At the start of the first football practice after Kenny Farr took over as Oregon’s head equipment manager in January 2010, he was faced with a baptism of ire from head coach Chip Kelly.
Kelly, who is noted for running an up-tempo practice, uses an air horn to signal when his team should change from one drill to another. When Farr failed to supply him with one, Kelly voiced his displeasure.
“Chip just starts bitching at him and yells at him for one of the blow horns,” said Jared Bradley, a junior physics major and a student-manager for three years. “Obviously, Kenny didn’t have it ready, because Kenny had no idea — and that was like his introduction.”
“An introduction to getting yelled at,” added Tyler Landon, a second-year equipment manager and senior psychology major.
This is why Farr characterized his job as “high-stress.”
“The coaches have high expectations of the jobs that we perform, and so when they’re not done correctly, it can be unpleasant,” Farr said.
Farr, 31, and his team of nine student-managers are responsible for outfitting all 120 football players with helmets, pads, jerseys, pants and other equipment. They are also responsible for outfitting the coaches and support staff, as well as taking care of ordering and special requests.
“Chances are, if you see it on the field or the sideline, it’s these guys’ responsibility,” Farr said.
Farr graduated from the University in 2002 and served as a student-manager for the football program all five years he was in school. Though the coaching styles of Kelly and former Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti differ greatly, the experience Farr has from doing the job as a student has made the transition to leading the managers an easier task for him; he acknowledges that student-managers have classes to attend, tests to study for and other commitments outside of his control.
“I have to respect the fact that they are students,” Farr said. “I have to be open to them leaving early or not being here.”
The student-managers who work underneath Farr think his experience as a student makes him more sympathetic to their cause.
“He listens to us if we have feedback on how we’re doing something, or what’s going on,” Bradley said. “He respects our response.”
Respect is one of Farr’s central tenets as he works with the student-athletes and student-managers. He uses the golden rule to run his department, trying to treat the students in the same way he would treat himself.
“You give them respect, and you ask for respect back,” Farr said. “I’ve always had success running my operation like that, with that golden rule, keeping the separation from supervisor and subordinates, but just knowing that they could always come talk to me and I would be their friend or adviser, whatever they needed me to be at that point. I would always be there for them.”
Being there, at least physically, is a job requirement for Farr. During the season, his work day starts before 7 a.m., usually with 150-plus people’s worth of laundry.
“Obviously, doing laundry is not a fun part of my job,” Farr said. “I don’t know anybody that really enjoys doing laundry.”
After laundry, Farr takes time to check his email and deal with personal projects before getting his student-managers started on their daily tasks.
Farr says his job is all about planning and organization, ensuring the football team is able to run without a hitch, both on and off the field. During the week, the managers are pivotal in practice, preparing equipment, setting up drills and serving as assistants to the players and coaches. During game weeks, Farr’s job gets even more hectic.
“I do a million different things I have to coordinate on a deadline,” Farr said.
Apart from preparing all of the players’ game-day apparel and equipment, the managers are also responsible for sideline equipment such as the measuring chains, as well as furnishing the officials with whatever they need.
“I’m always just making lists of the things that need to be accomplished,” Farr said, “just so I don’t get caught with my pants down.”
Apart from having experience as a student-manager, Farr learned management skills from working as an assistant manager at Target in Medford, Ore., for five years before returning to the University three years ago.
“I made a lot of money, but I was just miserable because it was the rat race of just regular life,” Farr said. “I felt like I did it pretty well, but I just didn’t enjoy it.”
Farr, who is originally from Southern Oregon, considered the financial drawback of leaving such a lucrative job, but decided eschewing retail sales to be better for his wife and 3-year-old son.
“The worst time of year was the holidays in retail; that’s the time you want to spend with your family,” Farr said. “So when this job opened up, I talked my wife into me taking a pretty big paycut and moving up to Eugene.”
Although Farr left the retail world behind, he’s still responsible for an inventory of thousands of items. Of any football team, the Ducks have by far the most combinations of different helmets (4), jerseys (6), pants (5), socks (2) and cleats (4).
“A lot of my peers around the country that I deal with think that I have it easier because I’m at Oregon — like you have robots that do all this stuff,” Farr said. “I would say that my job is harder than anybody’s, because I have many more uniforms to deal with and just more stuff.”
Bradley recognizes the difficulties Farr has in managing all of the equipment for a team with so many options.
“He’s much more organized than the way it used to be in here,” Bradley said. “Given it is getting even crazier — more jerseys, more gear — I think he’s going to handle it fine.”
Landon agrees with his fellow student-manager about how Farr does his job.
“Everything goes a lot smoother in here with Kenny,” Landon said. “He knows what he’s doing.”
Farr knows his job may not be the first thing in people’s minds when they think of Oregon football, but he recognizes the role he and his student-managers play in the Ducks’ football program.
“We’re kind of behind the scenes always, and off the radar, but we’re pretty integral in the whole process,” Farr said. “We do a lot of stuff that the coaches would get it figured out, but the way we practice, that stuff needs to be ready to roll when that horn goes off.”
[email protected]