RCW: From the office of ... Larry Hare

In the oftentimes busy and hectic world of college athletics, Kansas Assistant Athletic Director for Equipment, Larry Hare, has found the key to an effective balance between work and life. The unconditional support and understanding from his wife, Jen, is depicted in a special black and white photo that has a prominent place on the desk in his always active office. 

“One of our photographers at Connecticut took this picture of me operating the jug machine, probably before practice one day. Hilltop fields were great there because you’re a little higher altitude so you have a great view of the skyline in Connecticut, sunset and all. This one might have even been before we started having kids, just with me working. So prominently seeing my wedding band was, to my wife, always ‘Even doing this, you’re always with me.’ Knowing how many roles in athletics are lifestyle choices; we’re gone and working late and all those things. Even in the midst of all this chaos; the spinning wheels, the balls, knowing all that was going on around it, that that still very much at the core of why we do what we do and having her support when I was doing it, and still am, meant an awful lot.

“This is one that always struck me. It’s very touching to combine the two worlds of working in athletics but also our family.

“My first job out of Boston College was at Northern Arizona. I got a job in the equipment room, Jen was an athletic trainer. She graduated from there and then worked as an athletic trainer there for a while and in the community too. So that’s where we met, we met in Flagstaff.

“She gets it. You want to talk about support, that’s probably what means the most is her understanding. She gets it. She understands the commitment, the hours, the fact that the schedule of the day, as much as I’m a department head, isn’t always my own. I can think I’m leaving at 5:30 p.m., or whenever it is, but if a coach walks in and needs something at that point, well, the schedule just shifted and she’s understanding of that. Probably more than anything else, that helps an awful lot with life at home and her understanding of why I do what I do and how much I do enjoy doing it. It’d be tough to do if she wasn’t on board.

“We’ve got two kids. Mason is 12 and in seventh grade. Elizabeth is 10 and in fifth grade.”