Growing up in Brooklyn in the ’70s, the Bronx might as well have been another country.
Then I got to play a CYO or Rec league basketball game at Fordham and fell in love with the place. The campus looked like one of the estates the rich people in Westchester County resided in. The gym, Rose Hill Gym, was a basketball cocoon.
The floor creaked. The temperature was about 116 degrees and it wasn’t that dry Arizona heat, whatever that means. It was a like a playground court moved indoors with fiberglass backboards and nets that weren’t made from chains.
Later I would come to know of Fordham’s insanely rich athletic tradition — Lombardi, Frisch, Phelps, Courtney, Harnisch, Skelton — the list goes on. Still later I would learn from some of the greats in the media business — Michael Kay, Mike Breen, the editor of this sports section — Fordham’s elite academic standing.
So I got to wondering, if Fordham had all this going for it, why wasn’t it in the same company as Marquette or St. Louis or so many other urban-based institutions of higher learning, which also had great athletics?
The more I asked that question, the more I received what I came to refer to as the “Fordham Shrug.”
Shoulders scrunched, eyes narrowed, head slightly tilted, the person to whom I was speaking to would say, ‘They don’t think it can work.’
They don’t? Why?
And who are they?
“There have been people here for 20 years, good people, who have never embraced the idea that athletics is a great front porch for a university,’’ one Fordham grad that works in sports said. “They’re afraid the porch would overshadow the house.’’
That’s ridiculous, I countered. “You mean to tell me people don’t know Notre Dame or Stanford or Duke are great academic institutions? That’s nuts!”
“I didn’t say I agreed,’’ said my knowledgeable Fordham friend. “I’m just trying to help you understand. The shame is that there are a lot of Fordham grads who want to contribute but they’ve gotten so frustrated. Maybe it will change now.’’
Right now, Fordham has a perfect storm of an opportunity. Frank McLaughlin, the kind-hearted, conscientious athletic director of 27 years, has tired of fighting the good fight. On Thursday he was promoted to a golden parachute job.
God bless him.
And God bless his replacement, because if the Fordham administration doesn’t see the light, than this New York City gem will continue to be overshadowed by its setting.
The AD at Fordham reports directly to the vice president for student affairs, Jeff Gray — not the president, Joseph M. McShane, S.J.
Gray, who, as a Fordham source said, “cares more about Fordham than any other 10 administrators combined,’’ brings his recommendations to McShane.
In fairness, Fordham has significantly increased its financial commitment to its athletic department. But the Rams aren’t close to matching the commitment made at parochial schools such as Marquette and Xavier.
It’s time for Fordham to take its place, and there might never be a better time for the taking. College athletics are in the midst of downsizing, just like the ones experienced in the auto industry and banking.
Sooner or later we will see a divide — a new group of 65 or so universities that play FBS football — and what we currently know as the NCAA. Fordham can secure a place at the top of the new food chain. It can walk with Georgetown and Gonzaga.
Consider these factors working in Fordham’s favor:
The Atlantic 10, of which Fordham is a member, has moved its postseason tournament to Barclays Center, where it will get far much more coverage than it did in Atlantic City, where some thought it was the opening act for Bette Midler.
Fordham could, and should, be playing more games in Barclays and the Garden while still enjoying the look on opponent’s faces when they walk into Rose Hill, the oldest on-campus venue in use by a Division I team, and realize it’s college basketball’s version of “Cabin in the Woods.”
The Rams are building an FCS football program, with the goal of awarding the full 63 scholarships allowed at that level. Tom Pecora has the men’s basketball program on the move. In Stephanie Gaitley, the women’s program has a young star.
The unparalleled benefits Fordham enjoys — that magical campus one mile from the Bronx Botanical Gardens; the law school, which has produced some of the sharpest minds in politics and law; the university commitment to a strong Jesuit education; the location in the world’s greatest city — makes it prime college destination.
A Fordham grad has entrée into some of the most attractive positions in business, entertainment, finance, law, media and politics. There is no good reason — none — that Fordham can’t enjoy the same success in athletics.
The administration can embraces this moment and make the Fordham Shrug extinct by embracing a new paradigm:
Give the new AD Hire an AD that reports directly to the president. Give that man or woman a budget that doesn’t compromise the school’s athletic mission, yet enables its athletic teams to compete for league titles on a perennial basis. Allow that individual to build the Fordham brand, which should be easy in this town.
If Fordham isn’t willing to grab the future by the Rams’ horns, it will hire a second-rate administrator, a ‘Yes’ man who will balance the athletics budget and celebrate NIT berths and 6-5 seasons. Shoot, I can do that. And once, I didn’t even know where Fordham was.