If fans want to see some significant history in the making, they’re going to have to get up pretty early Saturday morning. The former Humana office building at Second and Main Streets will be imploded at approximately 7 a.m., just as most fans are beginning to appreciate their off day.
The removal of the structure is a key step in the construction schedule for the new University of Louisville basketball arena in the downtown area.
Scheduling the event that early in the day will give pause to many fans, even this one.
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Stadium Capacity – The word from numerous sources is that the seating capacity in the expanded Papa John’s Cardinal Football Stadium is being revised upward to include a minimum of 60,000 seats. That’s more like it.
Wonder if Larry Owsley, U of L Vice President for Business Affairs, played a role in the decision this time around? His lack of vision during the initial construction led to limiting the seating capacity to only 42,000.
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Practice Begins – The waiting will soon be over for Cardinal football fans. UofL will open fall practice on Tuesday, August 5 at PJCS. The Cards will hold three open practices to the fans on August 5-7. Practice times have not been announced, not that anyone is surprised. Would have been a good opportunity to begin improving communications.
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Groan — As usual, the autograph signing period is limited to one hour, from 9-10 a.m., on Fan Day, Saturday, Aug. 9. One hour is not long enough, demonstrating once again a lack of regard for fans. The worst possible thing the program can do is to force youngsters to wait in long lines, be disappointed and turned away without having a fair chance to get as many as possible. Let the media wait another half hour; build more badly-needed rapport with fans. Young fans are lifeblood of the program.
Also, there is no word about a pancake breakfast this year, which was a nice event. Bobby Petrino had that one right.
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UofL in the NFL — As pre-season nears, the Cards currently have 35 players in the National Football League. This could change in the next few weeks as teams trim their squads. Here are the connections:
K David Akers (Philadelphia Eagles), TE Gary Barnidge (Carolina Panthers), WR Deion Branch (Seattle Seahawks), QB Brian Brohm (Green Bay Packers), S Curry Burns (New Orleans Saints), RB Michael Bush (Oakland Raiders), WR Harry Douglas (Atlanta Falcons),
DE Elvis Dumervil (Denver Broncos), OL Renardo Foster (Atlanta Falcons), RB Lionel Gates (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), CB William Gay (Pittsburgh Steelers), TE Ronnie Ghent (New Orleans Saints), OL Breno Giacomini (Green Bay Packers), CB Antoine Harris (Atlanta Falcons),
LB Nate Harris (Kansas City Chiefs), OL Jason Hilliard (Dallas Cowboys), LB Brandon Johnson (Cincinnati Bengals), CB Chris Johnson (Oakland Raiders), OL Travis Leffew (Kansas City Chiefs), CB Sam Madison (Giants), LB Robert McCune (Baltimore Ravens),
OL Roman Oben (San Diego Chargers), DT Amobi Okoye (Houston Texans), TE Richard Owens (St. Louis Rams), OL Kurt Quarterman (Giants), QB Chris Redman (Atlanta Falcons), S Kerry Rhodes (Jets), S Brandon Sharp (Chicago Bears), RB Eric Shelton (Redskins),
RB Kolby Smith (Kansas City Chiefs), OL Jason Spitz (Green Bay Packers), DT Montavious Stanley (Atlanta Falcons), WR Mario Urrutia (Cincinnati Bengals), DT Ted Washington (Cleveland Browns), DE Dewayne White (Detroit Lions).