[Sly Fox]

This is a premium story from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Falwell's Football Dream

After the death of its founder, Liberty U. tries to keep his gridiron vision going

By STU WOO

Lynchburg, Va.

The morning after Jerry Falwell's death, Jeff Barber called a meeting of Liberty University's athletics department.

A gargantuan task lay before Mr. Barber, the university's athletics director: How would he and his department respond to losing Mr. Falwell, Liberty's beloved founder and chancellor, and the biggest champion of its athletics program?

To most people, Mr. Falwell was the fiery and often controversial evangelical preacher who ignited the religious-right movement when he founded the Moral Majority more than a quarter-century ago. But he was also the ambitious chancellor who dreamed of fielding a football team that could compete with the likes of the University of Notre Dame.

If any of you eductaor types have a subscription to this service perhaps you could summarize its content for us.

[bigsmooth]

very good read. here is the link:

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i39/39a03101.htm

[jcmanson]

Thanks smooth.

[Libertine]

For what it's worth, creating the free account will not allow you to read this article.

[bigsmooth]

yeah i saw that, so i just paid the $6.95 and posted it.

[givemethemic]

When I clicked on the link it didn't show the whole article...It just teased the first two paragraphs.

[bigsmooth]

try this:

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i39/39a03101.htm

[givemethemic]

same thing bud...

[bigsmooth]

i just clicked both links and they worked for me.

[bigsmooth]

sorry bud...i guess you have a lame computer and sorry sly for having to paste this.

Falwell's Football Dream
After the death of its founder, Liberty U. tries to keep his gridiron vision going
Lynchburg, Va.

The morning after Jerry Falwell's death, Jeff Barber called a meeting of Liberty University's athletics department.

A gargantuan task lay before Mr. Barber, the university's athletics director: How would he and his department respond to losing Mr. Falwell, Liberty's beloved founder and chancellor, and the biggest champion of its athletics program?

To most people, Mr. Falwell was the fiery and often controversial evangelical preacher who ignited the religious-right movement when he founded the Moral Majority more than a quarter-century ago. But he was also the ambitious chancellor who dreamed of fielding a football team that could compete with the likes of the University of Notre Dame.

When The Chronicle sat down with Mr. Falwell last November in the chancellor's office at Liberty, he spoke passionately about his desire to get his football program into the elite ranks.

The previous fall, after Liberty's team, which plays in Division I-AA, finished with a 1-10 record, he fired the head coach. The athletics director resigned shortly after. In their places Mr. Falwell hired two energetic young men who he believed could turn the football team into a household name.

Even though Mr. Falwell will not be around to see it, university officials remain committed to making his vision a reality. "We have decided we want to make sure that his dream comes true," says Mr. Barber, "and to do that we have to hitch up our pants and get to work."

Lighting the Fuse

For Mr. Falwell, a lifelong sports fan who was captain of his high-school football team and played college basketball, sports was more than recreation. It was Liberty's ticket to fame.

When he founded what was then called Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971, one of his goals was to eventually have the institution's athletics program playing at the highest level at every sport. The success of the program has been bittersweet: Liberty is playing in the top division in every sport — except football, Mr. Falwell's favorite.

Having a top football program, Mr. Falwell said, would increase the university's visibility and attract more young people to Liberty. By playing on national television and graduating players who could serve as Christian ambassadors in the National Football League, he hoped to have a greater platform — or pulpit — from which to spread Christianity.

In the past two years, Mr. Falwell, perhaps more aware of his mortality after suffering heart failure in May 2005, had been working fervently to move the football program to the next level. After the disappointing 2005 season, he hired Danny Rocco, who was then associate head football coach at the University of Virginia and who had coached for the University of Texas at Austin and the New York Jets, as head coach.

Mr. Falwell also hired Mr. Barber, then senior associate athletics director at the University of South Carolina. Professors say Mr. Barber, with his warm smile and friendly manner, has quickly won over many faculty members by keeping them informed of his overall plan for the university's athletics program.

Liberty has also taken big steps to improve recruiting. This year the university opened a new football operations and training facility, which cost $10-million to build and equip. Mr. Falwell called the football facility "equal to anything in the state of Virginia" and several potential recruits at a game last November echoed his words.

So far, the results have been good for Liberty. Last year Mr. Rocco guided the team to a 6-5 record — tied for the biggest win improvement in Division I-AA — and was selected as the Big South Conference's Coach of the Year. In addition, the billionaire donor who financed the new football building, Arthur L. Williams, has pledged to pay for a new 36,000-seat football stadium when it is necessary.

"The fuse is lit," Mr. Falwell said in November. "We're ready to explode next year."

The Liberty Way

From 1990 to 2006, most of the football programs at the dozen or so universities that jumped from Division I-AA to I-A have achieved considerable success since the move. (The NCAA changed those division names to Division I-Championship Division and Division I-Bowl Division, respectively, in December 2006.)

Boise State University is perhaps the best example. It has been to seven bowl games since becoming a full I-A member in 1996 and capped off an undefeated season in January by upsetting the University of Oklahoma in a Bowl Championship Series game.

But things haven't been rosy for all the newer members of college football's elite division. The State University of New York at Buffalo's move to Division I-A in 1999 has been a "fiasco," says Mark E. Shechner, an English professor at the university and an outspoken critic of the football program. Last season the Bulls had a dismal 2 and 10 record. The previous year, they won only a single game. Buffalo, he says, should act as a "cautionary tale" to other universities looking to jump into top-division football.

But Charles R. Fourtner, a professor of biological sciences at Buffalo and the faculty representative to the NCAA, said the move was worth it. "You get more publicity out of a sports program than anything I can do in science," he says.

But Mr. Falwell was nothing if not ambitious. He planned to first establish a successful I-AA program before moving to I-A. That, he said, should solve the attendance problem.

Last season Liberty averaged about 11,000 fans per home game in a stadium that can seat only 15,000. When the team can fill its stadium, Liberty will begin work on the new 36,000 seater that Mr. Williams has pledged to finance.

But to win games, a football team must recruit good players. When a university is a fundamentalist Christian institution with some of the strictest house rules in the nation, recruiting can be a challenge.

Every university has rules, but Liberty's, called "the Liberty Way," are designed to govern even some seemingly minute details of a student's life. The 46-page handbook, found on the university's Web site, tells students how they can dress (no torn jeans, short skirts, or anything "related to counterculture"), what movies they can watch (no R-rated films), what music they can listen to (mostly Christian music), and how far they can go with a romantic partner (holding hands — given, of course, that it is a heterosexual coupling).

The Liberty Way describes some requirements that might be expected at a conservative Christian university (no tobacco, alcohol, or illicit drugs), as well as some that might raise eyebrows (random drug tests for every student).

Mr. Falwell acknowledged that with those rules, the university's football program was at a competitive disadvantage when it came to recruiting.

In an era when some universities have tried to lure recruits with strippers and free alcohol, Mr. Falwell said there were many high-school athletes who wouldn't even give Liberty a look.

But he believed there were enough football-playing evangelical Christians out there who would love the chance to play there. He noted that Notre Dame and Brigham Young University had both managed to field top football teams, despite their religious affiliations.

Plans to Move Forward

Though the mood of the athletics-department meeting on the morning following Mr. Falwell's death was understandably somber, Mr. Barber used the opportunity to challenge his colleagues to honor their departed leader.

"Even though we lost a guy that started the mission of our athletics department and believed in it more than anyone else, we're not going to flinch," Mr. Barber says, adding that he and his staff will do whatever it takes to become the athletics department Mr. Falwell dreamed about 36 years ago.

Mr. Barber acknowledged that with the focus on improving facilities to attract better athletes, one of his biggest concerns is fund raising. "It'll give us some new challenges," Mr. Barber says. But after speaking with donors in the past few days, he says that several of them wanted to ensure that Mr. Falwell's vision would be realized. "In some ways, it will be a rallying point," Mr. Barber says.

Another concern, Mr. Barber says, will be simply convincing the university that the goal of having a top football program is worth pursuing. "Some people will wonder if the university will continue at the same pace, if people will still be committed," he says.

He believes the answer to that question is yes. He says Liberty's new chancellor, Jerry Falwell Jr., who was previously vice chancellor, intends to carry out his father's vision, and Mr. Barber himself says he is determined to turn Liberty's athletics program into one of the best in the nation.

"I feel more accountability, I feel more determined," he says. "I wanted to get it done for him while he was living and was not able, and now I feel more determined than ever to make sure his dream comes true."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://chronicle.com
Section: Athletics
Volume 53, Issue 39, Page A31

[TallyW]

yeah i saw that, so i just paid the $6.95 and posted it.

That's why it worked for you.

Your computer has cookies that tell it that you have access. The rest of us aren't as fortunate. It's really an issue of the 'haves' vs. the 'have-nots'. You're in the 'have' category. The rest of us... are too cheap to pay $6.95 to read one article.

[bigsmooth]

well it's posted now. im no computer genius so thanks for the explanation tally. enjoy the read.

[HenryGale]

I think Sly will let it fly (hah!) considering you just dropped $7.00 for the benefit of fellow FF'ers.

[PAmedic]

In addition, the billionaire donor who financed the new football building, Arthur L. Williams, has pledged to pay for a new 36,000-seat football stadium when it is necessary.

did I miss the official confirmation on THAT one somewhere?

WOW!

didn't know the check was already signed! what are we waiting for?

START DIGGING BOYS!

[PAmedic]

Last season Liberty averaged about 11,000 fans per home game in a stadium that can seat only 15,000. When the team can fill its stadium, Liberty will begin work on the new 36,000 seater that Mr. Williams has pledged to finance.

[Cider Jim]

Smooth, thanks for posting that article (and paying for it), but we may have been able to find it on one of the LU's library's search engines. We really do need to recruit an LU librarian to join FF for times like these.

[TallyW]

I had the same thoughts as Medic! I'm pumped... It'll only take this season of winning to start topping out at 15k at home. I wouldn't be surprised if we hear about the stadium improvements by the end of the season.

Dr. Falwells big donors aren't getting younger. They'll want to see some movement soon as well. Now is the time to rally the troops and turn some of that cash into brick and concrete.

[JDUB]

i'm pretty sure the football stadium doesn't hold 15k, unless they're counting standing in the grass

[PAmedic]

I mentioned this in the "Suites" discussion- but a certain high level source did mention, quite matter-of-factly, that the proposed expansion would soon be a reality, as we filled the existing layout to capacity (+): which he expects to do regularly this season.

He actually described how he envisions the upper deck extending out over the existing seating; my guess is the renderings may be in the works already- seeings as how planning, design, permitting and such could take a good 3 yrs or more and construction another 1-2.

SMOOTHIE- let us know if you get calls for bids on BIG central air systems for a certain luxury box/press box complex

Ironic that funding may not be the big hurdle for this project!

[PAmedic]

i'm pretty sure the football stadium doesn't hold 15k, unless they're counting standing in the grass

yes.

also, another 500 in the suites, and temporary bleachers in the EZ

[Cider Jim]

JDUB, maybe they are already counting the new temporary sky boxes!

[PAmedic]

JDUB, maybe they are already counting the new temporary sky boxes!

YES

try to keep up fellas

[JDUB]

we were talking about expansion at the spring game. i forgot which stadium it was, maybe one of you can help me out, but there is a stadium that looks like ours that has been expanded the way we are talking about expanding.

[bigsmooth]

cider, NBD on the article. it was minimal. official capacity is 12,000, though we obviously had more at homecoming. n.c. state's carter-finley stadium is a good model on how we could expand our stadium on both sides. in fact the same contractor who built williams, built carter-finley.

[jcmanson]

The more I hear quotes from JB since the doc passed, the more pleased I am with him at the helm at this critical juncture of our school's breif existence.