Just my random and (warning) long thoughts on why UB 2020 should spill over to make Buffalo one of the better funded and equipped athletic departments in the MAC.
http://www.ubbullrun.com/2013/1/25/39149...crossroads
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Thanks as always to Hillbilly who has a nose for finding this stuff!
Several times in UB's history the school has seen it's Athletic department come to a crossroads. Typically they have made the wrong decision and that's why UB, an AAU member and state co-flagship, is the last such institution sitting in the ranks of the mid majors.
In 1903 the University of Buffalo was a small private medical school starting to grow other programs. The school was 10 years into their football experiment and had produced a team which was beginning to turn heads. They were strong the Syracuse, Hobart, Rochester, and most of the other upstate schools.
Then interest waned and the program dropped until 1915. UB Missed a chance to entrench themselves in the emerging Western New York sports culture while schools like Syracuse grew.
Fast forward to 1960. Buffalo, now a full fledged public university, was officially moving to the major level of college football. in the late 50's they were one of the best small school programs in the nation. Winning the Lambert Cup in 58 and coming in second in 1959.
As the campus and the school grew the anti establishment culture caused student push back, interest waned, the program was dropped in 1970,. This time UB missed out on a key era of conference formation and consolidation.
It took an amazing effort by too many to mention in one post to bring UB athletics back from the grave. From division III to division one in two decades, and back to major college football by the time the Millennium changed.
That rush to make up ground left UB underfunded and unprepared for the level of competition they would be facing. They spent their first years in the Mid American conference flailing about and in the process becoming a punchline among college football fans.
In 2008 UB righted a 50 year injustice by going to the International Bowl and bringing the surviving members of the 1958 team to the party. In 1958 the Bulls turned down a bowl invitation because their African American players would not be able to participate.
That same year the mens basketball team, led by Rodney Pierce, tied Bowling Green for the regular season conference title and lost to Akron in the conference title game.
That should have been our "small step for a man" moment. That kind of season, seven or more wins and a bowl game, should have been set as the minimum bar. Athletic Director Warde Manuel tried to set that bar when he was hired in 2005. Manuel stressed to the school that if they wanted to be division one they needed to start acting like it.
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