Herman Ronald "Herm" Frazier (born October 29, 1954) is a retired American sprinter. He won gold medals in the relay at the 1976 Olympics and 1975 and 1979 Pan American Games. Individually he earned a bronze medal in the 400 m event at the 1976 Olympics. He served as chef de mission of the 2004 U.S. Olympic team and as the Athletic Director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Hawaii. He currently serves as the senior deputy athletics director at Syracuse University.

Athlete

Frazier started his athletic career as multiple sport athlete at Germantown High School in Philadelphia.

Administrator

Frazier began his administrative career as a graduate assistant at Arizona State University in 1977. He would later become a full-time administrator and remained with the university for a total of 23 years, eventually becoming the Senior Associate Athletics Director. He would earn his first athletics director job at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2000. In 2002, he left UAB to accept the athletic director position at the University of Hawaii where he would remain until 2008. Frazier was fired the day after he failed to re-sign football coach June Jones.

In 2008 Frazier was named associate athletic director for sports administration at Temple University, and stayed there until 2011. In July 2011, he was hired at Syracuse University by Daryl Gross to take similar position.

He has served on the U.S. Olympic Committee in numerous capacities. In 1996, he was elected as one of three vice-presidents for the committee and accompanied the team to the 2000 games in Sydney, Australia. Most recently, he served as the chef de mission for the 2004 games in Athens, Greece. He has also served on the U.S. Olympic Athletes Advisory Council and the U.S. Olympic Overview Commission.

Frazier served as the board-chair for Syracuse Stage and The Bowerman Advisory Board.

Frazier has overseen the participation of the Syracuse football team in six bowl games, including most recently the 2024 DIRECTV Holiday Bowl. In 2012, Frazier received the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Pioneer Award for his position as Chef de Mission for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Syracuse University announced Frazier's retirement in February 2026 - “I’m retiring from the athletics department,’’ he said, “but I’ll still be involved with USA Track and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.’’ On Monday, his first official day of retirement, he will fly to Los Angeles, where he is scheduled to speak about the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games for SU’s Falk College at the Intuit Dome.

Honors

Frazier was inducted into the Denison Big Red Hall of Fame in 1989.

Frazier has received numerous honors, including the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award (Class of 2002), which recognizes "distinguished former student-athletes on their 25th anniversary as college graduates". Frazier was one of 461 athletes to receive a Congressional Gold Medal due to the US boycott of the 1980 Olympics.

In 2003 he was cited as one of the 101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports by Sports Illustrated. He was named as one of The 50 Most Powerful African Americans in Sports in the March 2005 issue of Black Enterprise magazine. In 2002, the Herman R. Frazier Political Science Scholarship was established by his friends and colleagues at Arizona State University to "celebrate and honor Mr. Frazier’s lifetime achievements" and award a "deserving political science student."

In 2012, Frazier was awarded the Pioneer Award for his role in the 2004 Olympic Games, honoring minority 'first' in athletics, by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.

On November 5, 2020, Frazier was inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.

Criticism

Frazier was criticized by some for leaving UAB with a $7.5 million deficit. His supporters noted that he had inherited a deficit and did not receive institutional support, while his detractors claimed that he was ineffective in increasing revenue.

On January 8, 2008, Herman Frazier was fired from his position as athletic director at the University of Hawaii following heavy criticism from the fans and media of the State of Hawaii. On March 3, 2007, he was loudly booed by the crowd following the final home game of the University of Hawaii's head basketball coach Riley Wallace. Frazier is widely viewed as having forced Wallace to resign by including a "no-extension" clause in his final contract. However, Wallace has accepted responsibility by saying, "The bottom line is Riley Wallace signed the contract." Frazier was also criticized by both the media and public for ongoing delays and a perceived lack of integrity in finalizing the full 2007 Hawaii Warriors football team schedule. Frazier admitted that he may have miscalculated in regards to the schedule but stands by his record at Hawaii citing, in part, his balancing of the athletics budget. He inherited a $2.5 million deficit from his predecessor. (Note: It was discovered after Frasier left that the so-called "balanced budget" left the athletic department with an even greater debt hovering around $6 million even after the windfall from the Sugar Bowl.) Finally, Frazier also received the brunt of the blame for then UH football coach, June Jones, leaving the university for Southern Methodist University.

References

  • Syracuse Athletics Profile
  • Arizona State Photographs
  • 1993 Interview with Track & Field News
  • 2016 Video Interview