These are new and different times for the Syracuse athletic department, times it hasn’t seen in more than 25 years. There will soon be a new boss, and before officially assuming his post, he’s already made one of the most program-altering decisions in a quarter century.

Winds of change have blown into Syracuse athletics. New athletic director Darryl Gross and new football coach Greg Robinson carved their faces into SU’s three-headed sports Mount Rushmore (the third face, if you couldn’t figure it out, features spectacles and pursed lips), snapping a string of unheard of consistency.

With the huge headlines that came with the departures of Paul Pasqualoni and Jake Crouthamel, the face of Syracuse athletics transformed. But so much of the fabric has remained.

Four current coaches spent all of Crouthamel’s years at Syracuse in some capacity or another, and all four underwent the changes, well, unchanged.

Jim Boeheim, John Desko, Kathleen Parker and Lou Walker accompanied Crouthamel for each of his years at Syracuse, and now the four will carry on the stability and loyalty that marked Jake’s reign. Together, the group comprises 127 years at Syracuse between playing and coaching.

And, in all those years, they’ve never experienced anything quite like the transformation Syracuse has gone through in recent months.

A new chancellor. A new nickname. A new athletic director. A new football coach.

All in a tidal wave of change, something so foreign to SU under Crouthamel.

‘In terms of the biggest thing that affected athletics, it’s like getting the Carrier Dome,’ Desko said.

Things seem so different now. There was a certain charm to having an athletic director who had a penchant for Marlboros and a football coach who rarely spoke in complete sentences.

Sure, the modern AD – willing to speak openly on ESPN about the possible canning of his football coach – is nice. And the California-cool football coach revving up basketball crowds? Great.

But it still feels like trading in your first car, the one you made so many memories in, for a shiny new model that has all the sentimentality of a fire hydrant.

So, if you’re ever pining for the old days, take heart.

There’s still Boeheim, the shy son of an undertaker from Lyons who walked on at Syracuse in 1962, coached golf for a couple of years after playing some pro ball, then turned a small program in Central New York into a national powerhouse. No Division I basketball head coach has stayed in the same place longer than Boeheim.

There’s still Walker, the swimming and diving coach who swam butterfly and freestyle in Archbold in the early 1970s. To be sure, some special athletes have passed through his program, but the athlete nearest to his heart in his tenure was a lacrosse player. That would be his daughter Jacquelyn, who graduated last spring after four years of solid service.

There’s still Parker, who doubled as science teacher at Fayetteville-Manlius High during her first few seasons as head coach of the field hockey team. She calls herself ‘the outsider’ of the four, because she went to Ithaca instead of Syracuse.

That hasn’t kept her from staying here for 26 seasons, time enough to raise her daughter and a family.

‘I guess I’m not good enough that anybody else wants me,’ Parker said with a laugh.

That’s modesty, of course. When Parker arrived, the Orangewomen (weren’t times simpler when giant fruit had designated genders?) were a glorified club team. Since, they’ve moved from a Division II squad to a perennial Big East contender.

‘The only reason to leave would be the white stuff out front,’ Parker said. ‘That’s when I start wishing the University of Arizona had a field hockey coach opening.’

There’s still Desko, the men’s lacrosse coach who’s quickly approaching the status of legend. When he arrived on campus in 1976, the phrase ‘Syracuse lacrosse’ was just another team, not two words synonymous with success.

By his senior season, the Orange was the national champion. They are right now, too, and have been seven times in between.

‘When I was coming out of high school, we were just another program,’ said Desko, who will spend his eighth year as head coach this season. ‘To see the program grow to what it is, it’s neat to be a part of it.’

He almost wasn’t a part of it. As an assistant right out of college, he would soon receive offers to coach at other schools, tempting choices to land at some other lacrosse power and be the head coach.

After every offer, he would sit and talk with Roy Simmons Jr., the head coach and patriarch of Syracuse lacrosse. Each time, he came to the realization the opportunity to coach Syracuse – his school and his home – would be worth the wait.

‘This is my school,’ Desko said. ‘To be able to work at my alma mater, there’s a lot of pride in that.’

Yes, these are new and different times for Syracuse athletics. But some things, truly, do stay the same.