Keeping Up With Old Friends Thread

FriendofJohnnie said:
Wish we still had a football team. Its a shame the game has really died at the college level in the area except really Rutgers. Fordham and UConn are not really competitive.
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Former coach Bob Ricca tried to get St. John’s to revive the football 🏈 program numerous times and for a long time but was turned down with the reason expressed of money concerns.
 
bamafan said:
Former coach Bob Ricca tried to get St. John’s to revive the football 🏈 program numerous times and for a long time but was turned down with the reason expressed of money concerns.
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One of the reasons for the money concerns was the rising cost of health/accident insurance coverage for sponsoring football. Playing in that level of football with college players, many of whom were not up to the level physically versus our opponents, became a challenge. We were losing many kids each week due to injury back then. Insurance premiums for having football were scrutinized by the bean counters as well as the cost/benefit of continuing to sponsor football along with ice hockey, rifle, men’s track, men’s and women’s swimming and diving and bowling. All programs terminated on one Black Friday.
 
Alumni Hall said:
One of the reasons for the money concerns was the rising cost of health/accident insurance coverage for sponsoring football. Playing in that level of football with college players, many of whom were not up to the level physically versus our opponents, became a challenge. We were losing many kids each week due to injury back then. Insurance premiums for having football were scrutinized by the bean counters as well as the cost/benefit of continuing to sponsor football along with ice hockey, rifle, men’s track, men’s and women’s swimming and diving and bowling. All programs terminated on one Black Friday.
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It is my understanding with Track as the NCAA provides funds to help defray costs and coaching positions could have been (if they weren’t already) could have been combined.

We brought back Men’s Lacrosse which has been a huge disappointment (that’s being nice).

Black Friday indeed!!!!
 
Alumni Hall said:
One of the reasons for the money concerns was the rising cost of health/accident insurance coverage for sponsoring football. Playing in that level of football with college players, many of whom were not up to the level physically versus our opponents, became a challenge. We were losing many kids each week due to injury back then. Insurance premiums for having football were scrutinized by the bean counters as well as the cost/benefit of continuing to sponsor football along with ice hockey, rifle, men’s track, men’s and women’s swimming and diving and bowling. All programs terminated on one Black Friday.
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Well a couple things- why didn't we recruit better that would put our football players at the necessary level? As for the other sports, how does rifle team and bowling create such a fiscal headache (both genders can do that)? Those seem to be less expensive sports. I think the Men's Track thing is a bit silly too. Hockey- I guess you would have needed to get a really good team together that competes annually and a good rink lease to make it worthwhile. There are strong North Jersey and Long Island hockey players though- could have been something to consider.
 
FriendofJohnnie said:
Well a couple things- why didn't we recruit better that would put our football players at the necessary level? As for the other sports, how does rifle team and bowling create such a fiscal headache (both genders can do that)? Those seem to be less expensive sports. I think the Men's Track thing is a bit silly too. Hockey- I guess you would have needed to get a really good team together that competes annually and a good rink lease to make it worthwhile. There are strong North Jersey and Long Island hockey players though- could have been something to consider.
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When we had a football team, we were a commuter school, which put us at a big disadvantage in regards to recruiting.
 
FriendofJohnnie said:
Well a couple things- why didn't we recruit better that would put our football players at the necessary level? As for the other sports, how does rifle team and bowling create such a fiscal headache (both genders can do that)? Those seem to be less expensive sports. I think the Men's Track thing is a bit silly too. Hockey- I guess you would have needed to get a really good team together that competes annually and a good rink lease to make it worthwhile. There are strong North Jersey and Long Island hockey players though- could have been something to consider.
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A. Recruiting for football was difficult. Every time we joined a league that promised no athletic aid, academic aid only, we then found out they were secretly giving money to their players which drove Ricca nuts. Wagner would give their players managers scholarships from other sports as their way of giving their top football stars money.
B. Rifle and Bowling were canned because of the Title 9 numbers issues that our compliance office misinterpreted. Men’s track was very good and should have stayed instead of bringing in 40 lacrosse athletes with all their equipment and injuries. Hockey was canned because of the Title 9 issue as well as they were playing out in Superior Ice Rink, 40 miles from campus. Our coach made sure our team was always well protected with NHL quality gear. And they were competitive and the Long Island students would flock to the games as they were always Friday nights at 11 PM.
C. The dorms were build in 1999 so we had football for the last few years of the program. But very few athletes ever lived in the dorms at that time as they were expensive and it was more practical for them to rent houses in the neighborhood. And the school preferred out of state or foreign students in the dorms instead of locals.
 
FriendofJohnnie said:
Well a couple things- why didn't we recruit better that would put our football players at the necessary level? As for the other sports, how does rifle team and bowling create such a fiscal headache (both genders can do that)? Those seem to be less expensive sports. I think the Men's Track thing is a bit silly too. Hockey- I guess you would have needed to get a really good team together that competes annually and a good rink lease to make it worthwhile. There are strong North Jersey and Long Island hockey players though- could have been something to consider.
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Your first question actually c
Alumni Hall said:
A. Recruiting for football was difficult. Every time we joined a league that promised no athletic aid, academic aid only, we then found out they were secretly giving money to their players which drove Ricca nuts. Wagner would give their players managers scholarships from other sports as their way of giving their top football stars money.
B. Rifle and Bowling were canned because of the Title 9 numbers issues that our compliance office misinterpreted. Men’s track was very good and should have stayed instead of bringing in 40 lacrosse athletes with all their equipment and injuries. Hockey was canned because of the Title 9 issue as well as they were playing out in Superior Ice Rink, 40 miles from campus. Our coach made sure our team was always well protected with NHL quality gear. And they were competitive and the Long Island students would flock to the games as they were always Friday nights at 11 PM.
C. The dorms were build in 1999 so we had football for the last few years of the program. But very few athletes ever lived in the dorms at that time as they were expensive and it was more practical for them to rent houses in the neighborhood. And the school preferred out of state or foreign students in the dorms instead of locals.
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My fondness of football aside, I also understand that funding a full scholarship FCS program would be (hence why we tried to stay in non scholarship leagues) but getting rid of track and bringing back Lacrosse just didn’t make sense.
 
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