Gaughan wields power in LV valley

Friday, Feb. 20, 2004 | 12:24 p.m.

2. Andre Agassi

OCCUPATION: Professional tennis player, founder Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation.

ARRIVED IN SOUTHERN NEVADA: Lifetime resident.

CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE: Once the No. 1 ranked tennis player in the world, Agassi (currently No. 4) has won eight Grand Slam singles titles (58 total singles titles) during his 18-year career. In 1995, Agassi founded his foundation, dedicated to helping underprivileged, abused and at-risk Las Vegas children. The foundation has raised more than $23 million. Its annual fund-raiser, the Grand Slam for Children, attracts some of the biggest names from the entertainment world, such as Elton John, Robin Williams, Celine Dion and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Agassi also opened the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club and the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, phase II of which opened in 2003.

DID YOU KNOW? Agassi4s manager, Perry Rogers, was his childhood best friend.

QUOTE: "When you have a need, here4s a guy who can4t do enough to help you. When you4re his friend, you4re in his blood and his heart.( Gil Reyes, Agassi4s longtime trainer and friend.

3. John Robinson

OCCUPATION: UNLV football coach.

ARRIVED IN SOUTHERN NEVADA: Became Rebels eighth football coach in December 1998.

CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE: The nation4s 11th-winningest active coach with a career record of 130-66-4, Robinson won the national championship at Southern Cal in 1978 and coached two Heisman Trophy winners with the Trojans (Charles White and Marcus Allen). He also coached the Los Angeles Rams to six playoff appearances in nine years. One of the nation4s most respected coaches, Robinson4s presence gave the Rebels4 football program instant credibility and has helped UNLV become a fixture on regional and national TV. He spent 17 months in the dual role as athletic director/football coach before stepping down as A.D. in May 2003. As A.D., he secured a $1 million donation from the Ernie Becker family to install state-of-the art practice fields at Rebel Park.

DID YOU KNOW? Robinson has a 4-0 coaching record in the Rose Bowl.

QUOTE: "People respond to him. I think one of the reasons they like him so much is because they know how loyal he is. That4s one of the things that attracted me. People who know him know what an honest and sincere person he is about elevating UNLV nationally.( -- Dean Harrold, former Caesars Palace and Las Vegas Hilton president.

4. Marc Ratner

OCCUPATION: Executive director, Nevada State Athletic Commission.

ARRIVED IN SOUTHERN NEVADA: Moved to Las Vegas with his family in 1957.

CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE: Ratner handles the day-to-day operation of a commission that is not only responsible for boxing and martial arts competition within the state, but one that annually produces several million dollars in revenue. Additionally, the NSAC is perceived as the most influential body of its type.

DID YOU KNOW? Ratner also is the commissioner of officials for Clark County School District sports, plus is a head linesman for Mountain West Conference football games and the shot-clock operator at UNLV basketball games.

QUOTE: "On the wall in my office, I4ve got pictures of Gabe and Rafael Ruelas and James Toney, the only three fighters than were always loyal to me, two of my dad, one of Ali and one of Marc, and it4s all intentional, because those are the people I respect up there. What makes (Marc) a special person is that he4s not only fair and honest but a good person.( -- Dan Goossen, boxing promoter.

5. Dr. Carol C. Harter

OCCUPATION: UNLV president.

ARRIVED IN SOUTHERN NEVADA: Became UNLV4s seventh president in July 1995.

CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE: Harter has final say in hiring of UNLV athletic department personnel and has assumed a highly visible role in the recruitment of coaches. She also represents the Mountain West Conference on the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, the NCAA Executive Committee and was a member of the NCAA Football Study Oversight Committee.

DID YOU KNOW? During her UNLV tenure, Harter has raised more than $171 million in private funds and has overseen the completion of 15 new buildings on campus, including the state-of-the-art Lied Library and several new and/or improved athletic facilities.

QUOTE: "Over an eight-year period she has helped UNLV make the turn in the road to get headed in the right direction, and the right direction was hiring Mike Hamrick as athletic director. We kind of floundered around for six years and it was a tough predicament for a president to be in. She has devoted more attention to athletic gender equity than any other president at UNLV but now she has left the reins to the athletic director ... which is the way it should be.( -- Mark Alden, University Regent.

6. Mike Hamrick

OCCUPATION: UNLV athletic director.

ARRIVED IN SOUTHERN NEVADA: Became UNLV4s 10th fulltime athletic director in August 2003, succeeding John Robinson.

CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE: Hamrick is the new head of the UNLV athletic department. During his tenure as athletic director at East Carolina, ECU student-athlete graduation rates exceeded the national averages, at 66 percent. The ECU football program participated in bowl games in four of Hamrick4s seven years, spent $46 million improving and building athletic facilities and raised $16.8 million in private funds to construct a conditioning complex and baseball stadium.

DID YOU KNOW? Hamrick was a two-year starter at linebacker for the Marshall Thundering Herd (1978-79) and is a devout Chicago Cubs fan.

QUOTE: "At games, lunches, wherever we go, Mike is there, talking to people, greeting people ... that4s been a long time coming and it4s so great to have him as athletic director, to have somebody so outgoing and really working hard. He4s a great ambassador.( Tina Kunzer-Murphy, Las Vegas Bowl executive director.

7. Don Logan

OCCUPATION: Las Vegas 51s president/general manager.

ARRIVED IN SOUTHERN NEVADA: Lifetime resident.

CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE: Having just completed his 21st season with the 51s, Logan is considered Las Vegas4 Mr. Baseball and also is widely recognized as an authority on local sports. Logan was named the Pacific Coast League4s Executive of the Year in 1992 and 1998 and also serves as the league4s vice president. Working in conjunction with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Logan was instrumental in bringing the Big League Weekend exhibition games to Cashman Field and the Oakland A4s to town for six regular-season games in 1996 when the Oakland Coliseum was being renovated. Currently, Logan is spearheading a movement to build a new ballpark in Southern Nevada.

DID YOU KNOW? Logan is a collector of fine wines, a hobby that dates to his college days in California4s Napa Valley.

QUOTE: "Donnie is one of those guys in baseball who is so well respected that you never hear anybody say bad word about him. He has a great feel for the game and not just in the minor leagues, but the big leagues as well. So many events have come through Las Vegas -- the Triple-A World Series, the (MLBPA) home run contest, Big League Weekend -- and the main reason is that people want to do business with him.( -- Ken Korach, Oakland A4s playby-play announcer.

8. Pat Christenson

OCCUPATION: Las Vegas Events president.

ARRIVED IN SOUTHERN NEVADA: 1980, as UNLV assistant wrestling coach, athletic events coordinator. Went on to become manager of Sam Boyd Stadium and the Thomas & Mack Center.

CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE: Christenson is responsible for bringing sports and other entertainment, including concerts to Las Vegas under the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority umbrella. Founded in 1981 and financed by a local hotel rooming tax, LVE has produced, presented or supported more than 200 events, including NASCAR Nextel Cup at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the National Finals Rodeo and the Las Vegas Bowl college football game.

DID YOU KNOW? Christenson was the 1976 NCAA wrestling champion at 167 pounds while competing for the University of Wisconsin.

QUOTE: "Pat Christenson has spent more than two decades becoming one of the most influential behind the scenes sports and entertainment figures in Clark County. He has done it the old fashioned American Way, too, working his way up the ladder from UNLV assistant wrestling coach to president of Las Vegas Events today. Through the years, two of the strengths that have helped him considerably are his loyalty and integrity in dealing with some tough business issues." -- Dominic Clark, sports marketing executive.

9. Charlie Spoonhour

OCCUPATION: UNLV men's basketball coach who announced his resignation due to health concerns this week.

ARRIVED IN SOUTHERN NEVADA: Became the Rebels' 12th men's basketball coach in 2002.

CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE: Respected as one of college basketball's most overachieving coaches, Spoonhour was a winner wherever he went. His Southwest Missouri teams were considered NCAA giant-killers, and he later led Saint Louis to three NCAA Tournament appearances, including the Billikens' first trip to the Big Dance since 1957, earning him national coach of the year honors from the United States Basketball Writers Association. Although UNLV will be remembered as the least successful of his three head coaching stops, he leaves with a 54-31 record, two NIT appearances and the respect of the UNLV administration for getting the basketball program back on t he straight and narrow after a decade of NCAA transgressions and turmoil.

DID YOU KNOW? Spoonhour, a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan, was a pall bearer at the funeral of Jack Buck, the Cardinals Hall of Fame announcer.

QUOTE: "It's kind of amazing how many people talk about Spoon. I'm at a high school or junior college, and someone will always tell me to say hello to Spoon, that he saw Charlie speak at a clinic in Chicago. Or I'll be wearing a UNLV shirt, and someone will say 'Tell Spoon Hi, I knew him at Saint Louis." -- Deane Martin, UNLV basketball assistant and recruiting coordinator.

10. Chris Powell

OCCUPATION: Executive vice president and general manager, Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

ARRIVED IN SOUTHERN NEVADA: January 1999.

CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE: Powell is in charge of the day-to-day operations of LVMS,which hosts the state's largest sporting event in the annual NASCAR Nextel Cup race.

DID YOU KNOW? Powell began his career as a sports writer before moving into golf and auto racing promotions with RJ Reynolds' Sports Marketing Enterprises.

QUOTE: "Chris runs the speedway and that's where my (racing) shop is and that's basically what got me to Nextel Cup. The stuff he does for the community ... he basically (oversees) the Speedway Children's Charities, does a lot of good for a lot of people. He does a really good job of running that place and keeping things on the up-and-up. A lot of people like to complain because that's part of what people do. But he takes really good care of a lot of people and runs a really good ship out there." -- Brendan Gaughan, NASCAR Nextel Cup driver.

(in alphabetical order)

Bob Arum, boxing promoter.

Marcus Banks, former UNLV basketball player and current NBA player.

Jamaal Brimmer, UNLV football player.

Kurt Busch, NASCAR Nextel Cup racer.

Tim Chambers, CCSN baseball coach and athletic director.

Linda Frohlich, former UNLV women's basketball player and current WNBA player.

Mary Ellen Garling, Las Vegas Gladiators executive.

Oscar Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas.

John Hanson, ; John Hanson, program director for KBAD-AM (920) and KENO-Am (1460).

Jerry Hughes, Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association executive director.

Steve Jackson, Oregon State football player.

Tina Kunzer-Murphy, Las Vegas Bowl executive director.

Jerry Koloskie, UNLV associated A.D.

Darren Libonati, director Thomas & Mack Center and Sam Boyd Stadium.

Greg Maddux, major league pitching great.

Maloof brothers, owners of Palms Hotel-Casino and NBA's Sacramento Kings.

Rossi Ralenkotter, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority president.

Jerry Tarkanian, former UNLV basketball coach.

Paul Tracy, CART auto racing champion.

Bruton Smith, Las Vegas Motor Speedway owner.

Billy Walters, golf course entrepreneur.

If anybody wanted to build a bridge between Las Vegas past and Las Vegas present, a good place to start would be the executive offices at the Orleans hotel-casino, where Michael Gaughan, chairman and chief executive officer of Coast Casinos, is constantly doing business.

That way, a bevy of engineers and raw materials wouldn't be required to complete the project.

Like the man himself, recently named the year's Most Influential Sports Person by a Las Vegas Sun panel, there's nothing ostentatious about Coast Casinos' quaint corporate headquarters.

The lobby basically consists of a comfortable couch, a potted plant or two and and a few photos of the CEO's sports heroes hanging on the wall. A small staff of assistants, hired for their efficiency rather than the length of their legs, quietly goes about its business, noses pressed to invisible grindstones.

About a minute before his scheduled appointment, a visitor is told it will be a minute before the CEO will see him.

In reality, it was about a minute and a half.

As a group of important-looking men wearing tailored suits and toting expensive brief cases leave Gaughan's office, he waves in the next visitor, who is wearing or toting neither. Regardless, I immediately am made to feel like a big shot by the big, friendly man now sitting back down behind a cherry wood desk.

"Most influential sports person in Las Vegas?" Gaughan asks, repeating the purpose of our impending interview with a self-deprecating snicker, as if we had selected the wrong guy.

At that very moment, I was thinking just the opposite.

"I don't think you could have picked a more appropriate person," said Pat Christenson, president of Las Vegas Events, a local tourism bureau that Gaughan heads as chairman. "You hit it right on the head when you look at his influence, the things he has done for this city." Christenson was saying those things long before he began reporting to Gaughan. They've known each other for close to 20 years, dating to Christenson's long run as director of UNLV's Sam Boyd Stadium and Thomas & Mack Center.

"The thing about Michael is he's always been the guy behind the scenes," Christenson said. "But he can't hide from what he has done for sports and entertainment in our city."

For instance, in this past year alone, Gaughan has:

As Steve Stallworth, the caretaker of the Orleans Arena put it, "If it has four wheels or four legs, chances are Michael's going to be a part of it."

And he's going to be a part of it from inside the trenches.

"He's got his four properties (in Las Vegas), and the equestrian arena and his riverboat in St. Louis, and he is hands-on in everything he is involved with," Stallworth said.

"You look at his organization. Michael is at the top, and he's got 7,000 employees under him. I mean, everybody reports to him directly. I don't know where he gets the time."

Well, for starters, he doesn't spend a lot of it blowing his own horn.

Though he has been a respected resort manager and owner since 1965, Gaughan's "official" biography consists of a grand total of five paragraphs. The only thing he dislikes more than a necktie and pretentiousness, as I would discover during our interview, is talking about himself.

If pressed, he will admit to being friends with Bill Russell, who preceded him by five years at the University of San Francisco, former Georgetown coach John Thompson, NASCAR star Rusty Wallace and four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears, with whom he raced against on the off-road circuit.

Recently, he has formed a business relationship and friendship with Larry Bird, who is trying to talk Gaughan into becoming his partner in a riverboat casino project in Bird's hometown of French Lick, Ind.

"When he asked me what it would take to get involved, I told him I wanted an autographed basketball every year for the rest of my life. He liked that," said Gaughan, who will turn 60 next month.

"I told him he was my third favorite basketball player, behind Russell and (John) Havlicek."

At that point, Gaughan asked a visitor to step around the corner, where several framed photographs featuring the Boston Celtics line the corridor to his office.

"What's special about that one?" he asks, pointing toward a photo of Russell yanking down a rebound with a slender teammate battling for rebounding position nearby.

"That's the only picture ever taken where Russell and Thompson were on the floor at the same time," Gaughan says, dropping a hand to reveal their personalized autographs.

He smiles, having succeeded in stumping a sports writer. You get the impression that were Gaughan not such a big sports fan, he wouldn't be such a big sports businessman.

But he concedes that his sports plate is getting pretty full.

"The truck team is as far as I'm going," he said when asked about his NASCAR aspirations. "The best way to make a small fortune in NASCAR is to start with a big one."

Initially, he had contemplated buying his own minor league hockey team before deciding that being the landlord for one would be the lesser headache. As for football, he said as close as he wants to get to the NFL is watching the games on TV in the Orleans or Gold Coast sports books.

"It's like I told Frank Toti, my lifetime business partner," Gaughan said. "There wouldn't be enough coaches, quarterbacks and kickers for us to get through the season. We like to win too much."

Gaughan mentioned watching a game late in the NFL season, where the Saints scored a touchdown on an amazing series of laterals on the last play of the game, only to lose when John Carney missed the extra point.

"He would have gone him on a bus," Gaughan said, had he been the man in charge in the luxury box.

Only Gaughan probably would have been seating in the seats, having a beer and a hotdog with the Average Joes. The Las Vegas Sun annually selects the 10 Most Influential Sports Figures in the Las Vegas community. The list is compiled by a vote of the Sun sports staff.

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