Plati-'tudes
June 13, 2000
A weekly notes column penned by David Plati, who is in his 17th year as Colorado's Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations.
A busy week lies ahead, with the world abuzz about CU alum Chris Fowler's impending matrimony this Friday on "Lawn Guyland"...
TRIVIA QUESTIONS... CU -- Cliff Branch and Ben Kelly hold two of the most unique records in Colorado football history, accomplishing the first end of their feats on the same exact month and date: September 25. What did they do? Godfather -- In the original Godfather, Sonny Corleone received a "Sicilian message." What was the form of the message and what did it mean?
THE ANNIVERSARY... As documented by both the Boulder Camera and Denver Rocky Mountain News, this past Sunday marked the 20th anniversary of what became known as, "Black Wednesday," or June 11, 1980. That was the sad day CU had to jettison seven sports to help balance the budget. Certain things around that time have grown in legend, and have not always been portrayed accurately (probably the biggest of the era, the switching from black to a sky blue in the uniforms of all our sports teams, was pinned on football coach Chuck Fairbanks. In actuality, he didn't care for the color change either; it was a mandate from the Board of Regents at the time because they wanted us to reflect Colorado's sky blue at 9,000 feet, whatever that meant). Ultimately, badly needed upgrades, mainly for football, combined with a shortfall in revenue added up to a $1 million deficit over two fiscal years. Rumors persisted that remodeling Fairbanks' office alone cost $50,000, when that figure was the cost for all of the football offices as well as the men's basketball offices. Eliminated were baseball, wrestling, men's and women's gymnastics, men's and women's swimming, and women's diving (then considered separate from swimming). The elimination of those sports saved $359,000 immediately from the 1980-81 budget, as well as from the future. There were other less publicized cuts made, including an assistant sports information director, newsprint game programs for all sports for the next three years, and even media guides for sports that were copied rather than printed. The $1 million deficit was reduced over the next three years, the number one priority of then-athletic director Eddie Crowder, who retired in 1984 after he brought the department back into the black financially (and one year later, CU was "back in black" for its uniforms, as well).
It was a sad day two decades ago, and there are only four people left in the department today that were here that gloomy Wednesday. Senior associate AD Jon Burianek was the assistant AD for business and ticketing; Mark Simpson was in just his fourth year as head men's golf coach; Historian Fred Casotti was the lone associate AD who retired in 1987 but still calls the SID office home occasionally; and yours truly was a student assistant in the SID office. The Camera reported that we currently have 137 full-time employees, almost double what we had in 1980-81; that was the lone incorrect info in either story over the weekend, and it was only a bit off. We actually have 115 full-time employees (compared to 73 in '80-81), with 22 part, half or three-quarter time employees to get to the 137 (there were about the same back in '80-81; most if not all of the assistant coaches for the eliminated programs were not full-time). So we haven't really doubled in size; the three women's sports we've added along with areas that didn't exist such as marketing, promotions and community relations have added to the staff count. But we have grown about 60 percent.
Athletic Dick Tharp would love to bring baseball back, and has said it will be considered once our financial climate is right for it (and adding a comparable women's sport to meet all Title IX obligations). The family has a keen interest in the sport; Tharp's oldest son, Travis, just completed his freshman year at Northwestern where he started the majority of the year and hit .296 (over .300 in Big 10 games), with eight doubles and 16 runs batted in.
GRASS UPDATE... All three major area papers reported last week about the conditions of the SportGrass at both Folsom Field and the practice fields north of Boulder Creek. An independent consultant, from Iowa State University, will be on campus this Wednesday to review all four fields and give us a report within days on why it's had problems establishing roots in certain areas. Associate AD Jon Burianek has pointed out the following facts: 1) the field is under warranty with SportGrass, and they are involved with us to correct the problem spots; 2) the grass is the cheapest part of the $2.6 million investment we made a year ago, and it would cost SportGrass less than $100,000 per field if we needed to re-sod everything; 3) Virtually the same system is in place at Coors Field, the only difference is the layer of sod on top of the drainage, irrigation and heating coils (though you can't compare the use of a baseball field to that of a football one, you seldom have more than five players converge on a ball, and that's a rarity, whereas in football there's probably more wear and tear by players coming and going in substitution patterns; and 4) professional (football) teams re-sod all the time, often during bye weeks or when a team is out on the road for two straight games. Are we concerned? Of course we are; we want a great field, and that's the goal of the numerous people who breathed life into the project of replacing the artificial surface at Folsom last summer. The bottom line is we want, and will have, a great field.
THIS WEEK'S NUMBER... 10. That's how many college football bowl games will be televised between 2:00 p.m. on December 27 and 6:30 p.m. December 29. And eight, count 'em, eight of them are on either ESPN or ESPN2. This might be the time to submit your resume as a play-by-play man or color analyst, because with that many broadcasts, someone will be making their professional bowl debut!
AND YET ANOTHER NUMBER... We released the spring academic report Monday, and one of the highlights was the fact that CU's 310 student-athletes set a record for single semester grade point average with a 2.894 for the spring. That topped the 2.873 for the spring of 1999 and raised the cumulative figure to 2.790 (the campus average in Arts & Sciences has floated between 2.75 and 2.80 over the last decade). Athletic Director Dick Tharp's "Athletics 2010" vision contains several components, one of which is to attain an overall GPA of 3.000 across the board. The women's cross country team had six perfect 4.0's last semester and had a team GPA of 3.621 for the spring and 3.461 overall, all numbers to lead the 15 intercollegiate sport programs. Among those 4.0 students was Kara Wheeler, who is headed for the Olympic Trials and is a finalist for the Big 12 Conference's Female Athlete-of-the-Year.
YEAR-IN-REVIEW... It's that time for the annual year-in-review stories in college athletics. There have been all kinds of recent stories, ranging from comparing budgets in the Big 12 to the final all sports standings in the conference (researched by the Kansas City Star's Kent Pulliam and run in that paper on May 30). In the Star's research, CU finished fifth in the men's standings and 11th on the women's side for an overall eighth place finish in the Big 12 for 1999-2000. But like any research, things can be a bit skewed; they didn't punish a school for not participating in a sport, but those schools who have crew, equestrian, skiing or rifle received no credit at all. Schools received a point for every place they finishing in a certain sport's standings; i.e. CU received 1 point in men's and women's cross country for winning both titles, 3 points for men's golf's third place finish, and so on.
Another way to look at it is to arrange those standings for each school for only the sports they participate in; in that instance, CU was fourth in the men's standings, eighth in the women's standings and fifth overall. These sets of standings would be different for each school since the participation varies. Since only six schools wrestle, the last place school received 6 points, which still helps it keep ahead of any school finishing seventh or lower in any other sport.
And still another way to analyze it would be to take the comparative national rankings or actual NCAA Championship placings and compare the number of rankings/finishes for each school. Thus, for 1999-2000, in the 15 sports CU competes in, not including skiing since no other Big 12 school has a program, Texas led the way with 12 programs ranked in the Top 30. Nebraska was second (8), followed by Texas A & M (6), Baylor (5), Kansas State (5), Colorado (4), Missouri (4), Oklahoma (4), Oklahoma State (4), Iowa State (2), Texas Tech (2) and Kansas (1). All told, six of CU's 16 varsity teams finished the year ranked in the nation's Top 50, while 12 were ranked at least once during their respective seasons.
In addition, the women's soccer team, in just its fourth year of existence, earned mention in the regional rankings for the first time ever. The men's and women's basketball teams both received votes at some point during their seasons. The only team not to crack any rankings at all was the men's indoor track team, which redshirted a number of performers this winter and is set up to have its best year in a long time in 2001.
It was no wonder that Texas led the way; the Longhorns boast the conference's largest budget ($43.9 million for 2000-01), and in the Star's research, spent $3.65 million per men's sport and $918,914 per women's sport. Nebraska was second in all three ($37.5 million/$1.4 million/$622,530). CU's numbers per sport were $1,088,200 (eight men's sports) and $445,536 (nine women's sports). Football obviously skews everything; take out football, and the men's sports figure drops to $389,729.
TRIVIA ANSWERS... CU -- Cliff Branch is the only Buff to score on punt returns in back-to-back games, doing so against Ohio State (9-25-71) and Kansas State (10-02-71); Ben Kelly is the only one to score in back-to-back contests on kickoff returns, against Washington (9-25-99) and Missouri (10-09-99). Godfather -- It was a dead fish wrapped in newspaper, and it meant that Luca Brasi was dead. Luca was the Corleone family strong man, and "sleeping with the fishes" meant that he had a face down view of the silt in New York's East River.
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"Plati-'Tudes" features notes and stories that may not get much play from the mainstream media; offers CU's take on issues raised by those who have an interest in the program; answers questions and concerns; and provides CU's point of view if we should disagree with what may have been written or broadcast.
Have a question or want to know CU's take on something? E-mail Dave at david.plati@colorado.edu, and the subject may appear in the next Plati-'Tudes.