Re: UAH 2011-2012 - The Farewell Tour Kicks Off Tomorrow
Bad news for NCAA. There has been a lot of that this year. Greed and TV two years ago put UAH on lifesupport as the CCHA (and to a lesser degree the WCHA) saw no value in UAH. The blame starts at the administration, but it certainly should not end there. All of us in the college hockey community can look to our own schools, our own programs (at least those in the West).
Now I don't want to lose sight of the facts: Every program that has died in the past few years failed because of a lack of institutional supprt. With UAH, however, there was more working behind the scenes. The current college hockey family, which has suddenly adopted a "take whatever you can get and screw all of you" attitude, bears at least 1/2 the blame.
Wayne State was led by an AD who was passionate about hockey and dedicated to bringing D-I hockey to WSU. There was a promise from Compuware to build an on campus stadium. Then the AD left Wayne, Compuware went into a funk (early 2000's), and Wayne whithered on the vine. They had a decent stadium set-up, albeit on the edge of nowhere, in Fraser. Then they moved to Compuware's OHL Whaler's stadium, which didn't work well. Then they settled into the empty fairgrounds, which the Illich family and Little Caesars Pizza had renovated. They tried to get into the CCHA, but the powers that be made sure that didn't happen. But there was no passion for the program from the top. There was no effort, evetually no stadium, and no funding. The athletics department were openly hostile to the concept of hockey. Without a strong leadership and commitment, Wayne hockey died.
Findley was a small school with a small rink. But the problem was, at the time, a passionate hatred of hockey by the local (seriously) small town press, who hated hockey's place in the community above high school sports. And these bitter boys killed the program because the Administration at UF wasn't willing to put up with the pressure from the hockey-hating towns people.
UIC died when the long-term AD left, and the new AD came in and declared that "basketball was going to be UIC premier sport." And within two months killed the program -- with the loving nod of the administration.
Kent died after only a few years. I don't recall all the facts, but i think its safe to assume that Kent's athletics department -- which has never been too sharp -- just didn't care. There was a flurry of interest when the program formed, but then no funding, no support, and finally no team.
I don't know any of the facts surrounding Iona and Fairfield. I bet if you look deeply, you'll see a serious lack of leadership.
And now UAH.
UAH was probably the best situated out of all of the above, except perhaps UIC.
UAH has a good building, a nice city.
Sad.
They should have been in the CCHA two years ago. Instead, the CCHA leadership (of whom I have long passionately hated) wanted to play patty-cake with the Big Ten Network and the pipe-dream of Penn State hockey. Lets be totally honest -- the big ten hacks who ran the CCHA into the ground were more excited about penn state hcokey than UAH. And that is why UAH isn't in a league. That is why UAH is dying today.
mad:Joyce