong working relationship.
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“I work with him on a daily basis,” Tucker said. “I’ve seen the type of leadership that he has. He’s been a Spartan, involved with the Spartans, for 30 years or more. He bleeds green and white. He has a way of bringing people together. He’s a progressive thinker. What you see is what you get — you never have to read in between the lines with him, and that’s something I admire.”
In the fall of 2020, Haller was a finalist for the open AD job at Central Michigan — where he earned his master’s degree in human resources. It offered a chance for him to lead his own athletic department, the logical next step in his career after 10 years at MSU, without leaving the state he calls home.
While the job ultimately went to Amy Folan, Haller said the opportunity to interview helped prepare him for what was to come and marked another career move, or lack thereof, that kept him on the path he is today.
“One of the things about athletic director interviews is you have to speak as if you are the AD, not what you would do,” Haller said. “Going through that process helped me kind of think of myself as the athletic director.”
Any regrets about not getting the job?
“It worked out,” Haller added, smiling.
That it did. On Aug. 5, Beekman’s three-year run as AD came to an end. He was the figurehead of an athletic department that had to replace a Hall of Fame coach, make additional hires in non-revenue sports and proceed with the difficult decision to cut the swimming and diving program amid financial restraints from the COVID-19 pandemic. For someone without a background in athletic administration, Beekman did what was asked of him. He’s now set to shift to a newly created role of vice president for strategic initiatives.
That set in motion a national search that involved several high-ranking university officials and coaches, past and present. The search committee consisted of trustees Kelly Tebay and Renee Jefferson, Dantonio, Steve Smith, Gene Washington, Lauren Aitch Guerrant, Bob Skandalaris and Craig Brown. Coaches, like Tom Izzo and Tucker, also were involved.
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Pitt AD Heather Lyke spoke to the university and confirmed as much publicly. UCLA AD Martin Jarmond, who spent seven years at MSU in the mid-2000s, was approached about the job but ultimately declined to formally interview, a source told The Athletic. A few other names were involved, but things kept coming back to Haller, who received strong internal and external support and, by all indications, interviewed extremely well.
On Sept. 3, Haller was approved unanimously by the MSU board of trustees and named the 20th athletic director in school history. His background was a major driving force behind the decision.
“As I mentioned last week at our special board of trustee meeting, I felt it was important that we conduct a national search for our next athletic director,” MSU president Samuel L. Stanley said Tuesday. “To look at all options and find the best fit for our current needs and future opportunities. The process worked the way it should. It led us to the best candidate and new leader for our athletics department. I’m pleased our selection is already part of our community. The values that Alan Haller lives — integrity, compassion, empathy and a steadfast commitment to public service — makes him a natural leader.”
“He lives this place,” Izzo said of Haller. “He doesn’t just like it or love it; he lives it. And that’s what’s important. I think a great university like this, different than some that are in big major metropolitan areas, is you are part of the community. The university is part of the community and the community is part of the university. He grew up that way. He lived it, he came here, and I think his goal is to take this to another level, as it was my goal, as it is Coach Tuck’s goal.”
As Michigan State’s athletic director, Haller hopes to take what he has learned and put it to use. He has assembled a fan engagement committee of eight to nine people in the community to improve MSU’s game day experience for fans and teams — plans he has discussed with Stanley. The committee will report feedback gained from the time someone drives on campus for a game and drives home at night.
One thing he’s focused on, in particular, is the next generation of fans. He sees a future that involved bundling packages of a set number of games, rather than simply focusing on season-ticket renewals. He would like to implement a sort of hopper pass that allows fans to attend 15 games across all sports, similar to Draymond Green’s senior-year goal of going to a home game for every sport. Haller has discussed adding a DJ to the student section and changing the entrance for the football team. Other oft-discussed topics like improving the game day tailgating experience, selling alcohol at Spartan Stadium and more will surely be considered. Haller wants to listen.
As far as his student-athletes, Haller has made it known he wants to improve the experience of non-revenue athletes — having seen both sides of the coin as a revenue athlete for football and a non-revenue athlete in track and field. Obviously, football and men’s basketball drive revenue at most universities, but that doesn’t mean more can’t be done for Olympic sports.
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“If you’re a football student-athlete, you shouldn’t necessarily eat better than a rowing student-athlete,” Haller said. “A woman’s golfer is not going to eat the same as a men’s basketball player, but they’re going to have the opportunity to fuel their bodies with proper nutrition to help them be successful.”
In addition to things like nutrition, Haller said mental health resources, academic help, professional and career development will all be even across the board so that no one team is developing at a faster pace than the other off the field.
Of course, there is more to the job than being well-liked and a good listener. Success is not guaranteed, and Haller understands that. He’ll need to be a dynamic fundraiser, a skill that is of the utmost importance for anyone in his position. He’ll have to manage the athletic department’s annual budget. There are plans to upgrade Michigan State’s football facilities, with Haller running point prior to his promotion. Haller will have to navigate the ever-changing world of college athletics, which, this summer alone, has been dominated by name, image and likeness headlines, conference realignment talk, the Big Ten’s alliance with the ACC and Pac-12 and college football playoff expansion. Not to mention he very well might have to lead a search to find Izzo’s replacement in the coming years. All of which is no small task.
But Haller, thanks to his experiences and the people who’ve been there for him along the way, feels he’s equipped to handle whatever comes next. As he was introduced as the school’s new athletic director Tuesday, he acknowledged some of those people.
He thanked Underwood, sitting in a reserved section to his right. He thanked his parents, including his late mother, for raising him to serve. He thanked his son, a football player at Dewitt. And sitting in the front row to Haller’s left was Allison, his rock, watching her father step into the very job she believed he was the best candidate for from the beginning. Now that he has it, he hopes to lead this department into a new era.
With a little bit of help from the community.
“Michigan State athletics is positioned to do something really special,” Haller said. “We are. That’s why I took this responsibility. That’s why I took this position. We are positioned to do something special, but it’s not just my responsibility. I can’t do it alone. I need all of the student-athletes, all of the staff, all of the coaches, university leaders, the community, donors, letterwinners, everyone. We have to do this together. I love this great university. We are going to do great things — together.”
(Photo: Courtesy of MSU Athletic Communications)
