WICHITA, Kansas – It’s been 25 years since football was suspended at Wichita State University. But to this day, the topic is one of the most heated, passionate topics in Wichita.
Nearly 50 years have passed since football great Hank Schichtle took the field at Cessna Stadium. Yet, it he listens close enough, he can still hear the marching band playing the fight song, the clashing of the helmets and the cheering of the fans.
"It was fun, I mean we were a packed house in the arena, it was packed here," he said. "The atmosphere was great, the marching band -- it was just a fun place to be."
It’s a different WSU today. The field at Cessna Stadium shows signs of its age. Its seats are empty. There is no marching band. There is no football.
"It's a travesty not only for the tradition of the university, for the revenue, that's one of the biggest, but most importantly for the students," Schichtle said.
Schichtle has been on a different team the past few decades. Its goal is to get WSU football back. They’ve had a few close calls, but their losing streak continues. Some players have even given up.
"We've lost money, we've lost revenue in terms of regents money that's not come to this university," Schichtle said. "All these things came to pass as a result of our investigation into why football was dropped here. Why is it not allowed when the public would support it, when the vast majority of fans in Wichita would support it?"
The issue sits thousands of pages deep in the office of Wichita attorney Fred Marrs. A WSU and University of Kansas Alumnus, Marrs turned die-hard advocate after uncovering what he calls "a KU monopolistic controlled Board of Regents." KU control that, he says, led to the suspension of WSU’s football program in 1986 – never to be restarted.
In fact, Marrs believes the Board was so controlled by KU alum, he personally wrote legislation to de-pack it. It passed after a two-year struggle in 1999.
In Senate Bill 345, it now states "at no time shall there be more than one representative of any one postsecondary educational institution designated for service on a commission." But WSU President Donald Beggs was appointed the year prior and both Marrs and Schichtle believe he’s still motivated by a commitment he made to keep football away. It’s a claim that’s never been proven and one that Beggs adamantly denies.
"I have had no pressure from the Board," Beggs said. "I have had no pressure from any other institution. That is the responsibility of WSU." [Please note president Beggs clever changing of the issue to the present tense. In short, he has no pressure "now" , not that he didn't make the commitment in order to obtain the position. And, he has no pressure now for the reasons that chancellor Heminway has retired from KU; and the year after Heminway, the KU packed Board of Regents, and the KU packed selection committee for WSU, picked Beggs for WSU's president, we were able to obtain passage of Senate Bill 345 de-packing the Board of Regents. Accordingly, Beggs has had no pressure from the Board of Regents or KU since he made the initial commitment, but he will never testify under oath and subject to penalties of perjury, that he never made the commitment in the first instance.] [Moreover, while Beggs now says it is the responsibility of WSU, he originally was willing to advise Mayor Brewer that he could not bring back football without the Board of Regents approval, which assertion Brewer then repeated as his advice from Beggs in open public City Council meeting. At my presentation at the same meeting, I advised the Council that the statement was false, and that the Board of Regents had no jurisdiction over sports at WSU, K-State, or KU. I then provided the Board with a open records request for any document upon which they relied to assert jurisdiction of sports at WSU, K-State, or KU, and Boards counsel replied: "There are none." But apparently the issue so got the KU folks attention, that by 2002 they obtained passage of a paragraph law making it official that the Board has no jurisdiction over any institutions' program that the Board provides no funds for, which includes all sports.]
Sitting in his office, Beggs is no stranger to the long-standing football debate.
"The cost factor is real, and it's a front end cost," Beggs said. "And we can't get the funds to do that. Those who have ideas, it's always someone else's money." [In the past, Beggs would not even try to obtain the funds, even when he was told $20 million was on the table ready to start the funds for football, Beggs would not agree to talk to the folks willing to make the contributions.] [Beggs "can't get the funds", because he doesn't want the funds, not because they were not or are not available.]
Beggs estimates the cost for initial start-up at $5 million and no one denies the magnitude of it. WSU would need a coach’s quarters, weight room, equipment and scholarships – not to mention a division and equal women’s scholarships. [This is a reasonable start-up number that the women president of East Tennessee State obtained to restart football at East Tennessee State. But Beggs doesn't have such leadership and wouldn't even talk to folks when he had four times that amount on the table.]
But in 2006, then Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans said he found the answer. He found the money. Mayans proposed re-directing tax money and rounded up donors who he says were will to give and give big – to the tune of $10 million. [The tax money Mayans proposed re-directing was a $500,000 line item in the WSU submitted budget entitled only "Contingency". This contingency line item had never before Beggs tenure been more than 5 or $6,000 dollars, but immediately upon taking office, Beggs increased the contingence line item 100 times with no offered justification whatsoever. Nor did Mayans or the City Council or the County Commission know or understand what the $500,000 a year was being spent on, and Mayans thought he could solve two problems at once by applying the $500,000 to football scholarships. But Beggs was adamantly opposed, and would hear no more about it. You see, Beggs says: "It's my money", and he thinks it is, not the taxpayers' moneys.]
Off camera, Mayans said Beggs didn't want to hear it. Schichtle had a similar experience.
"I went to the athletic director in 2001, 2002 and I told him I'd go raise the money, and they wouldn't even let me do that, they wouldn't even let me try," he said.
"Until we find a funding source that doesn't take away from the other students in the university, then from my standpoint our primary mission is the teaching and the research and the service activities that we do here," said Beggs. [At the time Mayor Mayans was trying to help out and provide the leadership and sources of funds, Beggs was shown how 85 football and 85 women sports scholarships could be funded by the mill levy, simply by the addition of two years increase in the mill levy, without effecting any existing program or line item. This pretended excuse that it would effect existing students at WSU, is a red herring argument without any merit at all, and intellectually dishonestly offered up by Beggs as an excuse for why he can't or won't do anything.]
[Brackets and hi-liting added by Fred Marrs]
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