Is it too late to start a football team?

This might be off topic, but since Football was brought up, for any of you who either played or might know someone who played football at St. John's, the Dennis Bligen Kidney Foundation/All SJU Football Reunion will be held on 12/1/12 at the Long Island Coliseum Uniondale Marriott Hotel. Admission is free. Sancks and drinks will be on your own. We will generate funds for the kidney foundation by donating all proceeds from auction and raffle events. St. John’s Football warm up gear and memorabilia will also be sold.

You can send me a PM and I will forward the contact information.

As for the program, it is not going to happen. Hofstra shut theirs down and they had a pretty good 1AA (now known as the FCS) program but could not fill the stands despite having good facilities. Back in the mid 80's we were rivals when both programs were DIII, knocking them out of playoff contention one year and then them doing the same to us. When the rules changed St. John's went to something called D1AAA with no scholarships. St. John's looked into upgrading fo the D1AA status but with the money needed for scholarships and facilities along with the lack of big time fan support for College Football in the area along with Title IX concerns, it decided against it. It wound up dropping it and about five other sports back in the early 2000's.

Incidentally football was dropped once before (Bob Sheppard, famous announcer for the Yankees was a quarterback) and was brought back in the mid/late 70's. And when it was dropped, this time, Lacrosse was brought back. Lacrosse had been dropped in the early 90's.
 
The world revolves around money, we see it everyday and as much as we want it to be different it is not.

In order to be a major contender St. John's needs more revenue, and seeing as donations will not bridge that gap at least not for a while then a major investment needs to take place

(Football, Medical School, Engineering School)

IMO The only possible way we will see a football program again and this is far out there so don't judge me having my head in the clouds, is if Wagner college (across the street from STJ Staten Island) merges with St. John's University as a college under the university "umbrella", similar to how we merged with TCI. They have a fan base and a brand new football stadium (which is our biggest obstacle), otherwise this is not happening (I dont see this merge ever going to take place, or a football ever coming back) getting rid of that program in the early 2000's was the worst mistake they have ever made and it will haunt us for a very long time.

we should all keep playing powerball and mega millions maybe a 50mm donation will make it happen but I still doubt it.
 
The world revolves around money, we see it everyday and as much as we want it to be different it is not.

In order to be a major contender St. John's needs more revenue, and seeing as donations will not bridge that gap at least not for a while then a major investment needs to take place

(Football, Medical School, Engineering School)

IMO The only possible way we will see a football program again and this is far out there so don't judge me having my head in the clouds, is if Wagner college (across the street from STJ Staten Island) merges with St. John's University as a college under the university "umbrella", similar to how we merged with TCI. They have a fan base and a brand new football stadium (which is our biggest obstacle), otherwise this is not happening (I dont see this merge ever going to take place, or a football ever coming back) getting rid of that program in the early 2000's was the worst mistake they have ever made and it will haunt us for a very long time.

we should all keep playing powerball and mega millions maybe a 50mm donation will make it happen but I still doubt it.
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TCI = the College of Insurance?

While I won't go as far as saying it was the worst mistake they have ever made, it was a mistake IMHO and a big disappointment. However, I don't see the program going Big East Caliber DI, even Big East light. The Finances and interest just aren't there, but FCS was possible. It would have taken some juggling of other things to remain compliant with Title IX, but it was possbile (Title IX does not mean you have to drop sports in order to provide enough likewise athletic opportunities to Woman, but several have used that excuse as to why schools have dropped certain programs).

Interestingly, Hofstra who dropped their football program three years ago has now started a Medical School,
 
I know this strays from the point a bit but i would love to see St. Johns with a medical program, with that and a great law school I believe it will bring more national prestige and recognition, in addition to more money and wealthy alumni that give back.

Football is a dream that many of us faithful alumni talk about but deep down we know that will never be possible, the logistics are out of reach and even if the money was there we all know the fan base is not there (sad to say) we live in a very apathetic city, if your team does not perform there is something better to do.

Medical School and Engineering school might be attainable goals but that might be a conversation after Harrington is ousted. He did a good job converting from a commuter school but at this point we need a newer proactive president with innovative ideas to keep moving us forwards but that is all IMO.
 
back to dreaming of football I hear the St. Anthony's head coach is a St. John's alum. that might be a good candidate.
 
I know this strays from the point a bit but i would love to see St. Johns with a medical program, with that and a great law school I believe it will bring more national prestige and recognition, in addition to more money and wealthy alumni that give back.

Football is a dream that many of us faithful alumni talk about but deep down we know that will never be possible, the logistics are out of reach and even if the money was there we all know the fan base is not there (sad to say) we live in a very apathetic city, if your team does not perform there is something better to do.

Medical School and Engineering school might be attainable goals but that might be a conversation after Harrington is ousted. He did a good job converting from a commuter school but at this point we need a newer proactive president with innovative ideas to keep moving us forwards but that is all IMO.
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I have thought in the past adding and Engineering School would be a good fit (NYIT?) but never considered a medical school. School of Pharmacy and adding a School of Medicine. Something else to ponder.
 
I know this strays from the point a bit but i would love to see St. Johns with a medical program, with that and a great law school I believe it will bring more national prestige and recognition, in addition to more money and wealthy alumni that give back.

Football is a dream that many of us faithful alumni talk about but deep down we know that will never be possible, the logistics are out of reach and even if the money was there we all know the fan base is not there (sad to say) we live in a very apathetic city, if your team does not perform there is something better to do.

Medical School and Engineering school might be attainable goals but that might be a conversation after Harrington is ousted. He did a good job converting from a commuter school but at this point we need a newer proactive president with innovative ideas to keep moving us forwards but that is all IMO.
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St. John's isn't going to start a medical school. Nice thought, but forget it, it isn't going to happen.

Ditto for a school of engineering.

Priorities for the univertsity, at this time, are keeping up with the" arms race" in technology and providing more financial aid (grants and scholarships) to deserving students.
 
I know this strays from the point a bit but i would love to see St. Johns with a medical program, with that and a great law school I believe it will bring more national prestige and recognition, in addition to more money and wealthy alumni that give back.

Football is a dream that many of us faithful alumni talk about but deep down we know that will never be possible, the logistics are out of reach and even if the money was there we all know the fan base is not there (sad to say) we live in a very apathetic city, if your team does not perform there is something better to do.

Medical School and Engineering school might be attainable goals but that might be a conversation after Harrington is ousted. He did a good job converting from a commuter school but at this point we need a newer proactive president with innovative ideas to keep moving us forwards but that is all IMO.
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If you want to enhance the academic education of St. John's, you need to get rid of the College of Professional Studies
 
Considering our biggest donor (repole) graduated from CPS I think that is an awful assessment.

Communications in every way you want to think of it is on the rise, if anything branch of a communications school from CPS.

I would get rid of the school of education.
 
My memory might be off but when I was an undergrad in the late 1980's, I seem to recall maybe 150 people at the football games. And we had a damn good team in 1989!

http://www.luckyshow.org/football/redmen.htm

The glory year was 1987 when we rampaged through Finland and won our three games by a combined 138 to zero :)
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I played football at STJ as well. We drew two thousand or so fans to the games. STJ will never have another football team, but I think scrapping the team was foolish. We had 80-100 kids come out for the team every year and most first year players would be gone before the first week of the season but would stay in school for 4-5 years. Then there were dozens of kids every year that came to school either thinking they would try out at some point or because they didn't originally dismiss STJ entirely when narrowing down their lists of schools because of the presence of at least a D1-AA team.
 
maybe having 4,000+ dormers on campus might help out the attendance at football games? back when we had a team there were no dorms. Pending the field is near by or the school has buses back and forth to the game not make it a hassle to attend.
 
maybe having 4,000+ dormers on campus might help out the attendance at football games? back when we had a team there were no dorms. Pending the field is near by or the school has buses back and forth to the game not make it a hassle to attend.
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Actually we still had a team when the dorms opened and they are not doing a world of wonders for the basketball attendance.
 
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