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POINT AFTER
Death BU Not
Proud
Boston University's lame-duck football team shows its
lame-brain chancellor true grit
by Gerry
Callahan
Posted: Tue November 11, 1997
Boston University played football for 91 years before some astute
administrators discovered two very disturbing facts about
the
game:
- It costs
money.
- Women don't play
it.
Armed with such damaging
revelations, high-ranking school officials
suggested last month that the board of
trustees eliminate the sport. A vote was taken. The plug
was pulled on the football program, and part of a
university died. On Oct. 25,
immediately following a
28-7 loss to
Northeastern in BU's homecoming game, the
Terriers' players and their parents were told that football
was dead. The 1997 season would be the last for the Division I-AA BU, which was 12-1 just four years ago.
"Basically they looked at the bottom line and made a
coldhearted business decision," said Terriers strong
safety and co-captain Randy Smith. "College football
isn't supposed to be just another
coldhearted
business."
While it has enjoyed considerable success over the years,
the Boston University football program couldn't escape the
crosshairs of chancellor John Silber, an arrogant little
despot who can't handle the fact that Howard Stern is
BU's most accomplished alumnus. When Silber arrived at the
school in 1970, he wanted to eliminate the football
program. Last month, as the Terriers struggled (they are
2-18 in the last two seasons), he finally succeeded.
"University of Paris, University of
Oxford, University of Cambridge have gotten along
remarkably well and never had football," Silber was
quoted as saying in the
The Daily Free
Press, BU's student
paper.
As a reason for the decision, Silber cited poor attendance
at Nickerson Field and said some of the money spent on
football (this season the program, with a budget of $3
million, will run a $2.9 million deficit) would be
reallocated to women's athletics
and eight "high-priority" sports, including crew,
field hockey and soccer. On the day the news broke of
football's demise, the attendance at the BU-Northeastern
game at Nickerson was 2,025. Six days later, on the same
field, the Terriers women's soccer
team drew 28 people for a game against Delaware.
"Silber doesn't think football and academics can
coexist, but he just doesn't understand," says
sophomore fullback Mike Germino. "Football teaches you
things you don't learn in class. It teaches you drive,
determination, teamwork. You learn not to quit.
Obviously that's something Silber and all the trustees
wouldn't
understand."
A lot of the
Terriers' players will transfer (under NCAA rules they won't be
forced to sit out a year), and BU announced that it will
honor the scholarships of those who choose to stay and
finish their degrees there. While it seemed to be the least
the
school can do, Silber considered it a magnanimous gesture.
Now, he said to
The Daily Free
Press, a player "never has to play football again, doesn't
have to risk injury, doesn't have to spend his time in
practice" and still could keep his scholarship. It
might come as a surprise to Silber that some students
actually
want to play football. "He thinks football is just a bunch
of thugs who beat each other up every fall," said
Germino, standing in the locker room after last Saturday's
game against UMass. "I wish he would have come in
here. I wish he could have understood
what it's all
about."
On Nov.
1, for a game at Connecticut, the Terriers protested BU's
decision by discarding their usual game shirts in favor of
generic white jerseys provided by unhappy alumni. Some
players taped an X over the BU logo on their pants and
called themselves
University X. They lost the game
45-7 but won the support of the BU
community.
Last Saturday, in their final home game, the Terriers went
back to their red jerseys and blew out UMass
33-8 in a driving rainstorm for their first win of the season.
More than 3,000 people showed up to say goodbye, and many
were still around at the end—cold, soaked to the bone and
unwilling to give up on 91 years of football without a
fight. As the game
ended, they poured onto the field, surrounded the players and
serenaded them with one last, loving chant: "Silber
sucks! Silber sucks!" The players laughed and cheered,
and some even joined
in.
Hey, chancellor, check it out: You can take football away
from your school, but that still
don't make it Oxford.
Bababooey.
Illustration by Evangelos
Viglis
Issue date: November 17, 1997
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