The University of Texas at Arlington Campus was echoing with the sounds of change, a change in school policy that would bring back football. The rally was organized by Sam DeBerry, who formed a group known as Mavericks for Football Now.
“The time for football is now,” he told a small crowd gathered in front of the Student Center. “It doesn't matter how good the teams basketball team is, it doesn't matter how good a schools baseball team is, in the State of Texas, its football.
Not all of the students listening to DeBerry agreed. Marcus Fisher, a Junior Criminal Justice major, said other sports already on campus, need their support now. “Who here has been to a basketball game? Who goes to campus traditions? How many campus traditions have you all been too?
DeBerry response was supportive. “If we already had a football team this discourse wouldn't happen.”
After a brief rally, it was off the Presidents office, to present a petition with 3-thousand signatures. Less than 50 students took part in the march, and that small group made a statement in itself.
“Once we get a football team here, people will be proud of UTA,” said DeBerry during the march. People will be proud of the tradition and prestige.” The small turnout said a lot about student support of sports on campus. “Yeah, exactly,” DeBerry explained.
UTA dropped football 22-years ago. At the time, University administration claimed the sport was costing the school 1-million dollars a year, attracting average attendance of only 5,600. They claimed football wasn’t worth the financial burden any longer.
UTA still has a football stadium but lately, it’s been home to nothing but track meets, soccer and high school football games. But if the students get their way, they'll have a club football team playing here next spring. The school hasn’t approved a club team yet, and DeBerry has yet to collect 15-thousand dollars that he projected it will take to start the program.
Once DeBerry and his followers arrived at the University offices, the school president had a representative meet them.
DeBerry told Frank Almas, Vice President of Student Affairs at UTA, “We understand the University's position on football, but we don't agree with it.”
“For us to be starting out from scratch, it would mean 400-to-500 dollar per student, per semester and that is what is really the frightening thing,” said Bob Wright, Director of Public Affairs at UTA.”
When asked about football on campus next year, Wright replied, “No football next year, it will be a long time before we can have an NCAA team. We would love to have one, the question is just who's going to pay for it.
In the end, it was a peaceful march, but the future of football on the UTA campus is at least 5 years away. That’s when the school will conduct a second feasibility study, to bring the sport back.
UTA has already received approval from students to raise tuition 2-dollars per semester credit to bring football back, but because of the low voter turn out in April 2004, administration officials chose to wait another five years.
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