Editorial: Show your bulldog pride
You may not have accepted it
yet, but Fresno State is known nationwide because of athletics, not academics
or our award-winning wines.
With the Save Mart Center, one of the best arenas in the country on our
campus and our football team being ranked among the best in one of the
most popular sports in the nation, it is only natural for people to see
Fresno State as an athletics school.
Our fame in athletics, however, was not earned in the most noble of ways.
The road to our athletics’ fame has been paved with scandals including
athletes and officials.
During the Jerry Tarkanian era, some of our athletes were accused of cheating
to get good grades.
And former women’s basketball
coach Stacy Johnson-Klein was fired after the university discovered a
series of professional misconducts on her part. Soon after Johnson-Klein’s
departure, men’s basketball coach Ray Lopes shocked Fresno when
he suddenly announced his resignation because he broke NCAA phone call
rules.
Despite the problems surrounding our basketball teams, our football team
has maintained a clean record and carried itself in a dignified manner.
Our football team is now among the highest ranked schools in both athletics
and academics. Over the last eight years our football team’s graduation
rate has doubled and it has produced more than 50 academic stars in the
WAC region.
The football team’s Academic Progress Rate has also surpassed the
national average by almost 20 points and they are academically ranked
best in the WAC region.
The academic star of our football team extends to the NCAA. The team is
ranked fourth among NCAA Division 1-A schools in the West Coast, ahead
of big schools like Cal, USC and UCLA.
The university has also taken steps to make sure Fresno State athletics
turns away from its scandalous persona. The hiring of a new athletics
director and men’s basketball coach seem to be positive steps toward
bringing back discipline to the department, which was giving the whole
university a negative reputation.
But students don’t seem to have been moved by the positive developments
in the athletics department or the Bulldog football team’s performance
in class and on the field. Despite the team’s winning ways and cheaper
football tickets for students, the student section of Bulldog Stadium
needs to be full on a consistent basis.
University President John Welty’s riding a mini-bicycle to promote
homecoming should not be viewed as a once in a while funny gimmick by
the president, it should be a cue for students to join in and show their
pride in our high achieving football team.
In the Saturday game against Utah State, let us all come out and cheer
our football team to another victory. Let’s show our Fresno State
pride.
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