New President!!

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Originally Posted by revf

This.

The LAST thing that traditional 4 year universities have to offer is the EXPERIENCE.

Greek life, Campus life, Tonk, Concerts, Athletics, Clubs. This is where Tech did excel and could excel, but has done everything they could to diminish the campus experience over the past decade.

Our men’s basketball team used to pack them in. Now we can’t get them to come for giveaways.

We’ve abandoned the idea of creating an identity for our school and just made it as generic as ULM down the road.

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Me and two of my sons went to the NTX game in Ruston, and it was dead as a hammer. From about 2010-2015, the tailgating at Tech was fun, the atmosphere was fun, people were into the games, it was just different. That same period was great for basketball and a large portion of it was great for baseball too. Tech Athletics as a whole are as far down as I've seen since the mid 90's when I really started becoming an avid Tech fan.

Is it just me, or did we start losing steam when we joined CUSA? We lost some long standing fairly headed rivalries. Really the only rivalry we had in CUSA was USM.

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Originally Posted by techman05

Is it just me, or did we start losing steam when we joined CUSA? We lost some long standing fairly headed rivalries. Really the only rivalry we had in CUSA was USM.

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I think when we joined the CUSA all of our momentum stalled. Our leadership thought we had “arrived”

Like we finally made the cool kids club so let’s just coast.

Is it just me or did the Tech sports push die with the passing of Dr. guthrie Jarrell?

Tech sports bottomed out 3 AD hires ago and is still there.

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Originally Posted by Bone_afide_Dawg

Tech sports bottomed out 3 AD hires ago and is still there.

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4 of last 5...

If not for this board, I would never know anything about Wood. McClelland was so bad I've forgotten everything about BVDV's tenure. BVDV's short tenure would have you think he was terrible, but then he was around for Dykes attempts to turn us around.

Dooley pulled Reneau and the monied to do more, kicking, screaming, and still reluctant. He was never going to stick around long-term.

There's a reason the JOakes was on us. I'd say we're still in the hole he created. Without the constant pulling of another like Dooley, without actual success, without actual buy in and vision from the leadership, without new money, we'll never crest that hole.

Talk about the ADs, but . . . what calvary of top boosters forced the issues? i.e. the original "Boat People", the notable cruise by several millionaires along the Ouachita River determining the transition from College Division to Major Division.
Who has taken their place?
Even Dr. Jarrell had the power to prevent Tech-ULM matchups pushing the university to separate the two. That's miraculous in itself as the majority of the families who had him birth their babies had allegiances to one or the other.

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Originally Posted by Dawgpix

Talk about the ADs, but . . . what calvary of top boosters forced the issues? i.e. the original "Boat People", the notable cruise by several millionaires along the Ouachita River determining the transition from College Division to Major Division.
Who has taken their place?
Even Dr. Jarrell had the power to prevent Tech-ULM matchups pushing the university to separate the two. That's miraculous in itself as the majority of the families who had him birth their babies had allegiances to one or the other.

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I've never heard of this. Story?

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Originally Posted by Blue Dawg

I've never heard of this. Story?

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Paul Miller was the AD. It was in 1987 shortly after Reneau became president. At least $500,000 was needed to expand the stadium to over 30,000 seats to meet the I-A requirement.

Tech also needed season ticket and single game commitments to get past the minimum number of tickets sold at the time to achieve I-A status.

The cruise was used to get everyone together to lay out the plan and attempt to fund it.

The stadium expansion happened just before the 1988 season. The ticket push took several meetings into the 1988 season to ensure the requirements were met.

The NCAA called Reneau the afternoon of the football banquet in January, 1989 to tell him Tech had achieved the requirements and were going to be reclassified I-A in 1989. We were only the second school to move up at that point. Akron was the other.

Then Reneau announced it at the banquet that night.

(Been tied up all day since I posted this morning.)

Yes, Historian.
A good summary.
We needed 30,000 capacity of The Joe and higher game attendance to go with it. So, yes, we bought our way into I-A thanks to that organized boatload of Boo$ter$.

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Originally Posted by Dawgpix

Is it just me or did the Tech sports push die with the passing of Dr. guthrie Jarrell?

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This gets my vote.

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Originally Posted by The Historian

Paul Miller was the AD. It was in 1987 shortly after Reneau became president. At least $500,000 was needed to expand the stadium to over 30,000 seats to meet the I-A requirement.

Tech also needed season ticket and single game commitments to get past the minimum number of tickets sold at the time to achieve I-A status.

The cruise was used to get everyone together to lay out the plan and attempt to fund it.

The stadium expansion happened just before the 1988 season. The ticket push took several meetings into the 1988 season to ensure the requirements were met.

The NCAA called Reneau the afternoon of the football banquet in January, 1989 to tell him Tech had achieved the requirements and were going to be reclassified I-A in 1989. We were only the second school to move up at that point. Akron was the other.

Then Reneau announced it at the banquet that night.

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I call BS on this story. This makes it look like something good happened in athletics on Reneau's watch, and we all know nothing good occurred during his tenure. So, no, I refuse to believe this obviously concocted tale.

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Originally Posted by The Historian

Paul Miller was the AD. It was in 1987 shortly after Reneau became president. At least $500,000 was needed to expand the stadium to over 30,000 seats to meet the I-A requirement.

Tech also needed season ticket and single game commitments to get past the minimum number of tickets sold at the time to achieve I-A status.

The cruise was used to get everyone together to lay out the plan and attempt to fund it.

The stadium expansion happened just before the 1988 season. The ticket push took several meetings into the 1988 season to ensure the requirements were met.

The NCAA called Reneau the afternoon of the football banquet in January, 1989 to tell him Tech had achieved the requirements and were going to be reclassified I-A in 1989. We were only the second school to move up at that point. Akron was the other.

Then Reneau announced it at the banquet that night.

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Great story. Can't believe I never heard it. You'd think there'd be a bronze basrelief plaque of the event at the stadium.

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Originally Posted by The Historian

Paul Miller was the AD. It was in 1987 shortly after Reneau became president. At least $500,000 was needed to expand the stadium to over 30,000 seats to meet the I-A requirement.

Tech also needed season ticket and single game commitments to get past the minimum number of tickets sold at the time to achieve I-A status.

The cruise was used to get everyone together to lay out the plan and attempt to fund it.

The stadium expansion happened just before the 1988 season. The ticket push took several meetings into the 1988 season to ensure the requirements were met.

The NCAA called Reneau the afternoon of the football banquet in January, 1989 to tell him Tech had achieved the requirements and were going to be reclassified I-A in 1989. We were only the second school to move up at that point. Akron was the other.

Then Reneau announced it at the banquet that night.

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And Miller broke down crying. The NCAA required an audit of the ticket requirement and Tech hired me to do it. I did the NCAA required audit for 2-3 years after that, but got tired of dealing with the legislative auditor. I had high hopes for Tech, which Reneau eventually crushed.

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Originally Posted by dawg80

I call BS on this story. This makes it look like something good happened in athletics on Reneau's watch, and we all know nothing good occurred during his tenure. So, no, I refuse to believe this obviously concocted tale.

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LMAO! He undid any good he was arm-twisted into by firing Miller and hiring LSU HOF’er Jerry Stovall.

Not to mention he let Tommy Joe Eagles get away over a $25k difference. Reneau had the vision of a blind man.