Originally Posted by
george
i was going to start a "thank you" thread, but i will say it here instead:
1. reneau, van de velde and the entire current administration - it may have taken reneau a while, but he gets it now. and all you said regarding van de velde is true. he is the key to all of this happening.
2. dykes, white, and their staffs - the basketball team getting to the conference tournament finals in white's first year and showing steady improvement all year was great. and after the hawaii football debacle last year, i left the stadium convinced we were going to tank the rest of the year, the wac would fold, and it would be "hello sunbelt" for us. amazing recovery to say the least.
3. fans in general, especially students - the students are so into it now. when i was there in the late 80's the football games seemed to be a place to be until the frat party started. it is great to see the culture change so much for the better.
4. derek dooley - he found a way to force the administration to make the athletic progam be seen as a way to improve the entire standing of the university and that has not always been easy to do around here.
5. jack bicknell - it finished very badly, but we won a wac championship in our first year in the league. it let our university know we could more than hold our own against teams that were, at the time, more "name brands" (fresno, hawaii). we really did more with less then.
6. crowton, rattay, edwards - gave us national recognition in the 90's with that amazing offense. having no conference affiliation killed us then; that was a team that should have had two or three bowls in them.
7. barmore and hogg - national recognition and national championships in the 80's. as good as it gets.
8. joe raymond peace - early in the D1 move with a lot of doubters, he put some very good teams on the field. we have to be the only university in the history of college football to lose our first game of the year by 70 points and come back to earn a bowl birth. that is good coaching.
9. f.j. taylor - when the university president sits in the front row at a lady techster game in flaming red cowboy boots and berates the refs more than barmore, i'd call that a commitment to athletics.
10. terry bradshaw - he has been an ambassador for the university for 40 years and his role now has been more significant then ever. he bleeds tech blue to the bone and pours himself into the university.
i am sure i left out a lot of deserving folks. please add to the list.