MISSION FIRST: Office of Responsibility

Athletics | November 24, 2015 | Ryan J. YanoshakHis office, neat and tidy inside Holleder Center, tells the story, or at least some of it.

With the air conditioner turned on high to combat the stifling late-July humidity, looking around Ben Russell's office starts to explain some of the many accomplishments of the long-time athletic department employee.

In the middle of July in 1974, he took a job at what is now the Department of Public Works at West Point in the role of supervisor.

Fast forward 12 years later and Russell made the move to the Office of the Directorate of Intercollegiate Athletics (ODIA). A host of folks applied for the job, more than 75, but it was Russell who pointed out…