Regarding Boston College, Holy Cross, Gordie Lockbaum, and Coach Rick Carter
bcu may always struggle. It is a Catholic school, 15k students, a pretty healthy endowment of almost $4 billion. I am not sure enough of its alumni base will be interested in investing so heavily in football. UConn as the State Flagship has a larger fan base, a large tax base, large alumni base.
It got me to thinking of Holy Cross in the 1980's with its Heisman Candidate Gordie Lockbaum who has been discussed in other threads. It was at that time Holy Cross chose to deemphasize football. I was invited to the final Holy Cross vs bcu football game in Worcester and I got to see Gordie Lockbaum in action. bcu may ultimately find it necessary to go the route of Holy Cross.
I did a search and found this espn article regarding Coach Carter and how he was building Holy Cross Football and how it all came to a halt. Coach Carter went from Dayton to Holy Cross and could have gone to NC State but he was locked into Holy Cross. There were several illnesses in his family and then Coach Carter took his own life in 1986.
"It was the beginning of a rift between Carter and the school. His next contract would include an escape clause, but there was a much bigger challenge looming: The impending creation of the Colonial League (later renamed the Patriot League), led by Father Brooks himself, de-emphasized football.
"Not only would Carter not be coaching at the highest level, but his own school was taking a step back from its commitment to football."
www.espn.com
bcu may always struggle. It is a Catholic school, 15k students, a pretty healthy endowment of almost $4 billion. I am not sure enough of its alumni base will be interested in investing so heavily in football. UConn as the State Flagship has a larger fan base, a large tax base, large alumni base.
It got me to thinking of Holy Cross in the 1980's with its Heisman Candidate Gordie Lockbaum who has been discussed in other threads. It was at that time Holy Cross chose to deemphasize football. I was invited to the final Holy Cross vs bcu football game in Worcester and I got to see Gordie Lockbaum in action. bcu may ultimately find it necessary to go the route of Holy Cross.
I did a search and found this espn article regarding Coach Carter and how he was building Holy Cross Football and how it all came to a halt. Coach Carter went from Dayton to Holy Cross and could have gone to NC State but he was locked into Holy Cross. There were several illnesses in his family and then Coach Carter took his own life in 1986.
"It was the beginning of a rift between Carter and the school. His next contract would include an escape clause, but there was a much bigger challenge looming: The impending creation of the Colonial League (later renamed the Patriot League), led by Father Brooks himself, de-emphasized football.
"Not only would Carter not be coaching at the highest level, but his own school was taking a step back from its commitment to football."
The tragic tale behind a Heisman underdog
The history of Holy Cross football has a chapter that rarely gets told.
