Hello There, Guest! (LoginRegister)

      
Post Reply 
Bearcats sports -1980's
Author Message
Bookmark and Share
jarr Offline
Hall of Famer
*

Posts: 10,013
Joined: Mar 2004
Reputation: 171
I Root For: Not "Not Duane"
Location:
Post: #1
Bearcats sports -1980's
Curious what all the old guys who were around in the 80's take is for why both sports were so bad that decade. Just looking at the records and the Basketball team had a combined record of 125-157 with no tournament appearences, and the Football team was 33-70 and no bowls.

In many ways, it is amazing this program was able to survive so much mediocracy for an extended period of time like that and gain the success they did the following decades.
 
12-19-2017 01:06 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Advertisement


Bruce Monnin Online
Hall of Famer
*

Posts: 11,531
Joined: Feb 2006
Reputation: 157
I Root For: Cincinnati
Location: Minster, Ohio
Post: #2
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
I went to school in the late 80's, and to be honest, the whole campus was a dump, not just the sports teams. It took someone strong willed enough to make things happen, and that was Huggins and that former Florida State AD on the athletic side. Not sure who got the academics and infrastructure turned in the right direction. Was it Henry Winkler?
 
12-19-2017 01:13 PM
Visit this user's website Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
CliftonAve Offline
Heisman
*

Posts: 21,880
Joined: May 2012
Reputation: 1171
I Root For: Jimmy Nippert
Location:
Post: #3
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
(12-19-2017 01:13 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  I went to school in the late 80's, and to be honest, the whole campus was a dump, not just the sports teams. It took someone strong willed enough to make things happen, and that was Huggins and that former Florida State AD on the athletic side. Not sure who got the academics and infrastructure turned in the right direction. Was it Henry Winkler?

Joseph Steger came up with the Master Plan.
 
12-19-2017 01:15 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
rath v2.0 Offline
Wartime Consigliere
*

Posts: 51,150
Joined: Jun 2007
Reputation: 2150
I Root For: Civil Disobedience
Location: Tip Of The Mitt

Donators
Post: #4
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
I was just a lad but early 80’s BB was pretty entertaining. Hooked me on this stuff. Jelly Jones was my favorite player ever. Myron Hughes was another favorite. Ed Badger’s Jacket needs its own twitter feed. That guy was a lovely lunatic. I was less a fan of Yates’ squads despite the fact that he had some talent. But those guys were allowed to run around town with no leash.

Football was generally pretty hard to watch back then. Especially at Riverfront. Egads.
 
12-19-2017 01:20 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
UCGrad1992 Offline
Legend
*

Posts: 31,770
Joined: Sep 2013
Reputation: 2265
I Root For: Bearcats U
Location: North Carolina
Post: #5
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
(12-19-2017 01:15 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  
(12-19-2017 01:13 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  I went to school in the late 80's, and to be honest, the whole campus was a dump, not just the sports teams. It took someone strong willed enough to make things happen, and that was Huggins and that former Florida State AD on the athletic side. Not sure who got the academics and infrastructure turned in the right direction. Was it Henry Winkler?

Joseph Steger came up with the Master Plan.

Yep. I began my frosh year during the 1986/87 academic year. We used to joke that UC stood for "under concrete." Once that master plan with the greenways/natural areas took place it was an amazing transformation. I didn't even really think that UC had a football program that was to be taken seriously. The basketball program was known - although homes games were played downtown - not the best for fan interest. Once Huggs got there and the Shoe was built it was on. My guess is basketball had the backing from a national championships, Big O and tradition standpoint. Football was and remains a work in progress. My gosh football sure has come a long way though.
 
12-19-2017 01:21 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
OKIcat Offline
Heisman
*

Posts: 6,617
Joined: Sep 2015
Reputation: 185
I Root For: Cincinnati
Location:
Post: #6
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
Tony Yates was a great Bearcat himself but a (mostly) unsuccessful head coach here. I think as a UC graduate he was given too many years with too little success. Huggins made hay with Tony's players almost immediately. In football, being an independent with little success and poor facilities hindered the program. A turnaround there was helped by conference affiliation and Minter breaking through for a bowl after about a 50 year absence from the postseason.

Both basketball and football had abysmal facilities, even by 1980's standards. Huggins opened Shoemaker Center with that stunning upset of a ranked Minnesota team and a renaissance began. As someone stated earlier, President Steger began a total makeover of the campus and today we have world class buildings and green space that make it one of the nation's best.
 
12-19-2017 01:32 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Advertisement


CliftonAve Offline
Heisman
*

Posts: 21,880
Joined: May 2012
Reputation: 1171
I Root For: Jimmy Nippert
Location:
Post: #7
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
(12-19-2017 01:21 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  
(12-19-2017 01:15 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  
(12-19-2017 01:13 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  I went to school in the late 80's, and to be honest, the whole campus was a dump, not just the sports teams. It took someone strong willed enough to make things happen, and that was Huggins and that former Florida State AD on the athletic side. Not sure who got the academics and infrastructure turned in the right direction. Was it Henry Winkler?

Joseph Steger came up with the Master Plan.

Yep. I began my frosh year during the 1986/87 academic year. We used to joke that UC stood for "under concrete." Once that master plan with the greenways/natural areas took place it was an amazing transformation. I didn't even really think that UC had a football program that was to be taken seriously. The basketball program was known - although homes games were played downtown - not the best for fan interest. Once Huggs got there and the Shoe was built it was on. My guess is basketball had the backing from a national championships, Big O and tradition standpoint. Football was and remains a work in progress. My gosh football sure has come a long way though.

I came a little later in 1991.

I have done a little studying up over the years on UC athletics. It seems to me the downturn began in the 70s, culminating into a dreadful 1980s.

One of the things I noted from the 1930-early 1960s was the huge support for UC football and basketball. The UC Yearbook indicated frequent sell-outs of Nippert (25,000) and for a few games attendance hit 30,000 (XU, Miami and Ohio University, which was a big game back then). We also had something called Migration Day, where leaders from the city (The Mayor) , fans and whatnot would travel to attend a road game.

Basketball obviously speaks for itself.

I think starting in the 70s (maybe late 60s) it all started going downhill. The community stopped supporting UC athletics. The school did not upkeep the facilities and grow the programs. Campus as a whole was not updated.
 
12-19-2017 01:39 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
rosewater Offline
Heisman
*

Posts: 5,666
Joined: Feb 2008
Reputation: 158
I Root For: cincy
Location:
Post: #8
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
I loved Tony Yates. He is/was a righteous dude, but a horrible basketball coach. He had no vision and could not keep the boys together and out of trouble. I remember that the Cincinnati Post ran an article about Lou Banks chasing Cedric Glover in a menacing way with a board full of nails. The 1986 recruiting class was exceptional, but only two of the seven original members stayed with UC. Huggs was a tremendous coach. He took a depleted roster and immediately made it competitive. Would have made the Ncaa's in 90/91 but ran out of gas. 92 also makes a very good point about the importance of the Shoe. Students do/will not get on a bus and ride to a downtown location. In the mid 80's we had a 500 record but would only see about two thousand people at the games. I am so glad that we decided to refurbish 5/3rd rather than go downtown. Would have killed our program.

In regards to football, we were awful. When I first arrived in 1986 we had a competitive team. Alex Gordon was a pro linebacker for many years. Danny McCoin and Reggie Taylor were near misses in the league. We were competitive against decent teams. In 86 Penn State won the NCAA and we were competitive for four quarters against them. We fell off a cliff in 87 and fell off another cliff in 88. We would get destroyed by not only the giants, but teams like Morehead State and Indiana State had passed our program. We fired the coach and dug out to certain degree by 1993. By that time Minter had arrived and IMHO added to the upswing.

As a side note, the football team almost did not survive. Their was talk of disbanding the program.
 
(This post was last modified: 12-19-2017 01:47 PM by rosewater.)
12-19-2017 01:42 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Bearcats#1 Offline
Ad nauseam King
*

Posts: 45,310
Joined: Jun 2005
Reputation: 1224
I Root For: Pony94
Location: In your head.
Post: #9
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
My first year at UC the football team went 8-3 under Murphy and the basketball team had super frosh Wingfield, Flint, Wright, Burton, and Julson coming in.
 
12-19-2017 01:43 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
bearcatfan Offline
Hall of Famer
*

Posts: 19,516
Joined: Jun 2004
Reputation: 192
I Root For: The Bearcats!
Location:
Post: #10
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
It was rough many of those years. But I was a UC student (in night school at that point) and my wife and I got in free to football and basketball. So it was a cheap date. And we lived close to Cincinnati so it was easy for us to go the the games.

I think it was a combination of some bad coaches, bad facilities, and no athletic department vision or backing from the UC President/board.

I think Bob Huggins and Bob Goin deserve a lot of the credit. Huggins got UC basketball back on the map in a big way and Goin put in motion the plan to upgrade most facilities with Varsity Village.
 
(This post was last modified: 12-19-2017 02:00 PM by bearcatfan.)
12-19-2017 02:00 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
TubaCat Offline
1st Chair
*

Posts: 2,403
Joined: Sep 2014
Reputation: 109
I Root For: Bearcats, tubas
Location: Murphy's
Post: #11
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
(12-19-2017 01:39 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  I think starting in the 70s (maybe late 60s) it all started going downhill. The community stopped supporting UC athletics. The school did not upkeep the facilities and grow the programs. Campus as a whole was not updated.

Was the UC football program really much better before the late 60s or 70s though? Looking at our record, the difference was marginal:

1951 to 1969
104 - 85 record
55% win percentage
0 bowl appearances

1970 to 1979
54-54 record
50% win percentage
0 bowl appearances

What else changed around Cincinnati in the late 60s? The Bengals were founded. We're free to draw our own conclusions, but my theory has always been that the Bengals are the biggest factor limiting our community support.
 
12-19-2017 02:19 PM
Visit this user's website Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Advertisement


UCGrad1992 Offline
Legend
*

Posts: 31,770
Joined: Sep 2013
Reputation: 2265
I Root For: Bearcats U
Location: North Carolina
Post: #12
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
(12-19-2017 01:42 PM)rosewater Wrote:  I loved Tony Yates. He is/was a righteous dude, but a horrible basketball coach. He had no vision and could not keep the boys together and out of trouble. I remember that the Cincinnati Post ran an article about Lou Banks chasing Cedric Glover in a menacing way with a board full of nails. The 1986 recruiting class was exceptional, but only two of the seven original members stayed with UC. Huggs was a tremendous coach. He took a depleted roster and immediately made it competitive. Would have made the Ncaa's in 90/91 but ran out of gas. 92 also makes a very good point about the importance of the Shoe. Students do/will not get on a bus and ride to a downtown location. In the mid 80's we had a 500 record but would only see about two thousand people at the games. I am so glad that we decided to refurbish 5/3rd rather than go downtown. Would have killed our program.

In regards to football, we were awful. When I first arrived in 1986 we had a competitive team. Alex Gordon was a pro linebacker for many years. Danny McCoin and Reggie Taylor were near misses in the league. We were competitive against decent teams. In 86 Penn State won the NCAA and we were competitive for four quarters against them. We fell off a cliff in 87 and fell off another cliff in 88. We would get destroyed by not only the giants, but teams like Morehead State and Indiana State had passed our program. We fired the coach and dug out to certain degree by 1993. By that time Minter had arrived and IMHO added to the upswing.

As a side note, the football team almost did not survive. Their was talk of disbanding the program.

Great points and memories rose. I remember Alex Gordon. I was staying in Daniels Hall and the cafeteria at that time for us was at Sanders Hall. That was also where the athletes ate - I believe they had a separate room to dine in. I passed Gordon several times over that year to and from Sanders Hall and that dude was built like a brick _hit house and seemed like he was a walking mountain to my skinny-ass frame. Sweet Lord that dude was yuuge. Didn't he get drafted by the Bengals? I seem to remember him playing a year or two for the Browns also. Reggie Taylor was a beast at that time too.
 
12-19-2017 02:23 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
CliftonAve Offline
Heisman
*

Posts: 21,880
Joined: May 2012
Reputation: 1171
I Root For: Jimmy Nippert
Location:
Post: #13
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
(12-19-2017 02:19 PM)TubaCat Wrote:  
(12-19-2017 01:39 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  I think starting in the 70s (maybe late 60s) it all started going downhill. The community stopped supporting UC athletics. The school did not upkeep the facilities and grow the programs. Campus as a whole was not updated.

Was the UC football program really much better before the late 60s or 70s though? Looking at our record, the difference was marginal:

1951 to 1969
104 - 85 record
55% win percentage
0 bowl appearances

1970 to 1979
54-54 record
50% win percentage
0 bowl appearances

What else changed around Cincinnati in the late 60s? The Bengals were founded. We're free to draw our own conclusions, but my theory has always been that the Bengals are the biggest factor limiting our community support.

We were very good during the Sid Gillman era. He was basically UC's Brian Kelly from the 1950s. He went

1949: 7-4
1950: 8-4 Played VT in the Sun Bowl
1951: 10-1
1952: 8-1-1

Even after he left UC still managed to go 9-1 and 8-2 the following years. Back then there were only ~16 bowl games, so a lot of teams that finished with good records did not get to go to a bowl.
 
12-19-2017 02:30 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
DDaddy Offline
Special Teams
*

Posts: 775
Joined: Mar 2006
Reputation: 11
I Root For: Bearcats
Location: Charlotte, NC

Donators
Post: #14
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
1979-1984 for me. Dark days for U.C. sports indeed! We didn't care and really didn't know any better. We went anyway. Usually inebriated, but there none the less. The bus rides downtown to watch football and basketball were hilarious. Some of us got tossed off a couple of times. Lived in Daniels one summer and then Sanders. Saw Jelly many times. A large man.

DAA (before the P) was among the tops in the nation.
 
12-19-2017 02:33 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
rosewater Offline
Heisman
*

Posts: 5,666
Joined: Feb 2008
Reputation: 158
I Root For: cincy
Location:
Post: #15
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
(12-19-2017 02:23 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  
(12-19-2017 01:42 PM)rosewater Wrote:  I loved Tony Yates. He is/was a righteous dude, but a horrible basketball coach. He had no vision and could not keep the boys together and out of trouble. I remember that the Cincinnati Post ran an article about Lou Banks chasing Cedric Glover in a menacing way with a board full of nails. The 1986 recruiting class was exceptional, but only two of the seven original members stayed with UC. Huggs was a tremendous coach. He took a depleted roster and immediately made it competitive. Would have made the Ncaa's in 90/91 but ran out of gas. 92 also makes a very good point about the importance of the Shoe. Students do/will not get on a bus and ride to a downtown location. In the mid 80's we had a 500 record but would only see about two thousand people at the games. I am so glad that we decided to refurbish 5/3rd rather than go downtown. Would have killed our program.

In regards to football, we were awful. When I first arrived in 1986 we had a competitive team. Alex Gordon was a pro linebacker for many years. Danny McCoin and Reggie Taylor were near misses in the league. We were competitive against decent teams. In 86 Penn State won the NCAA and we were competitive for four quarters against them. We fell off a cliff in 87 and fell off another cliff in 88. We would get destroyed by not only the giants, but teams like Morehead State and Indiana State had passed our program. We fired the coach and dug out to certain degree by 1993. By that time Minter had arrived and IMHO added to the upswing.

As a side note, the football team almost did not survive. Their was talk of disbanding the program.

Great points and memories rose. I remember Alex Gordon. I was staying in Daniels Hall and the cafeteria at that time for us was at Sanders Hall. That was also where the athletes ate - I believe they had a separate room to dine in. I passed Gordon several times over that year to and from Sanders Hall and that dude was built like a brick _hit house and seemed like he was a walking mountain to my skinny-ass frame. Sweet Lord that dude was yuuge. Didn't he get drafted by the Bengals? I seem to remember him playing a year or two for the Browns also. Reggie Taylor was a beast at that time too.

I think that you are mistaking Andrew Stewart with Alex Gordon. Andrew Stewart was built ten times better and did play for the Bengals and the Browns. Gordon had a longer career with the Jets and I think played for the Bengals later. Funny story about Stewart. My crowd was goofing around with Keith Starks the basketball player in the dining hall. We got into a small food fight. Starks picked up something slimy and through a fastball at my buddy, just narrowly missing Stewart. The look that Starks got was not good. I thought that Stewart was going to kill him.

Stewart was a dlineman but also a sprint champion in high school. Ah the good old days.
 
12-19-2017 02:41 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
mbj655 Offline
Special Teams
*

Posts: 947
Joined: May 2010
Reputation: 9
I Root For: Bearcats
Location:
Post: #16
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
(12-19-2017 01:43 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  My first year at UC the football team went 8-3 under Murphy and the basketball team had super frosh Wingfield, Flint, Wright, Burton, and Julson coming in.

1993 was my first year, too.

Basketball was king and football mostly an afterthought.

I woke up one morning and decided to go to my first UC football game. It was the day they played Memphis and it had snowed 4-5 inches the night before. About 2,000 fans showed up and that's being generous. It ended up being a heck of a game and I've been a fan since.

The campus was a disaster when I started between the decrepit buildings and the constant construction.
 
(This post was last modified: 12-19-2017 02:57 PM by mbj655.)
12-19-2017 02:56 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Advertisement


UCGrad1992 Offline
Legend
*

Posts: 31,770
Joined: Sep 2013
Reputation: 2265
I Root For: Bearcats U
Location: North Carolina
Post: #17
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
(12-19-2017 02:41 PM)rosewater Wrote:  
(12-19-2017 02:23 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  
(12-19-2017 01:42 PM)rosewater Wrote:  I loved Tony Yates. He is/was a righteous dude, but a horrible basketball coach. He had no vision and could not keep the boys together and out of trouble. I remember that the Cincinnati Post ran an article about Lou Banks chasing Cedric Glover in a menacing way with a board full of nails. The 1986 recruiting class was exceptional, but only two of the seven original members stayed with UC. Huggs was a tremendous coach. He took a depleted roster and immediately made it competitive. Would have made the Ncaa's in 90/91 but ran out of gas. 92 also makes a very good point about the importance of the Shoe. Students do/will not get on a bus and ride to a downtown location. In the mid 80's we had a 500 record but would only see about two thousand people at the games. I am so glad that we decided to refurbish 5/3rd rather than go downtown. Would have killed our program.

In regards to football, we were awful. When I first arrived in 1986 we had a competitive team. Alex Gordon was a pro linebacker for many years. Danny McCoin and Reggie Taylor were near misses in the league. We were competitive against decent teams. In 86 Penn State won the NCAA and we were competitive for four quarters against them. We fell off a cliff in 87 and fell off another cliff in 88. We would get destroyed by not only the giants, but teams like Morehead State and Indiana State had passed our program. We fired the coach and dug out to certain degree by 1993. By that time Minter had arrived and IMHO added to the upswing.

As a side note, the football team almost did not survive. Their was talk of disbanding the program.

Great points and memories rose. I remember Alex Gordon. I was staying in Daniels Hall and the cafeteria at that time for us was at Sanders Hall. That was also where the athletes ate - I believe they had a separate room to dine in. I passed Gordon several times over that year to and from Sanders Hall and that dude was built like a brick _hit house and seemed like he was a walking mountain to my skinny-ass frame. Sweet Lord that dude was yuuge. Didn't he get drafted by the Bengals? I seem to remember him playing a year or two for the Browns also. Reggie Taylor was a beast at that time too.

I think that you are mistaking Andrew Stewart with Alex Gordon. Andrew Stewart was built ten times better and did play for the Bengals and the Browns. Gordon had a longer career with the Jets and I think played for the Bengals later. Funny story about Stewart. My crowd was goofing around with Keith Starks the basketball player in the dining hall. We got into a small food fight. Starks picked up something slimy and through a fastball at my buddy, just narrowly missing Stewart. The look that Starks got was not good. I thought that Stewart was going to kill him.

Stewart was a dlineman but also a sprint champion in high school. Ah the good old days.

I stand corrected rose! Your memory is better than mine.
 
12-19-2017 03:05 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Teakwood Offline
2nd String
*

Posts: 390
Joined: Nov 2012
Reputation: 12
I Root For: All Bearcats
Location:
Post: #18
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
(12-19-2017 02:56 PM)mbj655 Wrote:  
(12-19-2017 01:43 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  My first year at UC the football team went 8-3 under Murphy and the basketball team had super frosh Wingfield, Flint, Wright, Burton, and Julson coming in.

1993 was my first year, too.

Basketball was king and football mostly an afterthought.

I woke up one morning and decided to go to my first UC football game. It was the day they played Memphis and it had snowed 4-5 inches the night before. About 2,000 fans showed up and that's being generous. It ended up being a heck of a game and I've been a fan since.

The campus was a disaster when I started between the decrepit buildings and the constant construction.

We are clones, same age, same experience. Frustrating to win 8 games and not go to a bowl. Didn't miss a football game the rest of my time at UC. Pretty sure from past comments it was Clifton's first game as well - though he may correct me on that one. Our peers are represented well on this board.
 
12-19-2017 04:40 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Bearcat2012 Offline
All American
*

Posts: 4,408
Joined: Sep 2011
Reputation: 70
I Root For: Cincy Bearcats
Location:
Post: #19
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
[Image: 28_large.jpg]

The Grid circa 1980
 
12-19-2017 04:50 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
levydl Online
All American
*

Posts: 4,414
Joined: Mar 2007
Reputation: 138
I Root For:
Location:
Post: #20
RE: Bearcats sports -1980's
The first UC game I remember going to was against Louisville down at the Coliseum. UofL had Pervis Ellison. I remember the crowd being pretty big and wild. We did the Louisville Sucks! chant, which my 6 or 7 year old self thought was hilarious. UC had beaten UofL earlier in the year, but lost the game at home pretty badly, I think. UofL went on the win the title that season.
 
12-19-2017 05:29 PM
Find all posts by this user Quote this message in a reply
Post Reply 




User(s) browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)


Copyright © 2002-2024 Collegiate Sports Nation Bulletin Board System (CSNbbs), All Rights Reserved.
CSNbbs is an independent fan site and is in no way affiliated to the NCAA or any of the schools and conferences it represents.
This site monetizes links. FTC Disclosure.
We allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our web site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice or to opt-out of this type of advertising, you can visit http://www.networkadvertising.org.
Powered By MyBB, © 2002-2024 MyBB Group.