Bring Back Titan Football

Promoting the Reinstatement of the Cal State Fullerton Football Team

Bringbacktitanfootball.com is a website dedicated to the reinstatement of the Cal State Fullerton Football Team to active and competitive status. No matter if the team was winning championships or experiencing a difficult season, many students, alumni and fans were supportive of the program up until its cancellation. We believe that reinstating the Cal State Fullerton Football Team will provide a greater sense of pride and cohesiveness among current students, alumni and the community at large in the greater Orange County, California area. One of the main arguments for the elimination of the Cal State Fullerton Football program in 1992 was overall apathy and a lack of fan support. We believe that fan apathy towards the Cal State Fullerton Football Team no longer exists in today's climate. By reading this passage and by visiting this website you have taken a positive step forward towards eventually bringing back the Titan Football program.

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Posted by David on April 16, 2008

Georgia State Provides the Blueprint to Bring Back Titan Football

gsupanthers.jpgIf there ever was another university that was almost a mirror image of Cal State Fullerton it would be Georgia State University. In a landmark announcement set to be delivered during a press conference on April 17, 2008, Georgia State officials are expected to announce the university will field a NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision Team as early as 2010. This expected announcement begs the question, “If Georgia State can start a football team from scratch, why can’t Cal State Fullerton bring Titan Football back?”

(Please read the news item on msn.foxsports.com and ESPN.com for the full details of Georgia State University’s expected announcement.)

UPDATED: Georgia State to Kick Off Football Program in 2010 courtesy of the Colonial Athletic Association official website.

For the sake of comparison, let’s take a look at Georgia State against Cal State Fullerton. Information was gleaned from both the Georgia State Wikipedia page and the California State University, Fullerton Wikipedia page for the purposes of comparison.

Cal State Fullerton exceeds Georgia State’s student enrollment by over 10,000 students yet both schools offer about the same amount of student housing. Both schools have long time been considered “commuter schools” due to the shortage of on-campus housing. Both schools are in heavy urban areas and both campuses are “land locked”, meaning the campus acreage can not expand beyond the current borders. Athletically, GSU fields 17 Division 1 teams while Cal State Fullerton has 13 teams in both men’s and women’s sports. With so many similarities how is it that Georgia State will be playing college football in two years yet Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Stadium sits dormant during the football season? The blueprint is there and thanks to Georgia State, Cal State Fullerton could be playing football once again if we can follow the lead of Georgia State.

Here is how they did it:

Georgia State’s athletic program completed a feasibility study that looked at the interest and potential cost to add a Division I-AA college football team. The feasibility study included a survey in which the majority of the students, faculty, staff and alumni expressed their support for this addition. The study included the various financial costs involved ranging from the renovation of a local stadium in Atlanta to the complete transformation of the current sports arena to a football and basketball arena.

In April 2007, Georgia State held a pair of town-hall meetings on the subject of football, in which students, alumni, and faculty were able to comment on the addition of football. At this time, it was stated that if football were to proceed at Georgia State they could play at the Georgia Dome.

Later the same week, Georgia State announced that former NFL coach and native Georgian Dan Reeves was to assist with the study of football, and to help with fund raising for the sport.

On October 19, 2007 the Georgia State University Mandatory Student Fee Committee unanimously approved a proposal from the Athletics Department for an $85 per semester increase to support football, additional women’s sports and a marching band program.

Of course Georgia State and Cal State Fullerton are not carbon copies of each other but the similarities are quite close. Ultimately the current Cal State Fullerton students will make the decision if Titan Football will once again return to Fullerton.

Now that you see that it can be done at Georgia State, does this change your mind if Cal State Fullerton can bring back Titan Football?

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Posted by David on March 16, 2008

Cal State Fullerton Can Field Championship Caliber Teams

fullerton-basketball-champions.jpgAs the final seconds of the Big West Men’s Basketball Tournament Championship Game ticked off the clock, I couldn’t help but have a rush of emotions come over me. Seeing the Cal State Fullerton Basketball Team earn a bid to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament after a 30 year wait was pure elation. Head Coach Bob Burton, his staff, and a talented group of Titan Basketball players should be heartily congratulated for a great season that still has yet to end. So as the Cal State Fullerton Basketball Team prepares to take on the Big Ten Champion Wisconsin Badgers, I can’t help but think that now the time is ripe to bring back Titan Football.

Prior to the Titan Basketball Team winning the 2008 Big West Conference, many would dismiss the program as a perennial loser. Who could blame them? Before Bob Burton’s arrival on campus, Cal State Fullerton Basketball was the laughing stock of the Big West. Fullerton Basketball was no stranger to 20 loss seasons under Burton’s predecessors Donny Daniels and Bob Hawking. Prior to Burton’s arrival, many scoffed that no matter how great a coach he was, changing the culture of losing, overcoming inferior facilities, and turning around overall fan apathy would be a losing battle. Burton didn’t listen and with solid recruiting classes and the right system, Cal State Fullerton Basketball is now going to the Big Dance after a 30 year hiatus.

16_bwest1_large.jpgSo how does the Titan Basketball Team’s success this year affect the prospect of bringing back Titan Football in the future? Quite a bit actually. The same arguments you just read about the Titan Basketball Team being a poor program are the same complaints you will hear in regards to returning football to Cal State Fullerton. Fan apathy. A losing culture. Improper facilities. They all can be argued as a reason to not bring back the football team. Some may argue (including myself and the rest of the committee to bring back Titan Football) that if the 2008 Cal State Fullerton Basketball Team can make those changes, so can the football team. Times are different now.

Watching the Cal State Fullerton Basketball fans rush the court at the Anaheim Convention Center (twice, no less) demonstrated to me that fan apathy is not a problem anymore. With more students living on campus and more student housing off-campus, the climate now is much different than it was when football was dropped. Football Saturdays are an event complete with tailgating and socializing before and after the games. At other football schools, whether the team has a winning or losing season, many students will come out to support that activity, not just the team.

So why didn’t they support it back when Cal State Fullerton had a football team? Two simple reasons: (1) There was no on-campus stadium. Even the most die-hard students and fans would not drive to the Santa Ana Bowl to watch Cal State Fullerton play, (2) By the time Titan Stadium was built, the writing was on the wall and most knew the program’s days were numbered.

No matter what the end result is with the Cal State Fullerton Basketball Team in March Madness, the momentum and the excitement of this season will be a positive ripple effect in bringing back Titan Football. By just making an appearance in the NCAA Basketball Tournament will not only raise the awareness of Cal State Fullerton nationally but will heighten the students’ excitement to field a football team as well.

Cal State Fullerton already has demonstrated it can field championship caliber teams. With a conference championship in men’s basketball already in hand and the Cal State Fullerton Baseball Team looking strong again in 2008, it is time to complete the trifecta and bring back Titan Football. Speaking of the Cal State Fullerton Baseball Team, did the NCAA Tournament Committee inadvertently schedule a “home game” for the Titans in the first round of March Madness? The Titans first set of games are in Omaha, Nebraska. Titan Baseball fans know that Omaha is the home away from home for Cal State Fullerton. Let’s just hope that success transfers north from Rosenblatt Stadium to the Qwest Center downtown this weekend!

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Posted by David on January 5, 2008

News & Review of Jan. 4th Meeting

kine1.jpgThe scheduled meeting with the Bring Back Titan Football Committee, the CSUF Director of Athletics Brian Quinn, and CSUF Senior Associate Athletic Director Allison Rich lasted nearly 90 minutes. Committee members were joined by a handful of current students that are also in support of reinstating the Titan Football program. The meeting was rather informal and was more of a question and answer session to determine the best and most feasible plan of action for bringing back football. Following are a few notable highlights that came out of the meeting: Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by David on January 4, 2008

OC Register Reports Findings from Meeting

OC Register LogoThe Bring Back Titan Football Committee met with CSUF Athletic Director Brian Quinn and Associate Athletic Director Allison Rich January 4, 2008. Janis Carr, long time writer for the Orange County Register, did not actively participate in the meeting but was at the Titan House to cover the story. Carr met with a number of committee members after the meeting concluded and published her report later that evening. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by David on December 29, 2007

Meeting Scheduled for Jan. 4, 2008 (Updated)

Titan HouseThe Bring Back Titan Football Committee is scheduled to meet on January 4, 2008 at 4 p.m. on the campus of Cal State Fullerton. The location of the meeting will be held at the Titan House, which is located near the athletic fields. The Bring Back Titan Football Committee will be joined by Brian Quinn, CSUF Director of Athletics, and Allison Rich, CSUF Senior Associate Athletic Director, to answer questions.

The committee plans to present a number of questions to both Dir. Quinn and Assoc. Dir. Rich. These questions are aimed to gain more clarity and understanding of the tasks that need to be taken first in order to get the Titan Football program reinstated.

This meeting will not address the reasons why the Titan Football program was dropped in 1992. The purpose of this meeting is geared towards moving forward and discovering the best way to get the Titans playing football once again in the future.

If you can not attend the meeting in person but do have questions you would like raised, feel free to ask those questions here. Use the “Leave a Reply” box below to submit your questions you would like answered. Your questions will be included in the meeting’s discussion.

Upon completion of the meeting, a synopsis of what was discussed will be published here on BringBackTitanFootball.com.

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Posted by David on December 4, 2007

Daily Titan Covers Football Meeting

Drumming up interest for the reinstatement of the Titan Football will be a long road ahead. Having excellent communication is key to the process, but another important factor will be the media. The recent town hall style meeting in November caught the attention of Robert Stroud, a sports writer for the Cal State Fullerton student newspaper the Daily Titan. Read the article that Stroud wrote and offer your support to this worthy cause.

Read the rest of this entry »

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