Football Program

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- He had been gone more than two years, a wisp of a man who spent 11 seasons here and, like many of the legendary coaches preceding him, became larger than life at Notre Dame. But when Lou Holtz returned to the campus one day last spring, it was as if he had never left.Holtz had come to give a motivational speech for 200 people at the business school. It turned into an impromptu pep rally for more than 500, including a horde of students that was barely out of grade school when Holtz led the Fighting Irish to their last national championship in 1988.

The Towson State football program is in for more changes. Another new league, another batch of new opponents.Only this time, the direction is different. Five years ago, there was talk of the university dropping football for financial reasons. Now, the Tigers are moving forward, as evidenced by yesterday's announcement that Towson State had been accepted as an associate member of the Division I-AA Patriot League, beginning in 1997.By then, its two-year commitment with the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference-Intercollegiate Football Conference will have run out. And the Tigers will be ready to join a league known for its "quality football and academic excellence," said Towson State president Dr. Hoke L. Smith.

The NCAA will convene next week to consider a controversial proposal for a new low-cost version of Division I football. The chance of its passing is considered 50-50. But no matter how the vote turns out, Towson State says it will be playing that brand of football in 1993."I think the proposal will pass," Towson State athletic director Bill Hunter said yesterday. "But if it should not, our plans are to be part of a group of 20 East Coast Athletic Conference schools that will use the same guidelines."

FROM now until June, intercollegiate athletics will be in full bloom, with all the pageantry that has come to represent the industry. This is also the season when the investigative arm of the National Collegiate Athletic Association embarks on its annual campaign of cops and robbers, tracking down reports of misdeeds and questionable maneuvers by representatives of ambitious athletic departments.The college football season is barely four weeks old and word is already circulating that Auburn University may soon be receiving a preliminary letter of inquiry from the NCAA concerning the university's football program.

The NCAA has placed Howard University's football program on probation for two years and barred it from postseason competition next year.But the NCAA said the sanctions could have been worse if the school hadn't triggered the probe that prompted the penalties.In a 10-page report issued late Monday, the NCAA's Infractions Committee detailed a string of violations involving player eligibility and student aid.The penalties stem from violations under former coach Willis Jeffries, the NCAA said.

Towson State appears to be on the verge of suspending its football program after 22 seasons. The athletic department could face a deficit of more than $250,000 at the end of this school year, and the quickest way to get back in the black would be to suspend football, which had a scholarship budget of $330,000 this year.If it is suspended, the football program could return in a year or two at a lower level of competition, where players would get fewer scholarships, or perhaps no scholarships at all.About 500 people attended an open forum yesterday on campus, and most urged that the program be saved.

On a rainy day in Maryland, the sun shone on Towson State University football yesterday.After a lengthy debate over procedural matters, the University Senate voted, 12-6 (with one abstention), to continue a program that has been fighting for its survival for two months.It was a victory for the task force of alumni and parents of current players seeking to raise funds to save football, threatened by a projected deficit in the athletic department budget.All six student members of the Senate voted to retain the program with the faculty splitting its votes.

The Intercollegiate Athletic Committee at Towson State will meet Tuesday with the alumni group attempting to raise sufficient funds to save the football program at the school.Jim Holdridge, leader of the alumni group, said a presentation will be made to the nine-member IAC, which voted 8-1 last month to suspend Tigers football in the wake of a projected $257,000 deficit in the athletic department.The IAC later withdrew its recommendation before the University Senate, and was granted a delay to consider more information relating to the matter.

Villanova's football program was living on borrowed time. Telltale signs were the red ink that flowed over financial statements, the apathy that infiltrated the student body.Reports of the program's demise may have been premature at the start of the 1980s, but by the spring of 1981 they proved numbingly accurate.It was in April of that year when the university's board of trustees unceremoniously turned thumbs down on football. The decision was made in the early afternoon on a Tuesday. It wasn't until 8 that night that coach Dick Bedesem found out. And as legend has it, he was in the home of a recruit at the time.

The Intercollegiate Athletic Committee at Towson State University, which voted last month to advise the University Senate to drop the school's football program, reversed itself yesterday and will recommend that the sport be continued.The IAC's action came after it heard a presentation from alumni and parents of current players who are seeking to raise sufficient money to continue the football program."We pretty much resolved things," said student Laura Hulse, a member of the IAC. "We will take a new recommendation to the Senate."

COLLEGE PARK - - The father of starting quarterback Chris Turner started a message board thread on a fan Web site last weekend urging that Maryland replace Debbie Yow as athletic director. "Get rid of Yow" was the title of the thread on insidemd sports.com. "I just fully support the football program," John Turner said in an interview Tuesday in which he confirmed beginning the thread. "I know I'm one small voice, but I believe in what those guys are doing and I want to stand behind them.

As part of its continued campaign to increase the size of its student body, specifically by adding more male students, Stevenson University said Friday that it will field a varsity football team next fall and begin to play games in the fall of 2010. Stevenson, which changed its name from Villa Julie College in 2008, was founded in 1947 as an all-women's school and didn't admit its first male student until 1972. In recent years, it has attempted to attract more male students in various ways and found success by adding sports such as lacrosse to its stable of Division III athletic programs.

The Hawaii football team's feel-good story is close to having a very unhappy ending - and I'm not talking about the 41-10 blowout loss to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day. That was simply a matter of Cinderella Hawaii (12-1) slamming face-first into the reality of a vastly superior opponent. Even more disappointing will be if the Warriors lose coach June Jones. His contract is running out; Jones' agent, Leigh Steinberg, said the university hadn't made a renewal offer yet, and at least one other major college program reportedly is working up a million-dollar offer.

In 1989, Ken Niumatalolo's college football career, a frustrating four-year ride at Hawaii, was coming to a close. It had not been the stuff that fairy tales and highlight reels are often made from. A third-string quarterback for much of his tenure, Niumatalolo was ready to move on. Already married with a newborn daughter, he was dreaming of a career in broadcasting as a sports anchor. He figured he'd spend the rest of his days in his native Hawaii and let football fade into memory. Paul Johnson, then Hawaii's offensive coordinator, had a different idea.

The phone calls start around 7 a.m. for David Marcus and Rick Peacock. What time is practice? Where do we play? What kind of equipment does my son need? Why doesn't my son get more playing time? "My cell phone is ringing off the hook non-stop until midnight," said Peacock, who runs the Anne Arundel Youth Football Association and coaches a Gambrills-Odenton Recreation Council team. Marcus, founder and president of the Brooklyn Park Broncos recreation football program, faces the same all-day litany of questions.

The Harford-Baltimore County Youth Football League is celebrating its 20th anniversary this season, and there's no question that the times are changing in local youth football. This league covers all of Harford County along with parts of Baltimore County, plus other areas nearby where teams can easily travel to play. It now covers 28 areas and 319 teams along with more than 8,000 players in nine different age groups, and it has become one of the biggest recreation football leagues in Maryland.

After nearly three decades as an assistant under five head coaches, Bill Hyson took over Francis Scott Key's football program this fall with an eye toward maintaining continuity. He's off to a good start. With his team in pursuit of its county-record seventh straight winning season, Hyson was named Ravens High School Coach of the Week last week, after his team's 49-42 upset over then-No. 12 Westminster. "I was very surprised," Hyson said. "I look at it as more a reflection on our entire coaching staff and the kids in our program over the past six or seven years."

If you're a football fan, this is, as Johnny Mathis sings, the most wonderful time of the year. If it feels as if there's an NFL or college game on every day between now and Jan. 4, it isn't far from the truth. Keeping it all in perspective will be a challenge - maybe more of a challenge than we recognize. After all, our elected and appointed leaders haven't done it. If those entrusted with maintaining priorities and focusing on what's truly important can't resist the allure of our true national pastime, then what chance do the unwashed masses have?

Bill Grau and Dan McCabe were neighbors who helped coach their kids in a youth football program in Sykesville. They enjoyed what they did, and their kids had fun, but both wondered why there wasn't a similar program where they lived. Just over four years ago, the two formed the Western Howard County Warhawks, a youth football program that started out big - and has kept growing. The program had 250 kids for its age-group teams in 2002, the club's first year of competition, and this fall enrolled about 450 players from 6 to 14. The club has become a strong feeder for several county high school teams.

PRINCESS ANNE - Once the stage for budding pro athletes and joyous crowds, the football field at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore now sits as a dormant hole in the heart of campus. "That represents empty opportunities. Football used to mean so much to that campus and now it's just an empty shell," said Kim Jones, who was a tight end at the school in the late 1970s. Jones is among a group of alumni who have launched an effort to bring the Hawks back to the field after a 25-year hiatus.