By Mike Beas

Daily Journal sports writer

Reminding Susan Williams that the window of preparation time for the first Super Bowl to be played in Indiana closes with each passing hour is an exercise in futility.

She knows because she’s living it.

During the 44 months since the NFL announced Indianapolis would host Super Bowl XLVI, Williams, for lack of a more apt description, has been super busy.

She is president of Indiana Sports Corp., a not-for-profit organization that promotes the state as an attractive place to live, work and visit through sports and sporting events.

Between meetings, dinner functions, phone calls and last-minute requests for Williams to put out this or that fire, the Franklin College graduate is pulled in a variety of directions. She, her staff and thousands of volunteer workers focus on making professional football’s 46th showcase the best and most precisely orchestrated ever.

“My day sort of starts around 7 when my cellphone starts ringing, and it’s really hard to say what the evenings will look like,” said Williams, who has served as Indiana Sports Corp. president since 2005.

Per preparation for the Super Bowl, one of Williams’ primary tasks occurred in 2010, when she spent many hours involved in the Super Bowl’s Legacy Project at Tech High School.

The original plan was to construct an indoor practice facility on the Tech campus that would be used in the days leading up to the game by the NFC representative.

The plan, however, fell through. The facility was built at the University of Indianapolis, though Tech is getting a community center, which will benefit the area both academically and athletically.

Once back in her office, the view Williams soaks up from the 12th floor inside the Indiana Sports Corp. building tightly binds the downtown locations where most of the Super Bowl-related activities will take place.

Directly below is the expansive roof of the Indiana Convention Center, soon to be a beehive of activity as it prepares to host The NFL Experience, Radio Row and many league-themed meetings and conferences.

To Williams’ left is Lucas Oil Stadium, where the game will be played.

Williams takes pride in the fact that Indianapolis’ track record of hosting NCAA men’s Final Fours (six), NCAA women’s Final Fours (two), numerous Olympic trials, one Pan American Games (1987) and other sporting events is unrivaled on a national scale.

At the same time, the Brownsburg native lives, like the rest of us, in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world.

Should Indianapolis disappoint the way, say, Dallas did last year with unseasonably cold weather and a ticket fiasco that ripped off some spectators anticipating a high-priced seat inside Cowboys Stadium, the city’s reputation would absorb bruises only time can heal.

“The event itself is such a huge management effort. Everything about this is big,” Williams said, primarily referring to the 8,000 local volunteers whose job it is to make the entire Super Bowl experience function smoothly.

“We want to pull off an event that knocks everyone’s socks off,” Williams said. “We want to hear what we hear about men’s Final Fours, that this event needs to be here more often.

“To hear that is very flattering.”

According to Williams, once police officers, cab drivers, restaurant employees, motel workers and the like are factored in, the tally of individuals playing a crucial role balloons to between 9,000-10,000 people.

One of her favorite Hoosier hospitality stories takes place from Lafayette to Greenwood, where every room in every motel is expected to include a handwritten letter from an area fourth- or fifth-grader welcoming those individuals to Indiana.

“The staff built around this is wonderful,” Williams said. “It’s a team of pros, and it’s just amazing the talent that’s out there.”

Even after the Super Bowl, Williams won’t get much of a break. The city is contracted with the NCAA to host a men’s and women’s Final Four once every five years through 2039, not to mention Big Ten men’s basketball tournaments this March and in 2014 and 2016.

Once Williams is able to finally locate patches of clear in her frenzied work schedule, will she treat herself to some time off?

She jokes that she doesn’t want any member of her staff in the Indiana Sports Corp. building the first week of April, and if someone disobeys, “I’ll keep the scolding to a minimum.”

As for who the two Super Bowl teams will be, she doesn’t care. She is ready for the show to go on.

“We’re excited to have whoever is going to come,” Williams said. “We’re just looking for them to be wowed.”