1998: Panel: Bring back WSU football

The effort to return football to Wichita State University took a significant step Friday. An advisory committee voted 14-3 to recommend to President Gene Hughes that he reinstate football and add three women’s sports.

“I think a lot of us made a decision to vote in terms of what clearly to us is the right thing for Wichita State, the community and the state,” said Susan Mostrous, a member of the Athletics Program Enhancement Committee.

But she added,”I guess there are some pretty long strings attached.”

That’s because the committee answered only two of the five charges Hughes laid out when he appointed the members in December 1996.

The committee recommended that football be revived and that women’s crew, soccer and swimming be started, but not until fund-raising for the programs was complete. And the group recommended starting football at the Division I-AA level - one notch lower than Kansas State and Kansas - and applying for membership in the Gateway Football Conference. The final destination for WSU, once the program was established financially and succeeding on the field, would be 1-A football.

But the committee evaded Hughes’ mandate for a timetable for implementation and for a fund-raising plan, while also voting not to serve as the leadership group for raising money. Instead, it recommended that Hughes appoint another committee to head a fund campaign.

Most of the committee members hope, however, that Friday’s vote will be the first real step in returning football to Cessna Stadium, which hasn’t seen a Shocker game since the program was discontinued after the 1986 season because of financial losses, dwindling attendance and poor performance.

“What I heard today is that the university needs a football program, period, and the university is suffering because of that,” said Herb Krumsick, a committee member who played at WSU in 1963 and 1964.

“I think it’s going to be a tough battle to raise the money, but I don’t think there’s any question that it should be done.”

Hughes was told of the committee’s decision by athletic director Bill Belknap on Friday afternoon. Once a final report is delivered, Hughes said, he will review it before determining a course of action.

“It wouldn’t be fair to comment until I get the report from Dan Foley,” Hughes said. Foley is chairman of the committee.

As committee members voiced their opinions during Friday’s meeting, it became clear that several were voting for football regardless of what two consultants’ reports had said about the advisability of adding four sports to the athletic department.

“To kill it now and say ‘no’ would be to kill it forever,” said Bill Moore, KGE president and a former player.

“I got the impression that if they didn’t vote for this, they were doing in football,” said Donna Hawley, one of three faculty members who voted against the recommendation.

One report said it would cost $11 million over a five-year period to operate football and the three women’s sports, which are needed to meet gender-equity requirements. A second report, based on surveys from boosters and workers at some of Wichita’s largest companies, said season-ticket sales would likely fall below the minimum number listed by the first report.

At other times in committee meetings, members speculated that anywhere from $15 million to $30 million would have to be raised before WSU could field a football team.

“I think if you asked the basic question 15 months ago – Do you think the university should reinitiate a football program? – I think the committee would have answered the same way,” Belknap said.

“I think in the meantime, the committee’s learned how it’s going to be difficult to finance it, how expensive it’s going to be, how it may not be able to start at the top level. So I think there were some things gained in that period of time, but I don’t think the outcome changed.”

By not forming a timetable, the committee may have helped football’s chances. Since the committee was formed, two major factors have arisen: Hughes announced that he planned to retire at the end of the year, and a $6 million drive to renovate Eck Stadium, WSU’s baseball facility, was launched.

Members of the advisory committee on football, worried about the timing of competing capital campaigns - and the level of a new president’s interest in reviving football - hope that football fund-raising can proceed at the right time.

“I think it’s going to require the president of the university to be out in front, whether it’s President Hughes or the new president,” Foley said. “He’s going to have to be in front, paving the way.”

Bob Hanson, executive director of the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission, said his organization likely would help with re-establishing the football program.

“I’m sure we would, because of the support that we’ve received from WSU,” Hanson said. “One of my agenda items is to try to put some events in Cessna Stadium.”

Hawley, director of WSU’s graduate nursing program, said she couldn’t vote for the return of football because nothing she saw indicated it would succeed, considering Hughes’ parameters of keeping the athletic department out of the red and not increasing student fees.

“I have real trouble because the data we have indicate the money’s not there,” Hawley said. “Corporate support is weak. There’s no indication that you’re going to come up with huge corporate dollars.”

But that didn’t dissuade most committee members, who broke into applause after the voting tally was read.

After 15 months and $70,000 in expenses, there had been movement.

“I walked out of there and thought, ‘OK, that took a long time, but we made an inch of progress,’ ” Mostrous said.

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 12:30 PM with the headline "1998: Panel: Bring back WSU football."