8/2/2023 0 Comments Easy writer by lunsford![]() Hawkins also appointed a study committee to study the viability of the move and on April 9, 1990, the committee voted to recommend that the Troy State Board of Trustees seek membership in Division I. In 1990, Hawkins appointed Beard to establish a fund raising drive, the TSU Athletic Challenge Fund, to raise $1 million to help fund and support the effort to move to Division I. On the way back, as we sat in the airport, he looked at me and said, ‘Now, is that what you want for Troy? Is that good enough for Troy?’ What you hear is only surface level, but what you see becomes conviction, and what I saw really elevated my level of conviction.” “When we got to the stadium it was full at about 4,000 people, and we watched the game from a president’s box that wasn’t anything to write home about. “I hadn’t been in Troy very long when (Beard) called me on a Saturday morning and invited me to accompany him to a football game at an in-state institution,” Hawkins recalled. Hawkins recalled another story of Beard’s persistence to gain his support. “We were hitting him with all these changes we wanted – primarily the move to Division I – and he was getting it from both sides.” Hawkins first came on campus Ben took him to my house on a Sunday and he and I badgered him the whole time,” Cervera said with a laugh. “He was the one in charge and he would be the one that could and would make it happen.”Ĭervera remembered his first meeting with Hawkins. Hawkins was newly appointed and I wanted him to see where we’d been and where we might grow,” Beard recalled. Beard and Cervera quickly moved to gain his support. Hawkins had become known as an innovative and successful leader in education in the state and in 1989 was named Chancellor of Troy University. Following his military service, he worked for the University of Alabama at Birmingham as the assistant dean in the 1970s and was the president of the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind in the 1980s. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, winning the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Hawkins, a Mobile native, served in the U.S. To get the traction that the group needed, there needed to be strong support from someone in Troy’s administration. They didn’t understand the vision like we did and that’s what it was, a vision.” “So, not only did we have to suggest making the move but we had to try and educate people on the benefits of making it. “There was a lot of apathy over it and most people didn’t understand wanting to make the move,” Beard said. ![]() By going I-AA we had an opportunity to play these big schools for a paycheck, which would help the program.”īeard and Cervera were joined in the group of supporters of the move by alumni and supporters like Walter Hennigan, Wiley Locklar, Troy Hall of Famer Mike Amos, Richard Dowling, Johnny Williams, Alvin Dees, Earl Johnson and Dr. “So, if they played Troy and won it would count as a win towards that bowl eligibility. “A Division I-A team could play one or two Division I-AA teams and count those towards bowl eligibility,” Cervera said. Cervera saw the potential move to Division I as a chance for the Trojans to earn money from games against bigger schools. Cervera had seen Troy go from the cellar in NAIA in the early 1960s to a NAIA powerhouse and then eventual powerhouse in Division II despite a “shoestring budget” in the athletic department. Those supporters included Troy graduate Nick Cervera. While the vast majority did not want to even think about making the move, a small group of supporters began to rally around the idea. ![]() You needed to have your school on ESPN calling out your scores and Division II wasn’t going to get that.” “But, I could see down the line that you needed that television exposure that you just couldn’t get in Division II. “We had been dominant in Division II,” Beard said. Outside of the cost of moving to Division I, much of the apathy towards making the move was due to the success Troy’s athletic programs had become accustom to in Division II.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |