Enjoying the ride while it lasts

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

Here's a cruel, but funny joke told about University of Mississippi football: How many Ole Miss alumni does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: Six...One to change the bulb, and five to sit around and reminisce about how great the old lightbulb used to be.

Faded glory is the common litter of history. Ole Miss alumni are among the most loyal and generous college fans, but the Rebel program that was a major bowl fixture between the end of World War II and 1969 ended its proud ride abruptly after winning the Sugar Bowl in 1970. Since then they have seen only an Independence Bowl or two, maybe one Liberty Bowl. I don't remember.

I'm told that there was a coaching change or a change in administration; there are differing accounts. In any case, something happened in 1970, and Ole Miss football rocketed straight into the ground despite the exceptional alumni attention.

We Seminole fans, sunning ourselves as we do in the warmth of championships and an unbeaten bowl record that nearly pre-dates this year's freshman class, are not eager to contemplate the day when that light may cool. The paths of glory are convoluted trails, and when we follow them, the only thing of which we may be certain is that there will be some breathtaking and sudden turns.

We should not pass too lightly over the fact that the University of Miami's largest home crowd last season was under 58,000 and came against Division I-AA Florida A&M. What's more, the A&M crowd was larger by more than 10,000 than the season's second largest crowd, the 47,544 effort against conference rival Syracuse.

The job of Seminole Boosters has always been to support and enhance the athletic program. Over the past 20 years our strategy has focused more sharply on taking advantage of the phenomenal successes of Bobby Bowden's teams. We have literally built the house with the masonry of winning seasons.

Our goals have changed dramatically. Twenty years ago our goal was to raise enough money each year to underwrite the Athletic Department budget, which routinely ran at a deficit. A second goal was to add seats incrementally to our stadium so we could continue to compete with our rivals, and to accommodate a growing alumni demand.

Today, our primary goals are to pay off the debt on what is now the handsomest college football stadium in America and to fully endow scholarships for all men's and women's sports at FSU. Our success in both cases will protect us against the day when our fortunes reverse course.

It's not just our goals that have changed; our problems have changed. Twenty years ago we worked hard to get people to come to the games, but the problems that had to be overcome were a losing record and lack of tradition. Today, we work hard to get people to come to the games, but the problems are that the Seminoles are on television so much, and Tallahassee is a long drive from almost anywhere. This fall, the Seminoles will be nationally or regionally televised every game, home and away. We will play nine of 11 games in the state of Florida.

Twenty years ago, we couldn't get comprehensive print and electronic media coverage of games or even routine updates and analysis. Some of that had to do with the fact that we had not yet established ourselves with a winning tradition, and some of it had to do with who has and who does not have a journalism school. Today, we still fight for coverage, but our problem isn't dominance by Gators or Hurricanes; these days we fight for air time and copy space against Dolphins, Buccaneers, Jaguars, Marlins, Devil-Rays, Tiger Sharks, Lightning. Even ice hockey (ice hockey!) has made huge inroads into a state where the only snow plow you'll ever see is in a museum.

It takes a long time to build a college athletic program of enduring strength. When a program goes south, it usually happens very quickly, and, unless there's some sort of containment structure, well, the slide can become an avalanche and tumble a long way down the mountain.

We are the support beams, the containment structure. Seminole Boosters are the defense against long-term damage from a bit of bad luck. Notre Dame has had its ups and downs. So has Michigan, and others. The downs will come; we make sure the ups will follow again soon after.

The oft heard lament in life is "I never saw it coming." I think we have to take the approach that we are not going to "see" anything coming; we have to assume that it's out there, disguised, and that it's going to show up for a visit sooner or later and we had best be prepared.

You and I remember when the University of Texas was a major player on the national college football stage. In the 1984 pro draft, the Longhorns had 17 players drafted, an incredible number, and a record that still stands for the number of players taken in a single draft. I wonder how many among the Longhorn faithful of 1984 foresaw Texas's quick exit from the national scene. Oh, they've come up for air a few times since then, but there's been no Jan.1 bowl win since 1982, and Earl Campbell had already left the corral before the current crop of Longhorn recruits was born.

These are great days for the Seminoles; we are riding high on the tide of fortune. There are those at the university and among the loyal alumni whose primary focus is on delaying as long as possible that day when some fellow from another school can begin his column by saying: Let me tell you a sad but funny joke that's going around about Florida State.