During the Cubs notoriously embarrassing College of Coaches phase, Phillip K. Wrigley was really in an experimenting mood. One of the things he decided his team needed was an athletic director. (Photo: Wrigley with his college of coaches)

This would be someone to lead the program, much like an athletic director would lead a college's athletic department. Through his brother-in-law, Wrigley met someone who fit the bill. He hired Robert Whitlow in January of 1963. Whitlow was the athletic director of the Air Force Academy at the time.

Like Wrigley's very early foray into sports psychology in 1930s, it's not that this was a terrible idea. It's just that it came at a time when everyone in the organization was already pretty certain that the College of Coaches experiment was a fiasco. This just sounded like another one of his crackpot schemes. Whitlow actually suggested some things that became common place a few decades later like using computers to spot trends and position players, and focusing on diet and conditioning.

Unfortunately for him, Whitlow was Wrigley's guy, and therefore wasn't respected by the players, the coaches, or the front office of the Cubs. GM John Holland ignored him. "Head Coach" Bob Kennedy ignored him. And, of course, the players ignored him too.

After only two years on the job he resigned in January of 1965.