GOOD SPORTS

Even before ANNE B. DUNCAN started her job last January as president of the Dallas International Sports Commission, résumés had begun to accumulate in her soon-to-be office, sent by eager souls who wanted to work for her. By the time Duncan came to Dallas from Atlanta, where she was executive director of the Atlanta Sports Council, résumé’s were coming in by the hundreds.

“Since I got here, I have had people almost camped out on my doorstep, ” Duncan says.

Résumés have come in via board members, U. S. mail, and even florists in numbers now approaching 1, 000. Duncan says the Trammell Crow Company, which owns the commission’s office building, has been inundated with calls from people who want to hand-deliver their résumés, and she has even been getting calls at her old office back in Atlanta.

“I guess I’m lucky no one knows where I live here, ” Duncan says.

But the eager beavers came in handy for Duncan just two weeks after her arrival when the commission hosted a party for the U. S. Olympic Committee board of directors during its meeting in Dallas. Duncan had no volunteers, so she called the most persistent of the résumé pool, and in no time had 50 shining faces to help with the party-all hoping their skills at stuffing envelopes, pouring, greeting, and serving would get them noticed and land them a job.

In Atlanta, Duncan had between seven and 10 paid staffers, and she anticipates the needs here will be similar when she’s ready to hire this spring. But every day that job gets harder as more candidates knock on her door. Duncan knows it’s not her charisma that attracts job seekers.

“The sports business appeals to a common denominator in all of us, ” she says. As a result, the stacks of resumes on Duncan’s desk include accountants and lawyers and any number of other professionals who want to adapt their skills to Duncan’s task at hand: making Dallas a world-class host of sporting events.