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Thread: Interesting article on University of Louisville

  1. #1

    Default Interesting article on University of Louisville

    This article talks about how Louisville built there program, hope ya'll enjoy.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/sp...nt&oref=slogin

    September 16, 2006
    At Louisville, a Big-Time Program Without the Tradition
    By JOE DRAPE
    LOUISVILLE, Ky., Sept. 15 — It will be different for the Louisville athletic director, Tom Jurich, on Saturday when the Cardinals take the field against Miami. First, the game will be played in daylight. Second, it will be televised on ABC. Best of all, a Louisville victory means thoughts of a national title will live here another week.

    The Cardinals, after all, are a team with little tradition, a team that entered the nation’s consciousness recently by agreeing to play Tuesday, Thursday — any night that ESPN asked. When Jurich came here in the fall of 1997, he had to plead with Adidas to let him buy shoes and gear for the team at retail prices.

    “I offered them signs and billboards that they didn’t want just so my coaches could tell recruits that we were an Adidas school,” Jurich said.

    No more. Louisville, which now plays in the Big East Conference, has gone to a bowl game eight consecutive years.

    The rise of Louisville football has more to do with 21st-century marketing than 20th-century tradition.

    The most famous Cardinal of them all, the late Hall of Famer Johnny Unitas, played on teams that won only seven games over three seasons in the early 1950’s. The ESPN analyst Lee Corso was 28-11-3 as the coach from 1969 to 1972. Howard Schnellenberger’s record was below .500 over 10 years, but he gave Louisville one of its most memorable seasons, going 10-1 in the 1990 season and beating Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl.

    When Jurich arrived from Colorado State, he had the good fortune of inheriting a new 42,000-seat stadium, and the foresight to hire an old friend, John L. Smith, who had been the coach at Utah State and employed a wide-open, high-scoring passing game. Smith, now the coach at Michigan State, brought along an innovative offensive coordinator, Bobby Petrino.

    “It was by plan,” Jurich said. “We needed to play entertaining football on the field, and off it we needed change — no shock — to our culture.”

    Just as he had wheedled a deal with Adidas, Jurich offered his high-scoring football team to ESPN programmers. Of Louisville’s 44 television appearances since 1998, 36 have been on ESPN networks.

    “We’ve been on television every night but Monday,” he said. “It was tough on our fans, but we were reaching potential recruits and football fans.”

    Soon, however, the Louisville faithful embraced nighttime tailgating, and sellouts became the rule.

    Whether or not the 12th-ranked Cardinals ( 2-0) defeat No. 17 Miami (1-1), the university president, James Ramsey, says the team’s impact on campus goes far beyond the 71-30 record the team has posted the past eight years.

    On Friday, Ramsey held a celebration for thousands of faculty, staff and students on the lawn in front of Grawemeyer Hall. It honored goals that were met more than a year early on a 10-year academic plan. Among them were doubling the university’s endowment and increasing the number of endowed chairs and professorships.

    “The football team, and the athletics program, has helped transform this university from a financially struggling metropolitan commuter school to a major research university that is attractive to the best faculty and students in the country,” Ramsey said.

    “They have helped us raise our profile and opened up new markets for recruitment,’’ Ramsey added. “This is a very different institution than it was eight years ago.”

    The success of football has also helped Jurich raise $200 million privately for the athletic department; $16.5 million of it was spent on Cardinal Park, a multisport complex. It not only helped 12 of Louisville’s sports teams earn national rankings last year, but it increased the number of sports available to women and has become a focal point in the city because it is used by local high schools.

    The university built new dormitories and doubled the number of students living on campus. It was Louisville’s entry into the Big East last season, however, that has increased donations for academics and athletics.

    “Those two areas fuel each other,” said Harry Jones, a Louisville native who is also a former chairman of the university’s board of trustees and a major donor. “Now you’re not only catching the eyes and ears of potential students, you’re being put out in front of top-flight faculty and researchers. By raising the money and spending it, it lets them know that we’re committed to being the very best that we can be.”

    Louisville demonstrated how willing it was to pursue elite status in football last July when it signed Petrino to a 10-year, $25 million contract. He was 29-8 over three seasons, including an 11-1 mark in 2004 when the Cardinals led the nation in total offense (539 yards a game) and scoring (49.7 points a game).

    Each season, Petrino has attracted the attention of premier football schools like Auburn and L.S.U. He turned down a lucrative offer to coach the Oakland Raiders.

    “We think he’s one of the brightest minds in coaching, and we weren’t going to lose him because of dollars,” Jurich said.

    Petrino said he got the message that Louisville was committed to him, and so did the rest of college football.

    “We want to win a national championship here,” he said. “I know I can see that level of commitment, and I know the resources are here.”

    It was considered a recruiting coup when the junior quarterback Brian Brohm and the senior running back Michael Bush — each considered Heisman Trophy contenders until Bush broke his leg against Kentucky in the opener — were persuaded to stay at home and play for the Cardinals.

    Next year, another highly rated quarterback will play for Louisville: Matt Simms, the son of the former Giants quarterback Phil, and the brother of the Buccaneers quarterback, Chris.

    To Brohm, the program’s present and future seem bright, and national titles seem to be in reach.

    “I talk to recruits a lot, and they see that we have as good as talent as any other school, and as good as facilities,” Brohm said. “We’re on television, the stadium is packed and wild. Instead of living up to somebody else’s history, we have everything in place to make our own.”


  2. #2

    Default Re: Interesting article on University of Louisville

    “We’ve been on television every night but Monday,” he said. “It was tough on our fans, but we were reaching potential recruits and football fans.”

    This is what I have been saying for a while. Playing games during the week gets you into the national attention and helps expand your recruiting. It is tough but if it means building a program then why not do it.

    “The football team, and the athletics program, has helped transform this university from a financially struggling metropolitan commuter school to a major research university that is attractive to the best faculty and students in the country,” Ramsey said.

    He gets it


  3. #3

    Default Re: Interesting article on University of Louisville

    I also wanted to add that I found this article on North Texas message board but they were discussing the building of the program and a guy said Louisville is 30-14 OOC sense 1998 against teams like Illinios, Boston College, Kentucky, Colorado State, Brigham Young, Florida State, Syracuse, Army, North Carolina, Boise State, Oregon State, and Miami Florida, we have been discussing scheduling a lot on here lately but I feel I could do with scheduling a few of these schools every year.

    Florida State was the win that put them on the map..it was a Thursday night game and the whole country was able to see them beat a "Big Boy". No 4? years later they beat a big boy (Miami) and it was expected not a surprise.


  4. Default Re: Interesting article on University of Louisville

    Wow great read.

    The story is both enlightening and a little depressing knowing that UL athletics was hung out to dry on a shoe string for some 30 years so as to focus on academics. The article shows the 2 are not mutually exclusive.


  5. #5

    Default Re: Interesting article on University of Louisville

    Quote Originally Posted by Turbine
    Wow great read.

    The story is both enlightening and a little depressing knowing that UL athletics was hung out to dry on a shoe string for some 30 years so as to focus on academics. The article shows the 2 are not mutually exclusive.
    It does make you think.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Interesting article on University of Louisville

    Quote Originally Posted by Turbine
    Wow great read.

    The story is both enlightening and a little depressing knowing that UL athletics was hung out to dry on a shoe string for some 30 years so as to focus on academics. The article shows the 2 are not mutually exclusive.
    This is what it would take for Cajuns football to rise out of the lowest echelons of D1A. There is a lot of potential, if cards are played right, due to University of Louisiana name change, in hotbed for recruiting, and lack of 2nd tier major football programs in deep south.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Interesting article on University of Louisville

    Quote Originally Posted by miamicajun32
    This is what it would take for Cajuns football to rise out of the lowest echelons of D1A. There is a lot of potential, if cards are played right, due to University of Louisiana name change, in hotbed for recruiting, and lack of 2nd tier major football programs in deep south.
    Athletics enhance everything to do with the university. Winning brings more attention than anything else can. Students who r on the borderline and don't knwo where they are going might look at something as simple as how good the athletics are at the school. The biggest thing that UL should do is step outside of the box and do things that will bring more media attention the the academic side of the school.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Interesting article on University of Louisville

    Have Gerald Hebert and Authement Seen this article. If not the those who know them need to print it out and hand it to them.


  9. #9
    Just1More's Avatar Just1More is offline Ragin Cajuns of Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Greatest Fan Ever

    Default Re: Interesting article on University of Louisville

    This article needs to be posted on every wall at UL. As an engineering grad, I place a huge emphasis on academics at UL. However, it is absolutely moronic to deny the massive effect that success in athletics has on assisting a university in every single respect. In fact, many universities are routinely accused of being gifted academically strictly due to success in sports. That accusation turns into reality when unsuspecting parents of would-be high achieving students send their children off to said university, and thus a seed is planted. This is a common effect. If you have no comprehension of cause and effect, you have no business in academics.

    The old argument that a school overrun with sports enthusiasts is going to degrade the school of academic prowess is 18th century. I love college sports, and my college is UL. As a alum, I donate to the university and the sports programs. I am primarily remaining connected to the university thru sports. The university as a whole benefits. Is that a complicated concept?

    I am in a minority in not requiring my college sports program to be a premier program. I am big enough as a person to love what I love and help make my college better. Others do require affiliation with a successful sports program. I want them to join us. I want our success. We deserve it. I do not know who to blame, but this has gone on long enough. The formula is no longer a secret. Let's get a little of what Louisville has... athletic and academic success.


  10. #10

    Default Re: Interesting article on University of Louisville

    Quote Originally Posted by imperial cajun
    Have Gerald Hebert and Authement Seen this article. If not the those who know them need to print it out and hand it to them.

    Gerald is not the problem. In fact, if it weren't for Gerald, none of the facility improvements we have been seeing over the last 3 or 4 years would have been possible.

    It is the other person in your post that needs to see it. Good luck in getting him to read and/or understand the article.

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