Illustration By Ivan Medida / Staff
By Julio Rodriguez
Jim Spillers, the highly-respected Athletic Director whose career spanned four decades at SDSU, Grossmont College and Southwestern, died recently. He was 62.
Spillers was AD at Southwestern from 2015 to 2021 when he was forced to retire to battle throat cancer. He had served in the same position at Grossmont for 10 years after working at SDSU for more than 15 years. Spillers was a track and field athlete at SDSU in 1983 and ’84. In his 10 years at Grossmont, he oversaw two CCCAA State Championships, one national football championship, and was honored twice with the Chet DeVore Award for best athletic department.
At Southwestern he inherited an athletic program that was still stung by the turmoil of the South Bay Corruption Scandal years of 2008-2013. A $75 million football stadium project had been mired in corruption and incompetence that caused nearly $30 million in construction mistakes, sports had been eliminated and coaches were quitting.
He won by not trying so hard to win. Spillers steered the culture away from competitiveness toward experiential. Long-time tennis coach Susan Reasons said Spillers was “amazing” and “a great guy.”
“He always told me, ‘Susan, just make sure your (women) have a great intercollegiate experience,’” she said. “He wanted students to have fun and grow as people.”
Reasons said Spillers pushed staff and students to be the best versions of themselves. He made people feel supported, she said, and attended home games. He always seemed to find time to talk to student-athletes.
Jennifer Rodriguez, who doubles as assistant tennis coach and women’s soccer coach, agreed.
“Our players remember his support and the positive energy he brought,” she said.
After women’s tennis was axed in 2010, Spillers brought it back in 2017. Spillers and Reasons began working on the plans for the brand new tennis facility in 2017.
“They’re putting together a committee (for the tennis center),” Reasons recalled Spillers telling her. “Coach, I want you as my right hand person, right there with me.”
Reasons retired in January 2021 during the confusion of COVID. An hour-long phone call from Spillers changed her mind, she said.
“Short retirement,” said Reasons. “Jim wanted me back to help plan the new tennis facility, so I came back.”
Faculty and staff who have never watched an inning of baseball or down of football respected Spillers for his support of the LGBTQ community. An opening day event in the college gymnasium featured a segment on the difficulties faced by transgender Americans. Dan Cordero, a transgender activist and Southwestern alumnus, was a keynote speaker. At the end of his presentation, Cordero asked the audience in the packed gym rhetorically, “If things get tough, who will stand up for me?”
Spillers, who was sitting in the front row near Cordero, immediately sprang to his feet.
“I’ll support you, Dan!” he said in a booming voice.
Spiller turned and gazed across the audience. One by one other college employees stood and shouted “I’ll support you!”
“It was a beautiful moment and an amazing example of genuine leadership,” said a friend of Cordero’s who witnessed the moment. “It was like that moment in the movie ‘Spartacus’ when everyone bravely stood to support him.”
Rodriguez said she last saw Spillers at the funeral of Athletic Department employee Kathy Denopolis, who worked closely with him during his time on campus. Spillers was enduring grueling cancer treatments but made the effort to attend the funeral to show respect for a close friend.
“I was really surprised to see him,” Rodriguez said. “Jim being Jim, he was so supportive. He was so proud of me. He told me to just keep going, you’re going to do great things. I’m happy that I got to see him and talk to him one last time before he (died). Even though he went through (terrible) cancer treatments, he was still Jim.”
Eduardo Ruiz contributed to this story.