O.J. and UCF ...
- Thread starter Knight on the Edge
- Start date
Remember like yesterday. He actually was very accommodating and very appreciative of Lou Saban saving his career with Buffalo. He roamed the kingdom one day but Hershel Walker was there in the spring for the USFL Generals with Doug Flutie. Interesting times
Having started at UCF 1985, I certainly heard a completely different story---- Saban almost killed UCF football and the disaster he left only got cleaned up with McDowell taking the HC and AD job and only 1 salary. I've always heard Saban was a killer. 6-12 record and 'resigned' halfway through his 2nd season because UCF was moving on, that is quit before being fired.
Sabin had aspirations of building the program up a lot quicker than the money availability was. He was actually a decent guy and a good coach who brought a lot of exposure to the program. You are right the money was not there and McDowell did a great job of saving the program. The A.D. at the time was Bill Peterson who was more or less trying to cash his last paycheck. He had problems with both the football and the basketball coach, as he was probably over his head in the A.D. position as he was a former coach who had no experience handling an athletic department. The problem was there was no money to build up the program as Saben wanted it to be build up to. They’re probably was no money to build up any legitimate program. McDowell did a wonderful job and for all intents and purposes saved the program. The OJ money was not enough or even close, to operate the program as Saban wanted it to.
Peterson made a mess of the basketball program as well. McDowell eventually had to take over as the AD too
I believe what really saved the football program is that McDowell connected with Wayne Densch who wrote a million dollar check that truly saved UCF football. Cheers to them!!!! Charge On!!!!
Densch was the first real donor.i think was there before McDowell but has always been a real key to UCF. U r right McDowell got the million dollar check from him Seemed to be at every game. Nice quiet man. Without him there was little money
Don Disney was another early guy but seemed to favor UF but still gave money early to UCF
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Never thought I would say OJ and "saved" in the same sentence (no pun on "sentence"). The bounce house saved this program.
Definitely! And Hitt is the man who brought that to fruition.
