New AD named

Rob, you "nailed it" re: Fr. Brooks. Can't say I knew the man well. Had one long, extended conversation with him in Ohio right after he left the presidency succeeded by Fr. Reedy, as he went to Columbus for a presidential reception that Reedy didn't like to go to and that was part of the deal per Brooks, for like the first year that he would do those for him. We talked about my son applying to HC. Fr. Brooks promised me he would look at my sons app and based on what I told him, he said not to worry about his admission (he was accepted and graduated).

I can also tell you that until he was too ill to go, he would attend every home basketball game and sat directly across from me (along, mostly, with his two sisters). Anyone who doesn't think he was a strong supporter of HC athletics is flat out wrong. But, his decision about college athletics and the Big East was indeed flawed and likely influenced by Harvard. But, he was a strong person and I would be willing to bet big bucks that on his deathbed he still thought he made the right decision. He had the guts to make a decision and take responsibility. That characteristic is in short supply in these days. Always someone else's fault when things don't go right. 

I wish Fr. Markey would publish Fr. Brooks' letter response to Alan Dershowitz basically telling him to go take a flyer because he (Alan) felt "offended" by the HC Crusader and told Brooks to get rid of it. 

P.S. Rich Little used to do a great impression of John Wayne as a WWII Marine officer giving an inspiring speech to the troops about taking an enemy hill which was a semi-suicidal mission. At the end of the inspirational speech he says very slowly " . . . . and I wish I was going with you . . . " That always reminded me of Fr. Brooks' decision on the Big East and "big time" athletics and "not in the entertainment business" (always taken out of context) that Brooks thought others would follow HC's lead . . . . and they didn't. 

I have generally not participated in the discussions about the Brooks decision not to join the BE and I am always unhappy when people criticize him for it. He was, far and away, the best President in the history of the College. He put it on firm financial footing and made it the school it is today.

We could have joined the Big East. Unfortunately, it would not have worked out well. Consider the original 1979 Big East members and the two that were added in the first few years.

BC--medium sized university, had a night school for athletes who couldn't make the grade (JM, men's hoops)
UConn--large university, able to get any athlete admitted
Georgetown--large university, able to get almost anyone admitted-no football
Providence--smaller, few admissions issues, no football
St. John's --medium sized university no football, not sure about admissions challenges
Seton Hall--medium sized university no football, not many admissions challenges
Syracuse--large university
Villanova (1980)--medium university disbanded football just after joining
Pitt (1982)--large university

We would have been the smallest school and offering the most sports. We would have had to compete in the BE in the various "minor" sports which would have necessitated substantial travel and scholarship expense or the dropping of football or the dropping of a large number of men's sports. (You would have had to keep the women's sports to offset the football scholarships. The BE was created just as schools starting to comply with Title IX.)

Joining the BE would have been fun and with hindsight we know that it would have generated enough income to pay for most of the expenses of the other sports. The overnight travel for the various teams and the academic compromises that would entail was likely an issue as well. Recall that in those days soccer, baseball, softball, volleyball, lacrosse rarely played out of New England and all played schedules that regularly included D2 schools. Recall also that the women's programs were being run in a D2/3 atmosphere at that time. Now, when we joined the Colonial League several years later we took on greater travel than the original BE demanded, but I doubt Father Brooks saw that coming when he made the BE decision.

The College's endowment was under $10 million at the time. Tuition rose quickly in the years following that and I am sure that he knew that was coming. (IIRC, it was $6850 in 1980 and almost $11,000 by the time I graduated four years later.) I get why he wouldn't go for it.

I think that the one way the College could have pulled it off would be to drop football. Then, there would not be the Title IX pressure and they could have fully funded a few sports for both men and women and left the others with limited scholarships or less.

He didn't think the College could afford it either financially or academically. If they had $100 million in the bank in 1979, maybe he would have done things differently but I guess we will never know.

I suspected that.  I should also point out that the decision was made just before college basketball really took off as ESPN began covering it nonstop and March Madness became a thing.  Perhaps Father Brooks should have seen it coming, but I can't blame him for not reading the tea leaves properly.

"There is no present or future-- only the past, happening ovah and ovah again--now."

Once said by another pain-in-the-ass Irishman like myself... Happy weekend boys!

I guess...I just think the quality of basketball in the PL is not good. It's ugly. Goes back to my opinion that the PL just can't recruit enough high-caliber athletes. They are out there...just go other places that have more appeal.

This is a debate on every campus in the US. There is always a battle between academics and athletics. Some college tilt one way more than others.

IMO HC has been titled WAY too far away from athletics. The school at times seems ashamed, it's getting better recently, of it's successes in the past. Hopefully Marcus can be a catalyst for the campus community embracing and working with the athletic program. When Brooks made his decision back in the day it gave the academics the green light to dominate and influence the athletic department in a way that just crushed it. I truly believe change has started but things move slow up there.

I did not realize that the College's endowment was under $10 million at the time. Things were precarious.

Good point.  BC may have bitten off more than it can chew with the ACC, UMass must be kicking itself in the last three letters of it's name over their FBS predicament, UConn has it's face pressed up against the glass looking in at it's former league mates enjoying dinner in fancy power conferences, and Bryant, Merrimack, UML, etc. have all jumped divisions seeking the right fit.  So we are not alone in our angst and as MM67 points out we have positives in the PL as well. 

Ummm....

"Georgetown--large university, able to get almost anyone admitted-no football." Georgetown was not and is not a large university. Its undergraduate population is comparable to Villanova. While its admit rate then was 35% (now 14%), it was not able to admit anyone it wanted and the 1982 Div. II national title team at UDC is evidence of that. have the And yes, it had Div. III football.

"St. John's --medium sized university no football, not sure about admissions challenges." St. John's was (and is) twice the size of Georgetown and is the second largest Catholic university in the nation (trailing only DePaul). It too had Div. III football at this time and joined Georgetown in I-AA in 1993, only to opt for a scholarship program in the 1990's that sank of its own weight.

"Seton Hall--medium sized university no football, not many admissions challenges." Seton Hall played football through the 1982 season. In fact, the only school without football of some kind was Providence.

"We would have had to compete in the BE in the various "minor" sports which would have necessitated substantial travel and scholarship expense or the dropping of football or the dropping of a large number of men's sports." Actually, no. The Big East took many years to add all minor sports in conference play, scholarships were not required outside basketball and soccer, and there were teams playing schedules outside of the Big East (e.g., Providence volleyball, Georgetown field hockey, and Miami baseball) well into the late 1990's. Not sure how much "substantial travel" would have been involved in the 1980's given that the BE and Patriot footprints were substantially comparable, save an occasional trip to Pittsburgh.

"He didn't think the College could afford it either financially or academically. If they had $100 million in the bank in 1979, maybe he would have done things differently but I guess we will never know."  Georgetown's endowment in 1976 was a mere $46 million. It not only survived the Big East, it thrived. There is no reason (other than a hagiography of the Brooks era) to think HC could not have thrived as well.

As said above, there were many others that were not admitted. Earl Jones (1st round selection of the LA Lakers) and Michael Britt (2nd round, Washington Bullets) are two notable examples in that era.

While you may associate Eric Floyd with later names, he was a solid student and graduated with an AB in Government in 1982. His teammate, Ron Blaylock, became one of the nation's largest independent underwriters on Wall Street.

www.blackenterprise.com/45-moments-that-changed-black-business-no-39-changing-the-corporate-underwriting-game/

Providence gave up football following Pearl Harbor.

Georgetown did not have a football team between 1951 and 1970, and resumed at Div III. GU moved to Div I in 1993. Football was not 'big' at GU at the time the Big East was formed.

Villanova ended football in 1981, reinstated the sport in 1984 at the Div III and JV level, and moved to Div I in 1987. In the 1970s, Villanova was an independent, and had no conference affiliation.

Both Georgetown and Villanova's termination of football at the time resulted from TPTB at both schools concluding the school could not financially support the sport.

Quite likely, IMO, the cost of HC joining the BE would be the dropping of football and ice hockey. In 1975, HC's football record was 1-10.

Georgetown in 2017-18 spent $15.6M on M/W basketball, 50 percent of the amount GU spent on all its sports (including football (without scollies) and no ice hockey).

In that same year, HC spent $3.9M on M/W basketball, a bit over 30 percent of the total spending on all sports. Georgetown spent $3.3M more on M/W basketball than HC spent on all sports, including basketball.

If Georgetown's average attendance for 18 home games was 10,000 per game, and the average price per ticket was $25*, the ticket revenue would be $4.5M.
(* The average ticket price is probably significantly higher. Georgetown's average attendance in 2018-19 was 7,531, which includes students.)

I have an overwhelming sense that residents of Greater Worcester who yearn for HC being a member of the BE would also be unlikely to spend the $$$$ to attend Big East member HC's games at the DCU.. For 2019-20, the Georgetown season ticket price for a single mid court seat runs between $1200 and $2200, the higher priced being closer to the court.