So did NIU, back in the days of Jane Albright (up to the mid-1990s). In fact, NIU wbb once held the Illinois college wbb attendance record for a single game (over Uof, IllSt, DePaul, everyone). I was at a home game with standing room only, and the fire marshal closed the doors for safety reasons, with several hundred people still outside the fieldhouse (capacity about 6,000). Fortunately I had a ticket/seat.

Then Albright left. AD Carey Groth left. The Huskie Club got "institutionalized" and became the Huskie Athletic Association became today's HAF, and it got to be all about money and not people (i.e., the fans).

BG sounds like it never lost those people-to-people connections. Easy to lose, hard to get back, especially when nobody except a few die-hard fans seem interested.