Football, football, wherefore art thou, football
I wore my Chico State Alumni and Chico State Granddad tee shirts with great pride on recent trips to Utah and Arizona. There was a problem for some of those who could not see the letters correctly and they identified with Ohio State.
Oh, no, I said. Chico State University in Northern California.
“Oh, the big party school,” some of the older people remarked. “We remember that. By the way, how good is your football team this year?”
Ouch! That really hurt. Visions of Keith and George Calkins, Craig Breschi, Mario Serafin, Joe Stetser, Randy Washington, Jewell McCullar, Chris Pane, Al Davenport, Pete Franco, Chauncey Turnbow, Bob Bonner, C.C. Carter and so many others danced through my mind. What wonderful days those were. Through years of various success, the teams of George Maderos, Pete Riehlman, Dick Trimmer and Mike Belotti (now at the University of Oregon) gave us Saturday afternoons and/or evenings so many plays to remember. Those nearly four-hour stints when Stetser loaded up his rocket launcher an average of 50 times a game were circus-like. Who will forget the Camellia Bowl team of Riehlman? Ah, those were really the days.
Finally, I came up with an answer to the aforementioned question.
Chico State will not lose a football game I told everyone who asked. Then, I quickly changed the subject.
Sometime next month, former CSU players will gather in Chico and swap memories and a few tall tales. They’re all much better now. I’ve been to a number of the reunions. Yes, the men are much older. Some of them, heaven forbid, have already retired. Strangely, there is no mention in the media about these get-togethers. Think how many feature stories are walking around. Many of these guys became school administrators, business executives and above all, good citizens. This is their Homecoming.
One of my goals when returning to Chico was to start a push to reinstate football at CSU. I know all the arguments.
No opponents. What about Southern Oregon, Oregon Tech, Humboldt State and a few of the smaller schools in Southern California? That’s a lame excuse.
No money. Unless the University itself and the student body pledge help, the no money pitch is a good one. In the current economic situation, trying to find cash will be like trying to sell stock in Enron.
Fortunately, it appears Butte College does not have that problem. Admittedly, I have not yet been to a Roadrunner game, but that will change soon. I would cringe, however, if I were a member of the CSU athletic department each time I open the Sunday E-R. Half the front sports page and half of page 3 were dedicated to Butte in a recent edition. You can’t buy advertising like that. Well, you could, but there goes money that can be used elsewhere.
It’s doubtful anything will change in the near future. But, maybe it is time to press the issue.
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One of my three major mentors at the E-R for nearly 29 years was Bill Lee (the others were the late Eddie Booth and Milan Murray). Bill still reminds me we lived in a wonderful time for newspapers. He is so right.
We worked countless hours to stay on top of anything local both on the news and sports side. Although we complained, really we had plenty of space to do our jobs. Time constraints were much easier because we were an afternoon newspaper. Many times we worked until 2 or 3 in the morning to get our sports ready for the next day. Current E-R Editor David Little can recall those hours. He worked for me in the sports department while attending CSU.
That’s not a luxury now. Morning newspapers have tough deadlines. Throughout the country, papers are getting smaller. They’re cutting back staff and trying to make up for lost revenue by getting into the internet game. I love the internet, but I have an extreme dislike for stories that end in “see xxxxx.com” for scoring details. Cutbacks have given all sports departments the attitude of getting it “out” quickly. The scoreboard page has become a huge dumping ground and saying “we don’t have space for that” a common excuse.
I was just a guilty as most sports editors and writers in that we have our special sports. Former CSU soccer coach and athletic director Don Batie will be the first to tell you soccer was not my favorite. He also will tell you I made sure the E-R did cover his fantastic teams.
I like baseball but not to the extent the way it dominates most of the year. The majors regular season alone is 162 games. Add to that extensive coverage of a local team and how much if left for all the others. Why not send some of those box scores, leaders and league statistics to “xxxxxx.com?”
It is no secret I like golf. However, I am satisfied with scores being in agate for most of the PGA and LPGA events. I am not satisfied waiting until Tuesday (sorry, Ed) for results in Chico City Golf Tournament qualifying or results. That’s local news with local people and the Chico City is one of the oldest tournaments in the state. It deserves better.
All it takes is a telephone call to get those scores.
Maybe it‘s time to return to the afternoon paper. Sunday morning would be OK. We would have papers boys and girls again. Upside down living for newspaper types would be minimized.
You’re right, Bill Lee. Those were the good old days.
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