A Sea Of Red

The Liberty University Athletics Department will be inducting seven members into its inaugural Hall of Fame class, as part of Hall of Fame weekend when the Flames square off against in-state foe James Madison on Sept. 26, 2009, at Williams Stadium.

The seven-member class includes Dr. Jerry Falwell (founder/former University chancellor), Arthur L. Williams (athletics financial supporter), Sid Bream (baseball), Kelvin Edwards (football), Karl Hess (men’s basketball), Elena (Kisseleva) Bengds (women’s basketball) and Bob Bonheim (wrestling and football coach).

http://www.libertyflames.com/index.cfm? ... 35&TeamID=

Very nice representation of LBC/LU history for the initial class.

Fumblerooskies wrote:Very nice representation of LBC/LU history for the initial class.

And guys who gave us $$$$$.

My shoulder is a bit sore from patting myself on the back for picking a couple of "outside the box" choices in Bob Bonhiem and Art Williams. Kelvin Edwards cought me a bit by surprise. I think he belongs, just surprised he was the first football player to go in.

Ed Dantes wrote:

Fumblerooskies wrote:Very nice representation of LBC/LU history for the initial class.

And guys who gave us $$$$$.

For the record, I think we need more $$$$$$$$$$

This is an outrage! SCAR should be on that list.

flames1971 wrote:

Ed Dantes wrote:

Fumblerooskies wrote:Very nice representation of LBC/LU history for the initial class.

And guys who gave us $$$$$.

For the record, I think we need more $$$$$$$$$$

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I believe Art Williams has already commited to pay for our football stadium expansion when we are ready to do it.

olldflame wrote:

flames1971 wrote:

Ed Dantes wrote: And guys who gave us $$$$$.

For the record, I think we need more $$$$$$$$$$

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I believe Art Williams has already commited to pay for our football stadium expansion when we are ready to do it.

AWESOME! That guy must be richer than rich! (The money I surely do not have!)

I like to list too. Worthington should be an early inductee but there's always next year. Edwards was a surprise but he definitely deserves to get in.

Nealy all those guys are my vintage. Great cross-section of Flames history. And there will be plenty of great options the next few years as well.

As for Art, I'm not sure if stadium expansion is as likely from him right now in light of the economic crisis. But let's hope it still true.

So is Katie eligible next year? She's a no-brain first ballot inductee.

jcmanson wrote:So is Katie eligible next year? She's a no-brain first ballot inductee.

You have to be five years removed from competition; she last played in '05, so yes.

Congragullations on Coach Bonheim. I had him for some PE classes, great teacher.

No Eric Green?

flames1971 wrote:

Ed Dantes wrote:

Fumblerooskies wrote:Very nice representation of LBC/LU history for the initial class.

And guys who gave us $$$$$.

For the record, I think we need more $$$$$$$$$$

We spend $20 million on our sports programs a year, we'd have some $$$$$ if we could trim part of that budget (I don't mean cut back, I mean... cut programs. Would you miss our tennis programs? Women's lacrosse?

Cider Jim wrote:No Eric Green?

That was my first thought too CJ, but then going back and looking at Eric's career at LU, he was not that productive til his Senior year, which was fantastic. The fact that he was drafted in the first round and that he was virtually a prototype in the NFL as far as tight ends with that combination of size, agility and skill is concerned, make him our most storied player, but there were others who had better carreers in the red, white and blue.

I think it's also possible that off the field issues played a part in not putting him in this first HOF class, but all indications are those days are behind him, and I think we can bet he'll be in there soon.

Ed Dantes wrote: We spend $20 million on our sports programs a year, we'd have some $$$$$ if we could trim part of that budget (I don't mean cut back, I mean... cut programs. Would you miss our tennis programs? Women's lacrosse?

Since you have to carry a minimum number of sports to be Division I as well as Title IX requirements that have to be met, yes, we would miss them.

RagingTireFire wrote:

Ed Dantes wrote: We spend $20 million on our sports programs a year, we'd have some $$$$$ if we could trim part of that budget (I don't mean cut back, I mean... cut programs. Would you miss our tennis programs? Women's lacrosse?

Since you have to carry a minimum number of sports to be Division I as well as Title IX requirements that have to be met, yes, we would miss them.

Since Ed loves this...

+1

You need twelve sports. We have considerably more than that and we're adding more. If you cut our mens and women's tennis program, you're slicing (pretty close) to an equal number of scholarships. You can ditch wrestling and women's lacrosse, etc.

Further, a few years ago, we were out of compliance with Title IX because we had too many women's scholarships. Our solution? Spend more money to develop men's scholarship teams when we should have cut back on women's.

So once again... would we miss them?

Ed Dantes wrote:You need twelve sports. We have considerably more than that and we're adding more. If you cut our mens and women's tennis program, you're slicing (pretty close) to an equal number of scholarships. You can ditch wrestling and women's lacrosse, etc.

Further, a few years ago, we were out of compliance with Title IX because we had too many women's scholarships. Our solution? Spend more money to develop men's scholarship teams when we should have cut back on women's.

So once again... would we miss them?

Yes, we would miss them. The athletes that train hard and participate in these sports will miss them. The parents and fans will miss them. Just because you wouldn't miss them doesn't mean someone else might. Take the blinders off, see the world as it really is, not just from your perspective.

Ed Dantes wrote:You need twelve sports. We have considerably more than that and we're adding more. If you cut our mens and women's tennis program, you're slicing (pretty close) to an equal number of scholarships. You can ditch wrestling and women's lacrosse, etc.

Further, a few years ago, we were out of compliance with Title IX because we had too many women's scholarships. Our solution? Spend more money to develop men's scholarship teams when we should have cut back on women's.

So once again... would we miss them?

For starters, men's tennis has 4.5 schollies, women's has 8. Travel expenses for both teams is no where near what it is for other teams, including golf which flew to Texas. Truthfully, cutting the tennis programs won't save a ton of money.

Ed Dantes wrote:You need twelve sports.

You need fourteen sports, at least seven of which must be women's sports.

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=418

Currently, including the new women's swimming and women's lacrosse programs, Liberty now has eighteen sports -- nine men's and nine women's. Liberty went the cutback route in the 90's when they were trying to shave every nickel just to keep the doors open. It worked but enrollment stagnated. Since LU is no longer in that position and given the mission of the university, it makes no sense to do that now.

Cider Jim wrote:No Eric Green?

Wayne Haddix???

scuzdriver wrote:

Cider Jim wrote:No Eric Green?

Wayne Haddix???

They clearly were not going to take more than 1 representative from any sport, and this time it was Kelvin for football. The more I think about it the more I like the choice. Great career at LU, and from everything I have heard he has always represented the school well since. I'm sure Wayne, Eric, Coach Sam and some others will follow soon.

Remember, they were only supposed to name 5 in this class, and ended up with 7.

Special K has made efforts to come back to campus from Texas on a regular basis. I'm sure that didn't go unnoticed in the selection process.