Aug. 8, 2001
Columbia, Mo. - Greetings from Tigerland!! It's my pleasure to have the opportunity to put together some more notes concerning Tiger Athletics, and I hope you'll enjoy.
As always, if you have any comments, or questions you'd like to see answered in future columns, please contact me by e-mail at: mollerc@missouri.edu
*-Thank-You's to All...
First off, I want to take a minute to say "Thank-You" to all of those people who sent me notes of encouragement for this venture. After my first column back in July, I was shocked with the support I received. I saved the e-mails (unsolicited professional tip -- always save the compliments for the files, they can come in handy someday!!), and counted nearly 50 messages of support. To balance it out, I got two letters of discouragement, one stating indifference, and one asking why we don't serve beer at games. Just kidding, it was all positive.
*-Football Scrimmage Will Highlight August 18th Event
Just wanted to make sure everyone knows about a big day we're going to have on August 18th in Columbia. We're calling the day "Mizzou Preview 2001," and it will be a day full of events.
The feature event will be a scrimmage by Coach Gary Pinkel's Tigers at Memorial Stadium at 1:45 p.m. They'll be available for autographs afterward at roughly 4 p.m.
Prior to that, the stadium will open at 9 a.m. for a select-a-seat opportunity where people can come view (and purchase) what seats are still available for season ticket purchases. The press box facility will also be open for tours from 9 to Noon for those who haven't yet had a chance to see our fabulous facility.
At 10 a.m., we will hold the grand opening of the newly-expanded Tiger Team Store, our souvenir/merchandise store located on the north rim of the stadium. Should be lots of good deals for everyone, with a lot of attractive new merchandise in stock.
Following that, our volleyball team will hold an open house over at Hearnes beginning at 5 p.m. They'll scrimmage for roughly 45 minutes to an hour, and hold an autograph session afterward.
There is no admission fee for the day, so be sure to come out and get a glimpse of what's to come this year!!
*-Prevent Bleacher-Bottom
Since I've been in this business for almost 10 years, it's been almost that long since I've sat in the stands to watch a football game. What I do remember, though, is the uncomfortable bleachers you had to sit in for the three-hour games. The dreaded "bleacher bottom."
You can prevent bleacher bottom by ordering your chairback seats for the games this season. We have roughly 2,000 available for the year, but they're going fast. These were very popular additions last year, as we ended up selling out of our allotment. More were ordered this season, and we hope to provide one to everyone who wants one. You can order these by calling the ticket office at 1-800-CAT-PAWS.
*-Arena Update
Plans for the new arena are progressing, as we're currently in the process of choosing an architect. Around 20 firms across the nation were solicited, and RFQ's (Request For Qualification) were due back to us from those firms today (Wednesday). Once we get those back, we will whittle the group down to the best few candidates, and plan to hold interviews later this month with those firms.
After the interviews, we'll make our recommendation to the Board of Curators for final approval. When it's all said and done, we hope to have the building open for the 2004-05 season.
One of the big questions those of us in the department have about the project is who will move over to the new building? Those discussions are taking place right now, along with many others concerning the project, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out in the end.
*-Website Redesign
A lot of people were curious about the redesign of the website that I had mentioned last month. We met with a team from FansOnly this week, and came up with a mid-October date for the planned re-launch. The intent behind the facelift is to make the site more attractive visually, and more informative, as well. We'll have the opportunity to have more features available, which should be good for all involved. We tested live stats for football last year, and will expand that to basketball games this season, for example.
The popularity of our site has increased quite a bit, as we've continued to improve it. For the 1998-99 season, we had 1,401,572 page views (measured from July to June), and that increased to 3,220,818 in 1999-2000. We're pleased to see that the numbers show we increased by 133% to 5,441,014 views for the 2000-01 season.
Our biggest month ever was November of 2000, as we had a massive 1,059,216 views. That likely had to do with the fact that basketball was starting up, as well as the search for a new football coach.
*-A New, But Familiar Face
In college athletics, change is a key word. Especially when dealing with personnel, it seems like there's new faces everywhere you turn in the halls these days.
One change you might not have heard about is the welcome addition of Gary Link to the Athletic Department staff. Gary, who is a former basketball player for Norm Stewart, started in July as a special assistant to the athletic director. Gary will focus on efforts with men's basketball, and will have a hand in many fundraising and special events related to men's hoops. Of course, you will recognize Gary as the color analyst on the basketball radio network, which he's done for the past five years.
And if you never saw Gary play (and a lot of us aren't old enough to remember that!!), you didn't miss much, according to quite a few observers. You especially didn't miss any assists, because of the fact that he never passed the ball.
Just kidding, I count Gary as a very good friend, so it's always fun to give your friends a hard time. He actually was a very solid player for Coach Stewart, as he averaged 10.5 points a game in his career, including 17.3 as a senior in 1973-74. It is true that he never recorded an assist, but that's because assists weren't recorded as an official stat until 1976-77.
*-Amphitheater at Mizzou
Another exciting development going on here is the Amphitheater at Mizzou. If you haven't heard, this is an undertaking that will create an outdoor concert facility on the natural grass-bowl area located between Hearnes and Faurot Field. The hill, which us MU grads remember fondly as an excellent sledding site, will be the future location for some great outdoor events.
To explain further, the facility will feature 1,500 reserved seats down on the flat area at the bottom of the hill, in front of a portable stage that will be built the day of each concert. Additionally, up to 5,000 general admission tickets can be sold for those wishing to bring a blanket and sit on the hill and enjoy the evening. We've been given permission to sell beer and wine at the facility, as well.
We're honored to have blues legend B.B. King, along with Buddy Guy, John Hiatt and Tommy Castro to open the facility on Friday, August 17th at 6 p.m. It should a very exciting event, and if all goes well, we plan to make weekend concerts a regular happening next year during the spring and summer.
Ticket sales are going nicely, as all reserved seats have been sold. There are still plenty of GA tickets available for $34 apiece by calling toll free at 1-866-646-8849. They can also be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com, or by visiting any TicketMaster location.
*-Baby News
One of my favorite student-athletes that I've had the pleasure to work with, Jeff Hafer, recently had some exciting news, as he and his lovely wife, Annie, were blessed with the birth of their first child, Thomas Gregory, on August 2nd (which also happens to be Jeff's birthday).
The baby was born at 5:05 p.m., weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces and was 21 inches long. Everyone was doing well at last report. Jeff is serving in his first year as an assistant coach at Pittsburg State
*-On the Lighter Side
Kareem Rush will probably want to kill me for this, but this is a story that I just have to share, just to show how human we all are.
You'll remember that in July, Kareem had the opportunity to visit Chicago as part of Playboy Magazine's preseason All-America team photo shoot. He had a great time there, but the funny story involves his troubles in getting to the Windy City.
Kareem was to fly out of KCI on a Friday morning at roughly 10:40. That morning at 10:15, I got a call from Kareem. His first words to me were "Chad, I just did the dumbest thing I've done in a long time." As a PR person, those types of statements make your heart drop to your shoes. He explained that when he left Columbia early that morning, he stopped to fill his car with gas on the way out of town. When he got to the airport to check in, he couldn't find his wallet. He then had the horrifying realization that he had put his wallet on top of his car, and didn't remember taking it off before he left. No ID, no plane flight, as we know nowadays.
Well, us PR practitioners wear quite a few different hats, and I soon found myself driving down I-70 toward Kansas City doing about 50 miles an hour, just hoping to find a wallet. I drove for about 15 miles (getting several angry honks along the way) before turning around, figuring it was a lost cause.
With no ID, Kareem was not going to be able to get on a plane, and I was worried our All-American would miss the big photo shoot. But he ran to his home in Kansas City, and grabbed a media guide, a high school yearbook and other assorted pictures, and took those back to the airport. Using those documents as an ID, they let him on a later flight, and all was good with the world, especially when his wallet was turned in by some good soul in Kansas City. Seems as though he got all the way to the airport before it fell off the roof!!
Just as he does on the court, Kareem handled himself with extreme grace in this situation. Since it turned out okay, it's something we can laugh about. I know I'll give him a hard time about it for awhile, too!!
Well, that's it for now. Thanks so much for taking the time to read up. Again, if there are any questions (within reason of course) you'd like to see answered in future columns, please contact me at mollerc@missouri.edu
Hope to see you soon in Columbia!!
Best Wishes,
Director, Athletic Media Relations