Deb Farris: WSU To Look into Bringing Football Back in Next 3-4 Years

[ShockerFever]

I'm having a hard time seeing correlation between the attendance in the 80's and the current potential of Shocker football today. My guess is that many of you that think we have no chance to be successful haven't been to a football game since the Shockers dropped the sport. Consider:

- The Wichita metro area has several hundred thousand more people now than were in the area in the 80's
- College football is HUGE. Its a much bigger deal than it was in the 80's.
- The football experience is much different than it was in the 80's. In the 80's, you showed up 30 minutes before the game, watched the game, then went home. Very similar to the current basketball experience. Now, for 50% of the people that have football season tickets, its about the tailgating more than the football. If you don't believe me, go to a KSU game and see for yourself. All parking lots are full 3 hours before game time with parties. Half the people in the stands clear out at half time and return mid-way through the 3rd quarter or later. Its not because they've left, its because they've gone back to tailgate.
- If you have college kids that you'd actually like to see once in while, tailgaiting is a great way to do it.
- I recently spent a week in Greenville, NC, (a small town in the middle of nowhere) which is the home of East Carolina U. ECU has a 50,000 seat stadium with an exterior of brick and stone that is a thing of beauty and puts KSU's stadium to shame. This in a basketball state with (4) BCS schools. If East Carolina can do it, why can't we?

If we do it...
- Need to sacrifice the golf course so we have plenty of room for the football stadium and lots of parking/tailgaiting (forget the parking garage)
- Need to declare our intention to be in CUSA or MWC in 10 years.
- Need to clearly layout the vision to every one in south central KS, and actively recruit them to be part of it.
- Engage business to help build this thing.

Remember where we start is not where we intend to finish.

Great points. I was about to mention what in the world does Shocker football attendance in 1986 have to do with potential football in 2020...

Some people just seem to be set on something just because they don't like change. They don't understand the potential football has to offer at WSU and how it can drastically change the landscape of the school. It's a weird, regressive mentality that unfortunately seems to follow a lot of Wichitans around.

[KC Shox]

Football is out of the question. Just looked at the U.S. News and World Report college rankings issue and they continue to have WSU as a tier 2 university for the umpteenth time. First and foremost is to update, modernize and implement high tech hardware to the university's infrastructure. Hire and pay for top tier professors and so on and so forth. I'd rather see WSU as having a high academic reputation rather than seeing a product which would struggle to be competitive in D1 football.

[Kung Wu]

Football is out of the question. Just looked at the U.S. News and World Report college rankings issue and they continue to have WSU as a tier 2 university for the umpteenth time. First and foremost is to update, modernize and implement high tech hardware to the university's infrastructure. Hire and pay for top tier professors and so on and so forth. I'd rather see WSU as having a high academic reputation rather than seeing a product which would struggle to be competitive in D1 football.

Give us an example of high tech hardware that WSU is missing.

[WuDrWu]

Give me an example of underpaid and overworked professors............

[Wuzee]

Give me an example of underpaid and overworked professors............

Don't know about underpaid -- but I know of a few WSU professors who handle one-on-one advising for many dozens of students in addition to meeting teaching, recruiting, outreach and academic research (publication) requirements. I'm sure it varies by department, but there are definitely some that are overworked.

[shocks02]

Don't know about underpaid -- but I know of a few WSU professors who handle one-on-one advising for many dozens of students in addition to meeting teaching, recruiting, outreach and academic research (publication) requirements. I'm sure it varies by department, but there are definitely some that are overworked.

This is definitely true. Mostly the "popular" professors.

[Wshox]

Just wish we had been lucky like the kitties to have joined the Big 6 way back when. They have been hangers on forever and finally have had some success. On the other hand if they can get 50K to show up in the middle of nowhere why can't we get that many to show up in the state's largest city IF we can put a good product on the field?

[ShockerFever]

Just wish we had been lucky like the kitties to have joined the Big 6 way back when. They have been hangers on forever and finally have had some success. On the other hand if they can get 50K to show up in the middle of nowhere why can't we get that many to show up in the state's largest city IF we can put a good product on the field?

You make some solid points.

Question though. All 4 of your posts have some sort of Kansas State reference in them. Nobody cares about them. I really hope you aren't some lame KSU troll pretending to be a WSU fan just to be able to post on here. That would be rather pathetic.

[Wshox]

You make some solid points.

Question though. All 4 of your posts have some sort of Kansas State reference in them. Nobody cares about them. I really hope you aren't some lame KSU troll pretending to be a WSU fan just to be able to post on here. That would be rather pathetic.

LOL no way - just been getting a lot of trash from my KSU friends and had them on my mind. I'll refrain from mentioning then from now on.

[shocker3]

The Shocker magazine also mentioned a game that I forgot about that drew over 28,000 in 1969:
(It was against Utah State which for other reasons should be easy to remember)

1969 — On Sat., Sept. 13 a crowd of 28,200 comes out for the inauguration of Cessna Stadium. Wichita State beats Utah State 17 to 7.

http://webs.wichita.edu/dt/shockermag/show/features.asp?_s=502


And another one that drew over 27,000 in 1976 against NIU (it was one of those season opening crowds of over 20,000 that I was talking about earlier):

1976 — Led by record-setting quarterback Sam Adkins’ 185 yards passing, the Shockers roll up 443 yards offensively on their way to a home victory, 21-0, against the Northern Illinois Huskies. This season-opening game at Cessna Stadium draws 27,311 fans.

That Northern Illinois game was the first Shocker football game that I ever went to in person. I was a freshmen at WSU and was very impressed with the big crowd and atmosphere of the game. It was much better than I expected. I had grown up as a UNL fan and didn't think Shocker football would really be worth watching.

Even so I didn't become a big Shocker football fan until the next season. It was the K-state game at Cessna stadium in 1977 that sold me on Shocker football. The Shockers definitely outplayed the Wildcats but got some bad breaks and lost the game.

Probably my favorite home Shocker football game was the 20-10 win over Oklahoma St in front of a packed Cessna stadium in 1978.

During my first 3 years of watching Shocker football, I saw the Shockers beat a ranked Tulsa team (#13 if I remember right), beat Okie State and I saw at least 4 games in a packed or nearly packed Cessna stadium (NIU, K-state, Memphis St & Okie State). I also saw Joe Williams kick a 67 yard field goal, an ncaa reocrd that I think still stands today.

[pogo]

That Northern Illinois game was the first Shocker football game that I ever went to in person. I was a freshmen at WSU and was very impressed with the big crowd and atmosphere of the game. It was much better than I expected. I had grown up as a UNL fan and didn't think Shocker football would really be worth watching.

Even so I didn't become a big Shocker football fan until the next season. It was the K-state game at Cessna stadium in 1977 that sold me on Shocker football. The Shockers definitely outplayed the Wildcats but got some bad breaks and lost the game.

Probably my favorite home Shocker football game was the 20-10 win over Oklahoma St in front of a packed Cessna stadium in 1978.

During my first 3 years of watching Shocker football, I saw the Shockers beat a ranked Tulsa team (#13 if I remember right), beat Okie State and I saw at least 4 games in a packed or nearly packed Cessna stadium (NIU, K-state, Memphis St & Okie State). I also saw Joe Williams kick a 67 yard field goal, an ncaa reocrd that I think still stands today.

I know I have said it before but my favorite games were the games I took my kids to and how much fun they had. The funny thing is they remember the Shocks winning every one of those games.

[Signman]

I'm somewhat confused! I was under the impression that the people who post here are fans of Wichita State University and would like to see it be successful. Several have posted extremely negative outlooks on the possibility of football being successful in Wichita. Not everyone can make a living being the negative thinking Bob Lutz.

I have a few questions specifically for:

Aargh
Spanglerfan316
KraRam

and others....you know who you are.

It is clear that you love our Shockers!

But,

You seem to have a great deal of apprehension about football. Or, are you just a pessimist about all things? Which is it? I have some very close friends BTW that think like you. Have you just been beaten down by the status quo like they have been? Has Jim Jones sold you on the Kool-Aid? Do you fear failure and defeat so much that you cannot act? Have the naysayers that have been in charge fed you so much of the "Party Line" that you cannot see the horizon? That you don't have a vision? Can you not see a better life? Admittedly I am Don Quixote and this is the time to fight. Do you think Gregg Marshall would have achieved what he has with that kind of negative outlook about anything?

Apparently only 25% of the Bob Lutz survey responders think we can have football here. Are we really going to let that negativity influence our life and our future?

If someone had the resources to gift "one billion" dollars for WSU football would you be excited? Would you be on board then?

Who do you want to beat? Who do we want to be?


"A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

Winston Churchill

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

I'm somewhat confused! I was under the impression that the people who post here are fans of Wichita State University and would like to see it be successful. Several have posted extremely negative outlooks on the possibility of football being successful in Wichita. Not everyone can make a living being the negative thinking Bob Lutz.

I have a few questions specifically for:

Aargh
Spanglerfan316
KraRam

and others....you know who you are.

It is clear that you love our Shockers!

But,

You seem to have a great deal of apprehension about football. Or, are you just a pessimist about all things? Which is it? I have some very close friends BTW that think like you. Have you just been beaten down by the status quo like they have been? Has Jim Jones sold you on the Kool-Aid? Do you fear failure and defeat so much that you cannot act? Have the naysayers that have been in charge fed you so much of the "Party Line" that you cannot see the horizon? That you don't have a vision? Can you not see a better life? Admittedly I am Don Quixote and this is the time to fight. Do you think Gregg Marshall would have achieved what he has with that kind of negative outlook about anything?

Apparently only 25% of the Bob Lutz survey responders think we can have football here. Are we really going to let that negativity influence our life and our future?

If someone had the resources to gift "one billion" dollars for WSU football would you be excited? Would you be on board then?

Who do you want to beat? Who do we want to be?


"A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

Winston Churchill

It's important to have a healthy apprehension about bringing back football. It will be enormously expensive and inherently risky for the entire athletic department. I believe the reward outweighs the risk only if there is a good plan on the table, everyone at the University is on the same page, and there are contingencies in place to deal with the inevitable instances where things don't go according to plan. I do agree with you in that we all have to keep open minds about this and listen to all sides, as either being blindly for or against this without hearing all the facts is counterproductive. We need more people like yourself with some vision and some passion just to get to the point when a serious discussion can be had.

[JJClamdip]

It's important to have a healthy apprehension about bringing back football. It will be enormously expensive and inherently risky for the entire athletic department. I believe the reward outweighs the risk only if there is a good plan on the table, everyone at the University is on the same page, and there are contingencies in place to deal with the inevitable instances where things don't go according to plan. I do agree with you in that we all have to keep open minds about this and listen to all sides, as either being blindly for or against this without hearing all the facts is counterproductive. We need more people like yourself with some vision, a huge checkbook, and some passion just to get to the point when a serious discussion can be had.

Fixed

[SpanglerFan316]

Signman: It's all about the money. I don't want WSU basketball, baseball, volleyball, etc. to suffer in order to bring back football, I don't want to lose any current men's sports and I don't want to see a marginal WSU football program. A strong (FBS) football program would help WSU by providing providing more scholarships for men and women, give WSU to possibility of leaving the MVC and possibly helping increase enrollment. In order to do it right, WSU needs a LOT of money upfront. Without this initial support, I am opposed to bringing back football.