Hope as a Strategy (Part II)
[Originally posted in Fall 2003]
There were 2 key university athletics decisions made by UCF’s 1st president, Dr. Charles Millican, ones that shaped the long process that leads to where we are today – the establishment of an intercollegiate athletics program, and the construction of our first major athletic facility.
When then-FTU decided to make its foray into college sports it initially did so at the club level, run out of the College of Education’s PE Department. We entered the Division II ranks a year or two later, and cemented our status in that division by co-creating the Sunshine State Conference (along with Rollins, Eckerd, Biscayne, Florida Southern & St. Leo) in 1975. That decision was completely in character with Millican’s education-first principles, staid Baptist-preacher personality and general laid-back modus operendi. We would remain D-II for another decade – with its attendant D-II operational, budgetary, facilities and booster mindset – until a desire to upgrade football to D-IAA in 1985 forced the rest of UCF sports to prematurely (belatedly?) move up to D-I to meet NCAA eligibility requirements.
To our west, USF decided early on to move to D-I – with its attendant D-I operational, budgetary, facilities and booster mindset – and by 1975 became a charter member of the Sun Belt Conference along with the likes of UNC-Charlotte, Western Kentucky and Jacksonville, all then strong basketball programs. They later would join the Metro Conference along with FSU, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati and Memphis State – the Metro would later form the basis for what is now CUSA (notice the contrasts already?).
Also in the early 1970’s - relatively early in the athletic history of both schools - the state (Board of Regents, if I recall correctly) made the following limited-time offer: If local city/county governments were willing to fund its construction, the university system would donate the land and architectural services to build a 10,000+ seat arena on local campuses for both university and community use.
Established schools UF and FSU, and one young school (USF) leaped at the opportunity. Working with their respective local governments the O’Connell Center, the Tallahassee-Leon Civic Center, and the Sun Dome were built, and all completed somewhere around 1980.
Maybe being 7-years younger than USF played a role here, but for whatever reason UCF either chose not to pursue that option or was unable to convince the local fathers upon the need for such a facility. Our administration chose instead to request state funding for an 8,000 seat stand-alone facility. Through the course of subsequent budget cuts and design changes the capacity was reduced to 5,000, and then became the 1,800 seat Teaching Gymnasium attached to the Education Building.
“The House That Chuck Built” opened in 1977 for our Division II program, and became a decade-long symbol of our “aspirations.”
Meanwhile, USF leveraged their facility and D-I status into their early conference affiliations.
[Originally posted in Fall 2003]
There were 2 key university athletics decisions made by UCF’s 1st president, Dr. Charles Millican, ones that shaped the long process that leads to where we are today – the establishment of an intercollegiate athletics program, and the construction of our first major athletic facility.
When then-FTU decided to make its foray into college sports it initially did so at the club level, run out of the College of Education’s PE Department. We entered the Division II ranks a year or two later, and cemented our status in that division by co-creating the Sunshine State Conference (along with Rollins, Eckerd, Biscayne, Florida Southern & St. Leo) in 1975. That decision was completely in character with Millican’s education-first principles, staid Baptist-preacher personality and general laid-back modus operendi. We would remain D-II for another decade – with its attendant D-II operational, budgetary, facilities and booster mindset – until a desire to upgrade football to D-IAA in 1985 forced the rest of UCF sports to prematurely (belatedly?) move up to D-I to meet NCAA eligibility requirements.
To our west, USF decided early on to move to D-I – with its attendant D-I operational, budgetary, facilities and booster mindset – and by 1975 became a charter member of the Sun Belt Conference along with the likes of UNC-Charlotte, Western Kentucky and Jacksonville, all then strong basketball programs. They later would join the Metro Conference along with FSU, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati and Memphis State – the Metro would later form the basis for what is now CUSA (notice the contrasts already?).
Also in the early 1970’s - relatively early in the athletic history of both schools - the state (Board of Regents, if I recall correctly) made the following limited-time offer: If local city/county governments were willing to fund its construction, the university system would donate the land and architectural services to build a 10,000+ seat arena on local campuses for both university and community use.
Established schools UF and FSU, and one young school (USF) leaped at the opportunity. Working with their respective local governments the O’Connell Center, the Tallahassee-Leon Civic Center, and the Sun Dome were built, and all completed somewhere around 1980.
Maybe being 7-years younger than USF played a role here, but for whatever reason UCF either chose not to pursue that option or was unable to convince the local fathers upon the need for such a facility. Our administration chose instead to request state funding for an 8,000 seat stand-alone facility. Through the course of subsequent budget cuts and design changes the capacity was reduced to 5,000, and then became the 1,800 seat Teaching Gymnasium attached to the Education Building.
“The House That Chuck Built” opened in 1977 for our Division II program, and became a decade-long symbol of our “aspirations.”
Meanwhile, USF leveraged their facility and D-I status into their early conference affiliations.
