Bob Purcell steps down as Minnesota West men's athletic director
After eight years as AD and nearly 30 years with Minnesota West, Purcell calls it a career
WORTHINGTON — When Bob Purcell transitioned into the full-time men’s athletic director role at Minnesota West Community & Technical College in 2017, it was a career-turning move.
That year, he had just stepped down from a 20-year reign as the head wrestling coach, but the job he was moving into was far from unfamiliar.
“The athletic director at the time had a stroke and I took it over for a year,” Purcell said. “And that was my master's degree — activities administration — but I took it over for the one year and then when he came back, he did it for a couple more years, and then Justin Heckenlaible took it over.”
Heckenlaible was the long-tenured men’s basketball coach at the same time Purcell coached wrestling. But Purcell handled AD duties for the wrestling team at the time as well, before taking the full-time position.
Now, eight years later, Purcell is calling it a career at Minnesota West and there were a few reasons why he decided now is the time.
“My daughters are in college now and I kind of wanted to spend more time with my family,” he said. “My dad lived to 78 so if I retire at 65, that gives me 13 years. Now I'm hoping I'll beat him out, but you have friends that pass away in their 60s and their 50s, and you say, ‘Where's the next dollar you're making worth the day that you're giving up that you should do stuff?' And I came to that conclusion. The more I looked into it, the more I realized the importance of that.”
It wasn’t an easy decision for Purcell, but he doesn’t regret it as being an athletic director requires a lot of work — more than people realize, according to him.
“You're doing eligibility, you're making sure everybody's eligible to play, you're doing your best you can to make sure your budget’s squared away, all those things that are happening that each sport has enough in their budget to cover at least conference schedules,” Purcell said. “And you go forward and you’ve got to do academic reports… you’ve got to deal with any misconduct on each team, got to check for misconduct of anybody that's coming on to teams..”
Originally from Carrington, North Dakota, Purcell was a state-champion wrestler at 132 pounds in Bismarck. He then went on to Minnesota State University-Moorhead, where knee injuries ultimately cut his career short on the mat.
He earned a bachelors degree in Health Services, Physical Education and School Health Education at Moorhead State and was an assistant wrestling coach there for five years.
“I never panicked about the sport, and I knew I would be a better coach than I ever was a wrestler, because I loved helping the younger guys get better,” Purcell said.
He then earned his master’s in Education Activities Administration at North Dakota State University and also served a four-year active duty tour as a Combat Medic for the Department of the Army.
After that, Purcell was determined to find a head wrestling coaching gig. But with limited positions in the area, it was difficult to find one.
So Purcell started teaching at the Heart of the Earth Survival School in the Twin Cities while doing some freestyle wrestling coaching in the summertime. He then was offered a job as a health teacher in St. Paul when his phone rang. It turned out to be from Minnesota West with an opening position as head wrestling coach.
“I said, ‘Hey, I'll do whatever you want,” Purcell said. “I came to Minnesota West because the guy turned the job down. It was a late hire.”
Purcell accepted the job in 1997 and over the next 20 years, he took the program to heights never before seen. He coached 22 NJCAA All-Americans, won two Minnesota College Athletic Conference Coach of the Year awards and was named NJCAA Man of the Year in 2014.
But one of his proudest accomplishments as a wrestling coach stemmed from academics. During his time as the wrestling coach, the Bluejays recorded a graduation rate of 90.8% and academics was still at the forefront when he became a full-time AD.
A goal of Purcell’s when he took the job was to hire more local coaches that were full-time employees, who also valued academics.
He also wanted to see students who bought into both school and sports. In his eight years, the men’s athletic department has improved in both areas with more full-time roles and better graduation rates.
“We were under budgeted and we had a lot of hard-working people that put in the extra hours to get their team so they could at least do the bare bones,” Purcell said. “And now we have an administration that has supported the program and its students to a better degree to where it's not a bare bones program, but it's not just a good old, solid program.”
With his Minnesota West career now behind him, Purcell acknowledged the importance of some of his biggest mentors like Jerry Jansen and Mike Fury, along with colleagues and friends like former Bluejay football coach Jeff Linder and current women’s basketball coach and women’s AD Rosalie Hayenga-Hostikka.
As far as Purcell's retirement plans?
“Well, right now I'm going to the Baltics in June,” he said. “Me and my cousin are going to spend time there.”
In the meantime, he’ll continue to support and root for the Bluejays like he has for nearly 30 years.
“I have been a Minnesota West Bluejay for 28 years and I'm going to be a Minnesota West Bluejay,” he said.
Originally published by The Globe, this article was written by Skylar Jackson, Sports Editor, and is republished with authorized permission.