For those of us who attended U of H because we had no other options and graduated proud to be Cougars our athletics programs have been our metaphor of success against those who would demean our university.
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I was in law school at UH from 1994 to 1997 when the fallout from that was still fresh. We had a couple of Law Professors (Steven Huber and Robert Palmer) that were spearheading that “drop our athletics program down to the Division III level” movement.
It’s a miracle how far we’ve come since then.
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Probably talking about that UH Soccer piece about how our soccer coaches are overworking our players…was on KPRC last night. Then they asked someone from the University of Ohio to comment on it??! Made no sense…
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The majority of the faculty vote had a point. The truth is, sports don’t add any academic value to colleges & universities.
But they do cost money. In most cases a hefty multi-million dollar subsidy paid for by the students.
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EX.ACT.LY! And that “hit piece” broadcast by KHOU, mentioned in a later post above, is probably the result of influence by uta and gaggies too; they have been doing this for decades! Everyone who works for KHOU should receive the same treatment; they don’t like UH; fine, drop dead!
To He// with all of them; UH will succeed in spite of their negativity!!!
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With KHOU and KPRC Soccer Piece last night, I feel the Horns snd Aggies are making an all out scale nuclear war with UH. Why all the attacks coming after our coach signed??! I said the same thing last night. Piece about our soccer coaches overworking our female players, then that KHOU piece…as if the Horns or Aggies dont overwork their players. BTW, How many of those Horns players that Mack Brown have to bail out of jail when he was in Austin make the Houston News. I remenber a few robberies up their in Austin and wondered if it made it to Houston.
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We both were there at the same time. I was there from 1988 to May 1994. Same thing, trying to balance work and School. The administration’s feeling toward sports was so bad that when I went to get my game tickets I was looked at with a death stare. Even when Andre pushed for the Heisman it was an herculean effort to have the School do anything for his run. We did get the Heisman that’s Ware its at T-shirts but that was about it. There was a “Grand Canyon” divide with the sports program and the rest of the faculty. I 100% felt that that the faculty wanted to perpetuates a sense of commuter School. Remember this was way before the internet. The sense of pride was almost none existent. Let’s be fair a ton of our struggles was from our own administration making. It made no sense at all that with the Yeoman, Lewis and Pardee years we could not have done a better job selling our “U of H pride product” This is entirely on our then leaders coupled with what the Austin politicians were fomenting against us. Compare it to today. It is night and day. Why would it take so long? When we study our history we often found the core of our current problems. We are going up friends. That is what matters.
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Not directly, but there is a cause/effect value add to the profile of a university as a marketing tool. It does build the perception of the university and for a state school like UH, that means more applications.
A school like Rice relies on excellent academics, but it is about 3 times smaller. Apples and oranges, although UHs academics have improved greatly since Dr Khator took the helm
Here’s the KPRC piece from last night:
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It seems that the more things change, the more they remain the same. The Houston press has been controlled by whorns mostly, with some gaggies there as well, for many, many years. And they have been using those platforms to attack us for that same period of time. It is all more of the same!
We have not had a real “Houston” newspaper, or real support by any radio or TV station in Houston, for as long as I can remember - at least not since the old Houston Press and Houston Post went out of business. Instead, it has been l00% support of the pro teams, uta, and atm (sorry for the redundancy!). They are all what I refer to as “presstitutes.”
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As a die hard I enjoyed the down years. After graduation, c/o 00’, I enjoyed getting to the game 30 minutes before kickoff (not much of a tailgate person), buying an inexpensive ticket on the 50 and leaving in NO traffic a little bit after the game. But I’m very rare. lol
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Too logical
You know he wasn’t talking about students, so why the strawman?
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They bring in students and donations to the university as a whole. Do you really think we would have had the jump in enrollment and the billion dollar drive had we not had the exposure brought to our university by athletic success? I don’t, and it seems that Dr. Khator doesn’t either. Oh, and a med school would have been out of the questtion.
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Many kids from very poor backgrounds achieve life changing skills and
education while participating in college sports. A high percent of them
would have little opportunity otherwise.
Some athletes find success in professional sports. Some become coaches or
trainers. Some find roles in sports media.
For many kids it is the only discipline they will ever have. It is the
only experience where they learn hard work leads to success.
For some kids, college athletics is the difference between having a successful
career and selling drugs on a street corner.
There should be a sports department in a university just as there is a math
department. There are sufficient number of kids that can find success through
sports and sports education to justify it. A sports department could teach
sports. It could also teach coaching, administration, media, and more.
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Twenty-five reasons to abolish tenure.
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Yes, UHrocks, there are a lot of athletes who get jobs coaching and in sports media. However, there are more who get jobs in the regular world of business, medicine, and technology.
On the other hand, how many jobs are out there for students majoring in any of several areas that have no actual commercial value. I remember an article about a woman complaining that she graduated in African American Studies, but couldn’t find a job. Her idea was that any degree should get her employed in a good position. So far, I have never heard of a corporation that has an African American Studies department.
I had a drafter working for me who told me about her sister graduated from Rice with honors. She had a degree in music and her voice was her instrument. She couldn’t find employment in any music field and I don’t know what she ended up doing; but she was still unemployed when the lady that worked for me moved to a different company.
I’ll bet the professors who taught them thought their classes were much more important than anything associated with athletics. I have heard the “education for education’s sake” argument; that really works for the independently wealthy; for those who need to support themselves, not so much. I always encourage the young folks I know to pursue marketable degrees.
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Not enough donations if the University still has to subsidize the athletic department every year.
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The main fallacy in the academics vs. Athletics debate is that the same funds would be available for academics that aren’t being used in athletics.
Additionally, they forget that the athletics department or Cougar Pride pay the full cost of scholarships to the academic part of the school. In many cases that likely isn’t at in state tuition rates when we have athletes who aren’t from here.
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They are students solely by virtue of the fact that they are willing to pay for lectures. Your argument is tautological.