"Buddy" Knowland was dead, keeled over with a heart attack during the game. Buddy's fans knew him as the most successful football coach in Nebraska State University history. His colleagues knew him as a misogynistic, foul-mouthed bully. Replacing Buddy would be one of the biggest tests that Charlie Rosen, the president of Nebraska State University, would face during his career. How to hire a replacement for the irreplaceable coach? How to keep the university trustees happy? And how to deal with the ghost of Buddy, which keeps hanging around the office? With his job on the line, Rosen must pull out all the stops. All in all, just an average day in the life of a university president.

The Search is the first novel written by Indiana University President Emeritus Thomas Ehrlich. Although (almost) entirely fictional, it illustrates the competing pressures faced daily by university presidents around the country particularly as they struggle to maintain the primacy of academics over athletics.