Bring Back Titan Football

One of the great things about the effort to bring back Titan Football has been the rallying of support by former players and coaches. We have received numerous emails from former players and coaches who were involved with Titan Football at one time or another. Being able to contact them and draw on their experience and contacts can be invaluable to this effort.

That  is why we are asking all former Titan Football players and coaches to update their current contact information via the Titan Athletics Club. Simply fill out the online form and that way we can stay in contact with all those lost Titans.

If you are a former Titan Football Player or coach, Click HERE to update your information. Thank you and Go Titans!

Image via WikipediaColorado State University Pueblo hadn’t had a football team since 1984, a casualty of a campuswide financial cut. The Thunderwolves are back on the gridiron playing football again at the Division II level and there is a noticeable change on the campus. The student body is more energized and there is much more campus pride that is apparent not only on campus but in the surrounding community as well. That is the power and the energy that college football can bring to a campus.

Of course you don’t have to take our word for it. Afterall, we are not in Colorado.  But how about the words of a former CSU Pueblo student who is now the Sports Information Director at his Alama Mater? We recently contacted Anthony Sandstrom and asked him a few questions about how bringing back football at CSU Pueblo has changed and benefited the university as a whole. Here is his response:

The return of football [to CSU Pueblo] has given the campus a rebirth, no doubt about it.  It has helped to raise enrollment (we jumped from 4,100 last year to over 4,600 this year), created a sense of student life that was certainly lacking (for the first time, we had homecoming, pep rallies that people actually attended) and an interest in our campus from the community, at probably the highest level it had ever been since we became a 4-year institution in 1963.  In our community, the campus lies east of the city, so the fact that the community has taken interest in us when we are kind of cut off from them physically is a great thing.  And there’s a buzz among the students, that’s for sure. They are way more interested in what we are doing on campus now.

But more than anything, we had a big donor to bring the program back.  Without community donations in excess of $13 million (in a drive that wasn’t even undertaken by us, but more by interested alums), it would not have been possible.  We had tried to bring football back in 2001, but it was determined that the money wasn’t there.  That is the most important element – the community participation in the project.  We’re just administrators here, and they put football on the table for it, and now we’re the caretakers…but we’re hardly the parents.

– Anthony Sandstrom, CSU Pueblo Sports Information Director

So there you have it. Bring back Titan Football and it will increase enrollment, raise student spirit and participation on campus and motivate the community at large. In the coming weeks we plan to provide more first hand accounts as to why football is essential to any college athletic department.

Image via WikipediaWhen it comes to college football in the Los Angeles and Orange County area, USC and UCLA are the only games in town. With the potential of the Titan Football program returning to active status on the horizon, we contacted Pete Carroll, Head Coach of the USC Trojan Football Team. We asked Coach Carroll if he was aware of our efforts to bring back Titan Football. We also asked him what were his thoughts on a potential third football program joining his and the Bruins in Southern California. Coach Carroll was kind enough to respond to those questions and others with this comment.

“I think it’s great that there is support to bring back Cal State Fullerton football. I’m all for it. There are a lot of talented kids in Southern California and I think the more opportunities there are for local kids to play at home and get a quality education, the better. Cal State Fullerton is a great school with a nice football tradition and I would definitely support an effort to bring football to another California state school. It would no doubt be a challenge to rebuild the program, but I like the idea.”

- Pete Carroll, USC Head Coach

Pretty powerful words from a coach who understands college football. Coach Carroll has been named the Pac-10 coach of the year three times, appeared in six consecutive BCS Bowl games and won two national championships (2003 & 2004). We couldn’t think of a better endorsement for bringing back Cal State Fullerton Football that one from a championship coach.