Louisville Basketball Easily Most Profitable

The University of Louisville is once again No. 1 in terms of profitability among the nation’s college basketball programs, according to the latest compilation, this one by CNNMoney.com.

And it’s not even close.

U of L took in $25.4 million in revenue, compared to $19.8 million for the University of North Carolina in second place, and almost $10 million more than Ohio State in third place. More importantly, Louisville had $16.8 in profit, compared to UNC’s $12.3 million and Ohio State’s $11.4 million.

Other regional schools like Indiana and Kentucky were ranked seventh and 14th, respectively, IU reporting $8.2 million in profit and UK announcing $6.1 million.

Missing from the top 20 this year was Duke, which after years of reporting profits in the $4 million to $5 million range, reported a loss of more than $2 million. The school said that was due to a shift in revenue to the non-sport specific classification.

Source:  CNNMoney

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Wayne Blackshear On Louisville

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What Do Louisville Fans Have To Lose?

By Tom Stosberg

Could you tell me once again just exactly what University of Louisville football fans have to lose in this coming Saturday’s game? And please, no whining.

As I see it, the U of L faithful win whether the football team wins or not. If the Cardinals win the game everything is obvious giddiness.  But if the team loses the fans still win because chances are they can look forward to getting a new powerhouse, wonderful, spectacular, incredible football coach in December.

Now did I say if he can’t beat Kentucky, he can’t win in the Big East? Or did you just get ahead of me there?

First, let’s cover the winning-the-game giddiness. You see any coach who can beat a rival can probably beat anyone else on the schedule. Not because the rival is that good but simply because it’s a pressure game. Pressure games cause some coaches to get conservative, play scared, try to run the ball up the middle too much, play not to lose, call really dumb plays, uh … kind of like USC 18, Ohio State 15 (plus the last 10 times OSU played top five teams).

Anyway, once the rivalry game is won and the pressure is off the coach can get back to happy football … like with long passes, wide open offenses, jail break blitzes. You know, fun stuff.

So if Coach K is loosey-goosey and let’s the kids do what they really do know how to do, he could actually win it. Note the loosey-goosey part. Trust me, UK will play tense.

On the other hand, if Krag gets scared and plays not to lose, acts like he’s in the Big Ten or something (ooops, did I say that?) then he’ll be wise to get at least three quotes … Mayflower, United, Allied, North American Van Lines, American, Bekins, National…

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Vintage Louisville Football

Vince Gibson Spawned The Red Rage

The image of flag girls waving “Red Rage” banners for the University of Louisville band stirred memories of Vince Gibson for many veteran fans at the football opener.

Vince Gibson and Red Rage gear.

Gibson coined the “Red Rage” phrase when he took over U of L football in 1975 to market the football program. The symbol caught on, appearing on everything from the team’s uniforms to fan gear. Even Denny Crum liked it, using the imagery with his basketball program.

A couple of years later, athletic director Dave Hart would introduce the concept of tailgating at Louisville football games. The idea took off immediately, with U of L later recognized by a national publication as one of the best tailgating programs.

Vince Gibson, the Red Rage theme and the tailgating concept couldn’t have converged at a better time. The NCAA’s football powers, in 1977, voted to split into two divisions — Division 1A for schools averaging more than 17,000 fans, and Division 1AA for everybody else.

Louisville would make the cut for Division 1A in 1978, with an average attendance of just over 19,790 per game.

Gibson left after the 1979 season and a won-lost record of 25-29-2 for the head coaching job at Tulane, where he would coach for three seasons. He resides now in New Orleans where he was in the travel industry for several years. Earlier this year, he attended a reunion with Bobby Bowden at South Georgia College where they began their football coaching careers together.

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Big East Week One: Everybody Happy But Rutgers

By Paul Sykes

Unless you are Rutgers or a segment of University of Louisville football fans, the majority of people who follow Big East football have to be content with their season openers.

• In a Labor Day game, Rutgers seemed willing to let Cincinnati do all the work, falling behind 31-7 in the first half en route to a 47-15 drubbing to the defending league champ. UC’s passing attack looked awfully good with QB Tony Pike and about six or seven receivers.
• Pittsburgh rolled out of the fall practice mode and thumped Youngstown State 38-3. Running back Dion Lewis had three touchdowns and 129 yards.
• West Virginia took Liberty to the couches 33-20, with Noel Devine scampering for 112 yards. New quarterback Jarrett Brown tossed for 243 yds and ran for another 69. Looks like the option is still alive in Morgantown. Allowing 299 yards of offense to Liberty raises some eyebrows, though.
• UConn held off Ohio 23-16 Looks like they have another top-flight running back there, with Jordan Todman rushing for 154 yards.
• South Florida wasted Wofford 40-7. Matt Grothe tossed for a couple of touchdown.
• Syracuse took Minnesota to overtime before losing 23-20. That one features only six total points in the second half. Former Duke basketball guard Greg Paulus debuted as the Orange quarterback and went 19-31 for 167 yards, including a touchdown and one costly pick that cost the Orange dearly.
  
  You can fill in your own review of Louisville’s 30-10 win over Indiana State in the comments section. Just know that, at least for now, Louisville in a six-team tie for second place in the conference.

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Amateur Hour Returns On WHAS-TV

By Tom Stosberg

So, it has come to this. [Sigh]

It’s not bad enough that the Louisville football team delivered a lackluster performance against Indiana State. But WHAS-TV had to go and add insult to ignominy by delivering an equally dismal and depressing telecast.

WHAS-TV’s so-called  “production” of Saturday’s event was somewhat akin to that of a high school game shot by a player’s parent standing on the highest seat in the stadium with a $200 video-cam.

It reminded me of old video from the early days of television before modern zoom lenses were invented as it rather gave one the feeling of sitting several miles up in the cheap seats with no binoculars.

Sadly, the person behind the main camera obviously had never ever actually witnessed a football game with his or her own eyes, either in person or on TV. The individual also had never actually operated any type of camera, muchless a television camera equipped with a Zoomar® lens.

Additionally, the person supposedly directing the telecast (setting up and calling the camera shots) did in fact perform one of the most pathetic jobs I have ever seen in over 55 years of watching college football. I have seen high school games shot with three cameras that looked like the Super Bowl compared with Saturday night’s atrocity.

Perhaps WHAS-TV and the University could save a fortune on future TV production costs by allowing a U of L communications student to earn extra credit at the next home game by simply holding up his/her iPhone.

On second thought, let’s not give them any ideas.

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Why Louisville Football Is A Magnet

Reasons the observer can hardly wait to pack the car and head out to Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium for the kickoff Saturday:

• Another opening game for University of Louisville football, the 54th for the observer since first hearing Ed Kallay broadcast the games on WAVE radio. No Louisville football on TV in those days. The games would have been in black, white and grainy.
• A return to a great stadium, a possibility that was never even imagined before Howard Schellenberger. Seemed unlikely in 1985 to the observer, sitting behind that post blocking the view of the 50-yard line at old Fairgrounds Stadium.
• The observer and his first date with Barbara, the girl he would later marry, occurred at a Louisville football game on Nov. 28, 1972. Took a while to ask her if she liked football, less than a minute for her to say yes.
• Attending a meeting in the mid-seventies with U of L athletic director Dave Hart, Jr. about a tailgating concept he wanted to introduce at football games. He claimed it would enhance the social atmosphere at games.
• The observer lifting his son high in the air after touchdowns, still wincing from the binoculars banging into the nostrils on one occasion. Watching him grow into a bigger U of L fan than the observer, his reveling in a win over Miami.
• The observer introducing his first grandson to Louisville football, his excitement at Eric Shelton running 90 yards for a touchdown on the first play against Cincinnati.
• Bowl game after bowl game, the apex coming in Miami for an Orange Bowl, the jets shaking the stadium after the National Anthem, the observer surrounded by approximately 40,000 U of L fans.
• The optimism of team members, despite the grumbling, that comes with this season. The observer likes the positive attitude, the talent at several key positions, and wants whoever happens to be the University of Louisville football coach to be wildly successful.
• Watching the steel rising above the east side of the stadium, the promise of a future that the University of Louisville intends to keep.

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