Rush Wood: Collective effort needed to bring LU football back

Open Letter Beaumont Enterprise

Rush Wood: Collective effort needed to bring LU football back
By RUSH WOOD, The Enterprise
11/21/2007
Updated 11/20/2007 11:33:02 PM CST

Open Letter to Lamar Students:

Sometime in the near future, stroll into Cardinal Stadium and take a seat.

Look around. All you'll see are thousands of empty seats.

Turn on your imaginations. Visualize a packed house of rowdy fans. Picture two football teams lining up for an opening kickoff in full battle gear, one sporting the red and white of Lamar University.

Listen to the blaring of the bands, the cheers of the cheerleaders and the applause of the fans on both sides of the stadium. Feel the excitement generated by fellow students showcasing their painted torsos and their wild hairdos.

You've seen scenes similar to this hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Sadly, however, they've all been at your high school stadiums, on other college campuses, in professional stadiums or on your television screens.

Never in Cardinal Stadium, though. You're far too young to remember when it housed a Lamar football team. Those days faded into the sunset after the 1989 season when some of you were mere babes.

While Lamar's then-board of regents voted to discontinue the football program in 1989, you may have a January vote that could reverse that decision. A favorable vote on a referendum to approve a student athletic fee would be a vital step toward football's revival.

Think about it. Don't be delusional and believe you'll be voting in a Texas- or Texas A&M-type football atmosphere. But why shouldn't you have the same fall shenanigans enjoyed by your contemporaries at Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin State or McNeese State?

I realize the athletic fee would be an additional drain on your educational budget. I can do the math on what a fee of perhaps $8 or more per semester-hour would be for those of you carrying a full load of 12-to-16 hours.

Hey, I also know many of you probably blow more than that on spring break each year. Spend it on football, and chances are you'll even remember the games.

Why not make football your fall fling?

Sincerely,

Rush Wood

Open letter to Lamar boosters:

This is to you, Vince. To you, Charlie. To you, Larry. To you, Linda. To you, Freddie. And to you, Sheila.

You know who you are. I've run into you on the golf course, in the grocery store, at basketball games, at baseball games, in the (long) line at the post office or in your neighborhood bar.


You're the guys and the gals who tell me what a gigantic blunder Lamar's administrators made when they pulled the plug on the football program after the 1989 season. It was a sin, you say, akin to removing "Saturday Night Live" from television.

You tell me you came to all of the games and that you were flabbergasted when they were yanked away from you. You tell me you supported Lamar football in more ways than just the purchasing of game tickets.

You tell me you'll be among the first in line to again purchase tickets and to again lend financial support to football, if Lamar will just simply reinsert the plug.

Well, you may now get the chance to do more than just tell me. You can show me.

Apparently, the time is coming when Lamar is going to ask for your help. That means help as in dollars, not as in advice. Advice is cheap.

It will take more than just student and administrative approval to make a successful go at the revival of football. It will require big-time backing from the private sector.

That means you, Vince; you, Charlie; you, Larry; you Linda; you Freddie, and you, Sheila, will be asked to pony up and to open up those wallets, those purses and those checkbooks. Once the moths fly out, you'll have the opportunities to pull out sizable donations to help get you back into Cardinal Stadium for Lamar football.

It's going to take more - millions (of dollars) this time, not thousands, so be prepared to dig deep.

I'm sorry if this sounds like a put-up-or-shut-up message, but I suppose it is.

Sincerely,

Rush Wood

Open Letter to Jimmy Simmons and Billy Tubbs:

As Lamar's president, Jimmy, you have become a hero to students, faculty and alumni by leading the enhancement effort highlighted by the construction of the Cardinal Village housing complex, by the opening of the Sheila Umphrey Recreational Sports Center and by other campus-wide renovations and improvements.

As Lamar's basketball coach in 1979, Billy, you became a hero by leading the Cardinals to their first-ever berth in the NCAA Division I Tournament, and you reached legendary status the next year by guiding the Cardinals to the Sweet 16.

Now, Jimmy and Billy, you are being looked to, to become heroes of even greater proportions. You can be the supermen who restored life to the university's football program.

If you are able to pull it off, your work will only just be beginning. As you two well know, there's much more to it than merely flicking on the switch.

Cardinal Stadium, Higgins Fieldhouse, the press box, the weight room and the practice facility must all be brought up to the standards of other schools in the Southland Conference - the Sam Houston States, Stephen F. Austin States and McNeese States.

Then there's the matter of THE HIRE. You must be on target with this one. Your first head football coach must be Mr. Right. If not, the whole effort could be in serious jeopardy.

Also, as you well know, creating a successful football program will not come about without sufficient funding. Everyone tells me it's out there, so it's up to you guys and your support staff to go find it and to secure it.

Then, it'll be up to you to spend it wisely. You're not going to be able to give the fans steak-and-lobster style football on a hamburger budget.

Best of luck,

Rush Wood