[Sly Fox]

We've discussed on here before the efforts at East Tennessee State to try and bring back the football program they killed back in 2003. They would be another prime target for the Big South should that occur. One of those leading the efforts to restore the team posted the following on the WCU board this week:

You guys have asked many times about the status of the Football Foundation and the efforts to reinstate football at ETSU. I wanted to pass the following two articles along that came from the "Homecoming" weekend efforts. If you can ignore the bias of the last writer (he's afraid if he says something positive he'll lose his free golf and passes to the Final Four that ETSU athletics provides), you'll see actual reporting.

If you feel so inclined, the local rag has an online poll: www.johnsoncitypress.com scroll down to the green box on the left margin... They are also taking Letters to the Editor (Should a football program be restored at ETSU? Send your comments to Mailbag, P.O. Box 1717, Johnson City, TN 37605-1717, or mailbag@johnsoncitypress.com. Please include your name, telephone number and address for verification purposes. We will print your responses on the Opinion/Editorial pages in the coming weeks.)

First article:

Stanton expects football to return in near future

They came to remember the past, but former football players at East Tennessee State definitely had the future on their minds.
The future they were pondering includes ETSU and football being together again.
A gathering of football alumni was part of ETSU’s homecoming festivities on Saturday. For the most part, the participants said it was difficult to enjoy homecoming without a football game, usually the centerpiece of the big weekend.
No football has been played on campus since Nov. 22, 2003, when Jonathan Godfrey’s last-second field goal beat The Citadel and signaled the end of the program at ETSU, which eliminated the sport.
Now, the movement toward reinstatement seems to be picking up steam. Dr. Paul Stanton, ETSU’s president, was mingling with the football alumni Saturday morning. When asked for his gut feeling about the possibility of ETSU returning to the football field in the near future, his answer was quick.
“We’re going to go for it. I think that’s what’s going to happen,” Stanton said. “Of course, we’ve got to put all the pieces together.”
The biggest piece, even if all the financial details are worked out, is a stadium. Memorial Center, the Mini-Dome, is inadequate, especially with a new fire code ordering a maximum capacity of 6,400, although that still could have held two games’ worth of fans from the final few seasons.
Homecoming and football were meant to be together. It was a sentiment echoed time and time again throughout the day.
The former players got together for a pickup basketball game. And they met later in the evening for a reunion at a local pizza place. They were even briefed on the status of the task force trying to bring football back to the school.
But nothing could take the place of hearing the pads hit and the whistles blow.
“Any time you start thinking about the fall I think most people, especially in the Southeast, start thinking about football,” said Troy DeCastro, an offensive lineman from 1984-87. “I’ve had kind of an empty feeling for some time, since they dropped football.
“But around this time of year, to come back ... homecoming is typically associated with football. Hopefully we’ll get some momentum and turn this thing around.”
B.J. Adigun, who still holds several ETSU receiving records, returned this weekend for homecoming for the first time since he left.
“I love ETSU and I would have never known about ETSU had it not been for football,” said Adigun, the Southern Conference’s male athlete of the year in 1997. “From that standpoint alone, I think it should show how important it is to try to bring football back.”
These days, Adigun is the director of community development for a hospital in Syracuse, N.Y. He’s held that position for four years, and it’s a job he readily admits he would not have had if it had not been for college football.
“Without football, I’m not sure I would have even attempted to go to college, quite honestly,” Adigun said.
Adigun was on the 1996 Bucs’ team that beat Villanova in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs in front of a meager crowd. It’s been said that game showed what could be done at ETSU (winning) and what couldn’t (having a small crowd at the biggest game in years).
Adigun disputes that notion.
“I’ve heard that argument quite a bit,” he said. “That was the same week as Thanksgiving. The students were gone. I remember being on campus by ourselves as a football team.
“The games that I point to in that same season were the games against Appalachian State — we had about 10,000 people for that — and Marshall. That game was sold out, so you could see the potential what a winning program could do.”
Derek Fudge, an all-conference linebacker from 1995-99, helped organize Saturday’s reunion, partly, he said, because he had a lot of phone numbers.
“Right now we’ve got over 200 guys coming back,” Fudge said. “I’d say between 250 and 300. When I see the guys, it makes me want to get back in the pads and play again, because normally when I see them, we’re ready to play ball.”
Word should come before the end of the year whether or not ETSU will be ready to play ball again any time soon. The task force is scheduled to meet on Wednesday. Stanton says he wants the group’s final proposal before Christmas.
In order for Stanton to resurrect the program, he said he’ll need to see enough support to sustain it longterm. That means money, and word on the street is that a major announcement in that regard could come within three weeks.
“We have to have the support to fund these things where we don’t have to worry in the future like we were,” Stanton said. “You can’t do it year-to-year.”
Having more than 200 former football players show up for a reunion was a positive step.
“I wouldn’t even be considering it again if we didn’t have the interest from the community, the fans, the players,” Stanton said. “You get that number of players here and that shows the interest is there.
“I’ve said before, sometimes you have to lose something to really realize the value. I think all of us together have lost something, and now we realize ‘Let’s get it done.’”
Joe Avento is a sports writer for the
Johnson City Press. Contact him at
javento@johnsoncitypress.com

Editorial section:

Should football program be restored at ETSU?

Some football fans at East Tennessee State University are hoping to convince university officials to reinstate a gridiron program that was sacked nearly three years ago. A task force appointed to study the feasibility of restoring the football program at ETSU met for the second time last month.
The final chapter in the 80-year history of Buccaneer football appeared to have been written in 2003. Months before the season started, ETSU President Paul Stanton announced it would be the last for the university’s football program. Stanton said football was losing nearly $1 million a year, draining limited state dollars from the university’s other sports and academic programs.
In addition to running a deficit, football was in desperate need of as much as $400,000 in additional funding to make the program competitive with other Southern Conference schools and another $400,000 to cover Title IX gender equity requirements for additional athletic programs and scholarships for women. At least $2 million in new annual private donations would have been needed to save the program.
The decision to drop football was not popular either among former players or the fans who regularly attended ETSU home games. The demise of football forced ETSU to leave the Southern Conference — a move that hasn’t been embraced by many fans of the university’s basketball program. The Buccaneer Football & Friends Foundation was organized in an attempt to bring football back to the university. Stanton listened to the group’s pleas, and announced earlier this year he would appoint a task force to examine the possibility of the university resurrecting the football program. There has been no timetable set for reaching a decision on football, or how long it would take for a team to take the field if the program is given new life.
Tell us what you think. Should a football program be restored at ETSU?
Send your comments to Mailbag, P.O. Box 1717, Johnson City, TN 37605-1717, or mailbag@johnsoncitypress.com.
Please include your name, telephone number and address for verification purposes. We will print your responses on the Opinion/Editorial pages in the coming weeks.


Nov. 2 article following the most recent Task Force meeting:

Task force has plenty left to tackle

By Kelly Hodge
Press Managing Sports Editor
khodge@johnsoncitypress.com

East Tennessee State’s president is ready to “go for it.”
Now the ball is back in the hands of a task force trying to figure the how, when and where of making it happen.

The group met again for over three hours on campus Wednesday to discuss the feasibility of returning scholarship football to the university. It is likely to meet two more times before sending its recommendation to Dr. Paul Stanton in late December.

Stanton, who cut the program three years ago, is apparently already sold on the idea of a comeback. He stoked hopes last weekend during a gathering of football alumni, saying, “We’re going to go for it. ...Of course, we’ve got to put all the pieces together.”

The pieces, perhaps including an on-campus stadium, are just now getting a closer look.

“Today was our first meeting where we got down to discussing issues,” said Dr. Wilsie Bishop, co-chair of the task force. “There’s so much information, and we need to hear the data and let it digest. I think Dr. Stanton has wanted to make this a doable project from the beginning. He’d like to see it get done, but he has to see the dollars and cents. If we play football, it has to make sense financially, and we’re going to need university and community support.”

Bishop said construction of a stadium “continues to be a large issue” in reviving the program that was dropped amid financial constraints after the 2003 season.

“There has to be a pretty clear commitment on all sides,” she said. “Before we can begin raising money, there first has to be a commitment to playing football. And before we can begin playing football, we have to have somewhere to play. The ideal place would be on campus, but it would be expensive.”

Major donors have yet to step forward publicly.

ETSU athletic director Dave Mullins has been researching the whole range of expenditures it would take to get the Bucs up and running again, from start-up costs to long-term maintenance needed to keep the program competitive. Mullins has also provided the committee with comparisons of newly constructed football stadiums of about 10,000 seats at similar universities.

“The range is $12-15 million for facilities that would be very appropriate for a Division I-AA program, with some amenities that are attractive to fans,” he said. “That’s as important nowadays as the game itself. College football has to be a greater experience than the game itself.”

The experience has apparently gotten more attractive at ETSU since it left.

Most of the students who were on campus then have moved on to more pressing matters, and the football cause has been passed to others to pursue. Despite the team’s modest credentials — it never won a championship in a quarter-century in the Southern Conference, and it played to sparse crowds in recent years — there’s a growing sense that it’s time for the Bucs to suit up again.

“Football has taken on legend status on campus,” said Josh Shearin, president of the Student Government Association. “It carries a lot of weight and is a goal we should have. Most students want football back; I’ve only talked to about two who said they didn’t want it.”

Would they pay for the privilege?

“If you ask students whether they’re willing to pay a fee, you get more of a mixed response,” said Shearin. “Facilities is still a big issue. In order for students to buy into it, football needs to be on campus.”

Dr. Roy Nicks was president of ETSU from 1992-96 and wrestled with many of the financial burdens football placed on the athletic department. Football was always on campus, of course, and there weren’t many students who stuck around on the weekends to watch. The numbers, in fact, were lacking in many areas, and that made it easier for Stanton to finally pull the plug.

After sitting through a few hours of discussion Wednesday, Nicks had a sense of deja vu.

“I don’t think the cost issues have really changed much,” he said. “When you boil it all down, it’s still what can the university afford to do with the resources it has available.”

That being said, Nicks, who drives from Nashville to attend task force meetings, would like to see the ETSU community rise to the occasion in a new spirit of cooperation.

“What I keep hearing is that the students would like to have football,” he said. “They say it makes for a total athletic program at a comprehensive university, and I agree with that. I love football.”

So does Jerry Robertson.

The longtime trainer spent much of his 35 years at ETSU working with the football team. He left the university soon after the program was dropped and founded the Buc Football & Friends Foundation, which has lobbied hard for football’s return.

Robertson, who now co-chairs the task force with Bishop, has been credited with lining up prospective donors, though how much financial support is in the pipeline is unclear. He says some influential people want to see how the next couple of months play out.

“I talked to a potential donor the other day, not about money or any amount,” said Robertson. “He still feels strong about this but is just waiting to see.”


Kelly Hodge is managing sports editor of the Johnson City Press. He can be reached at khodge@johnsoncitypress.com.

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