A View From On High At HBO & Fox Sports
by Michael Saladik '06 and Elliott May '06
Ever heard of Barry Bonds? How about Bill Walsh or Billy Beane?
Probably. Well, according to the San Jose Mercury News, Jeffrey Krolik ’78 is a
more powerful figure in the San Francisco Bay Area sports world than any of
these prominent individuals. Yet Krolik, senior vice president and general
manager of Fox Sports Net Bay Area, remains humble about his career.
“I am certainly not a more powerful executive than Billy Beane or Bill
Walsh,” Krolik confesses. Instead, he attributes his high ranking to the fact
that FSN controls the TV rights for the San Francisco Giants, Oakland A’s,
Golden State Warriors, and San Jose Sharks. Not to mention all of Pac 10
conference athletics. Not bad. Thus, Krolik deflects his own popularity to the
prominence of FSN. However, his quiet success can arguably be traced back to
his academic career at Dartmouth.
While his father, a member of the class of 1941, largely inspired his
venture to Dartmouth College from New York City, Krolik quickly found himself
at home in Hanover. At Dartmouth, he discovered what every Dartmouth student
has discovered: “small is big.” Small class sizes and activities like the Daily
“D” allowed Krolik to develop close relationships with many students, yet it
was the D-Plan, coupled with a strong alumni base that paved the way for his
future success.
In the summer of 1975, following his freshman year, Krolik was welcomed as a
White House intern during the Ford administration, where he worked with
Dartmouth alum and Vice President of the United States Nelson Rockefeller,
class of 1930. Though he had no prior experience in politics, Krolik thrived as
a White House intern and developed a working relationship with Rockefeller, for
whom he primarily summarized lengthy documents, aiding the Vice President’s
problematic dyslexia. At the end of his internship, Krolik was asked to come
aboard as the youngest member of Rockefeller’s speechwriting team. Krolik
accepted and thus forewent his sophomore return to Hanover. “I couldn’t have
[worked at the White House] had there not been the Dartmouth plan. Taking a
year off is in a lot of places a very big deal, and at Dartmouth it wasn’t that
big a deal.”
However, Krolik’s political career would be brief, as the Ford government
failed to win re-election in 1976. Krolik thus returned to Hanover after just
over a one year absence, and quickly sought to cover for lost time, ambitiously
striving to graduate on time with his class. While he succeeded in his goal, in
retrospect he might have chosen otherwise. “I wish I would have attended four
years instead of rushing to graduate with my class.” Nonetheless, his White
House experience further cemented the “small is big” Dartmouth mantra as he
stepped out into the “real world.”
From Dartmouth, Krolik, a History and English double major, moved to New
York City where he hoped to work for Time Inc., the precursor to the modern day
Time Warner. Upon arrival, however, he was informed that no magazine jobs were
available, but was guided down the hall to Time Inc.’s small television
start-up company. Despite the fact that he had never heard of the company
previously, Krolik took the job, rising to prominence behind the company’s
three letter acronym: HBO.
Krolik moved around with HBO for fifteen years as the startup increased in
popularity. After running several HBO branches, including Sao Paolo,
Brazil, Krolik decided that he did not prefer the international direction his
career was heading. Citing a regret that he had not become fluent in a
second language during his time at Dartmouth, and a wish to head back to the
States with his family, Krolik ended up taking an opportunity offered to him in
the San Francisco Bay Area to head up Fox Sports Net Bay Area.
It has been with Fox Sports Net Bay Area that Jeff Krolik has become most
successful in business, and yet he understates this success and ultimately
defines his career in other more difficult terms. He noted that Pat
Riley, one of the most successful basketball coaches of our era, once said,
“There are two things in sports—winning and agony”. Although Krolik is a
cable television executive first and foremost, he backed into being a sports
executive in his current position with Fox Sports Net, and therefore defines
the sports business and his career in much the same way. Krolik’s Bay
Area teams have gotten close, but have not been able to reach the illustrious
and career-defining championship. So he has not had the joy of “winning”
with his current job.
Win or lose, Krolik is clearly thriving with Fox Sports Net Bay Area just
the same. Although his number one sports moment is yet to come, he has
had much success leading and growing a high profile and large market cable
television station. Krolik has used the “much-vaunted liberal arts
skills” he amassed at Dartmouth and has since built an even stronger base of
business and financial knowledge that has allowed him to succeed in his sales
and marketing endeavors. And perhaps that elusive world’s championship
will soon come to a Bay Area team and Krolik will finally have that “defined
victory moment” when one of his Bay Area teams feels the rare joy that does not
fall under Pat Riley’s nearly all-encompassing label of “agony”.
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