As a former Terrapin you can bet that I was posted up last night watching Greivis Vasquez tear apart the Duke Blue Devils. It's something to get excited about and that you look forward to all week. Athletics are the reason you hear about the UBalt law student willing to trade future legal council for a ticket to the game and hear about the NCAA tournament on the radio.
Does University of Baltimore need Athletics to be a successful 4 year school? I'd have to say yes. While the program would take a long time to develop the University needs some sort of spirit and pride. I would applaud the Universities recent attempts to stir up spirit by the creation of "Beelieve," but whoever created that mascot must not use the right side of their brain.
Athletics bring money, media coverage, strengthen ties to alumni, and build strength within the community. A lot of these things are missing from the "college experience" here at UBalt. The biggest issue here is building strength within the community. If you read my last article you would know how strongly I feel that Baltimore supports its own. A real Baltimore sports team (not that exclusive elitist private school stuff) would earn the support from local area would be astounding.
What sport do we play? While it would certainly be great to be a football powerhouse like Florida or basketball like Maryland, it's impossible. Without the funding, recruiting, or facilities it would take a hundred years before UBalt was competitive. What I suggest is that we start a wrestling or lacrosse team and slowly become competitive. What are your thoughts? Does UB need athletics? What sports should we have?
6 comments:
I think UB sports would be cool, but I think the biggest thing we would need is more of an "on campus" experience. I think this is where the student pride would grow. Of course, I would love to see some UB teams, in any sport.
You do know that we have sports clubs at UB, yes? :) Lacrosse, softball and even boxing, with more on the way.
It's not -quite- NCAA sports, but they do play other schools and have a good reputation. (The lacrosse club, for instance, has games coming up against Navy, Loyola, UMBC and Towson among others.) It's a shame that the university doesn't do more to publicize them.
And - point of trivia, but UB *DID* have NCAA athletics at one point.
I agree with an on campus experience. I don't even come on campus because you have to pay so much for parking and there's really nothing to do.
Where is the student center to just hang out?
The gym? I've tried to find it a couple times but have nearly given up.
Where are the students groups and what are they doing?
If UB wants to be successful at becoming a 4 year school and recruiting high school freshman they better re-think their approach.
People want an experience as well as education and I don't think UB has much to offer.
Back when the school had NCAA athletics, UB won the NCAA Soccer title one year, didn't they? Maybe I'm making that up, I'm not sure, but it seems to stick in my head.
To what Ben said: I agree, students do go to schools as much for the experience as for the education. I went to a small, D-III school; we had athletics (we've won multiple NCAA Lacross titles) and despite the fact that it was a small, small school, we still had a "campus community" feel that allowed students to feel connected to the University. I've yet to discover that here. Sure, you have Mount Vernon, and that is a community that in some ways is self-contained from the rest of Baltimore, but there is not much in the way of a "campus community" here. Maybe its because its an urban campus, but I think you can argue that urban campuses in other cities have found ways to overcome that issue. I think NCAA sports teams--even a limited number, competing at the D-III level--would help achieve that goal, here. I understand that there are club and intramural teams, but its not quite the same as having an NCAA team to call your own. "Beelieve" me, I'd love to rock a blue and green "University of Baltimore SuperBees" sweatshirt down to the First Mariner Arena to catch my NCAA SuperBees take on Towson, or Morgan, or Coppin State, or even Mount St. Mary's or Frostburg or Salisbury State.
The biggest thing that I think you mentioned was that UB lacks any community feel
Until the school gets its act together and finds a way to get people to unite behind something... it will forever be left as a commuter college.
The local night clubs don't even walk around handing out flyers here... and you want to get freshmen to come!? Good luck
I'm an alumnus,class of 1970.I played baseball for U.B. and we were a member of the Mason-Dixon Athletic Conference.Our facility was at the Mt.Royal campus(I believe that was the name) located outside of the city.Basketball was played there as well.Lacross was big as well as soccer.From what I can recall,the basketball program was to move up to a division one status,with teams like Rutgers and Syracuse on the schedule.I believe the team might have even played out that schedule.There was a varied schedule for baseball,Navy,Towson,Old Dominion,Loyola,Catholic U.as well as G.W.U.Some of these teams have gone on to D.one status.The basketball team shared their facility with the then Baltimore bullets of the N.B.A.Baseball players would often work out with some of the Orioles players in the winter.I was disappointed athletics was disbanded.Athletics provided the students with an identity as well as offering athletic scholarships to those athletes worthy of them.It was a rewarding experience to play for the university as well as watch the other teams compete in their respective sport.There are many inner-city universities that support athletic teams and if sports was a priority for the university,it would seriously consider bringing them back not just for the student athlete but for the student body as a whole.When I played,I was proud to be a BEE and the fans,in all the sports programs,enjoyed the entertainment.I feel sports isn't a priority for the University.It's too bad.There's a lot of athletic talent in the city as well as the surrounding area.Wouldn't be hard to attract some of that talent for whichever teams the University wants to begin with.Anyway,I had a great time as an athlete and fan.Too bad today's students don't have the same opportunities.PEACE,Rick Kady.
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