Nov. 1, 2006
Baylor Family,
I want to begin by thanking each of you who were a part of a record-setting crowd of 51,385 at Floyd Casey Stadium last Saturday. Along with being the largest crowd to ever witness a home Baylor football game, we received the largest gate in Baylor football history. Your support in the stands and in the form of ticket revenue is vital to the resurgence of the football program and another strong signal that Baylor football is making great progress. While we were disappointed in coming up short against the Aggies on the scoreboard, I have received numerous comments and e-mails from fans expressing how proud they were of the team's effort and excited they are about the support of our fans and the atmosphere at the Stadium.
We will dearly miss senior quarterback Shawn Bell who suffered a season-ending injury in the Texas A&M game. Shawn represents everything that we desire in a Baylor student-athlete. He has had an outstanding athletic career, is an excellent student, a team leader and outstanding young Christian man. Despite the injury, Shawn will continue to be a leader on the football team and plans to attend practice and games throughout the remainder of the season.
As you may know, the Baylor - Texas Tech (FSN at 11:00) and the Baylor - Oklahoma State (FSN at 11:30) football games will be televised the next two Saturdays. This will bring our number of television appearances this year to four. We believe that there is a very strong possibility that the Baylor - Oklahoma game will be selected as well making it five exposures for the year, the most that Baylor has enjoyed since joining the Big 12.
Congratulations to Coach Van Linder and the soccer team on reaching the Big 12 tournament for the first time since 2001. This young team has made great progress during the season and we are looking forward to a strong showing in the post-season.
The volleyball program ended a losing streak with an important win over #16 Missouri in the Ferrell Center on Friday night.
Men's and women's basketball season is underway this week with a pair of exhibition games. The women tip-off on Thursday at 7:00, and the men will open at noon on Saturday. I encourage everyone to be the first to see these outstanding young basketball teams. Both of these programs are going to be exciting to watch this year and will represent Baylor in an exemplary manner. As a bonus for the men's fans, we will be showing the Baylor - Texas Tech football game on BaylorVision during the exhibition game so that you can follow the football team in Lubbock while you watch basketball.
Despite the fact that we are ahead of last year's season ticket totals in both men's and women's basketball, it is not too late to purchase basketball season tickets. Please contact the Baylor athletic ticket office at 710-1000 to make sure that you are part of action this season!
The following are the most recent round of Ask Ian questions.
Dear Ian,
I know this isn't an earth shattering question but I wanted to ask. On the uniforms there used to be a Golden Bear Claw on the shoulders. Seeing clips of the Bears in the SWC days I have grown to like them very much and believe they gave a very unique individuality to our uniforms that was easily recognizable. Is there any chance of bringing them back or are they just to old style and outdated? If that's the case is there any way to give our uniforms more flare? They are just very plain in my opinion.
Thomas Patrick Bailey
Waco, Texas
Thomas,
Thank you for the e-mail and comment.
The uniforms with the golden bear claw have a classic look to them and may be worth replicating when we have another "Throwback Game." However, the team and fans seem to be pleased with this year's home uniform colors (gold helmet, green jersey and gold pants). A recent survey on BaylorBears.com suggested that about two thirds of our fans favor the uniform combination.
Ian
Ian, I am a season ticket holder (Section J). The atmosphere at the Baylor-Texas A&M game was outstanding, and this Baylor fan appreciates your attention to the small detail to improve the fan's experience.
Having said that, it is difficult to stomach Kris Radcliffe of KCEN and his "grab life by the horns hard hits" segment. Kris' comment about "congratulations, it's the 3rd quarter and you're all still here" was the final straw to me.
David Gibson
Waco, Texas
David,
Thank you for the e-mail. As I mentioned above, the atmosphere and enthusiasm from our fans was very special and I am grateful to all of you. I am certain that Kris Radcliffe of KCEN regrets the comment that he made and did not intend to offend Baylor fans.
Ian
Ian, It's refreshing to see an AD work so hard to support our coaches/student-athletes and champion their efforts to grow on the field and in their relationship with Jesus Christ. Thank you!
Why start football games at 6:00 p.m.? The fans on the east side struggle to see the first half action b/c of extreme glare and shadows. I'm sure the players have difficulty as well. Is it due to the attractiveness of the potential dinner concessions? It seems like the lighting issues could be abated by a 7:00 p.m. start.
Christopher D. Taylor
Waco, Texas
Christopher,
Thank you for the kind words. We assess a number of different factors when considering when to start home football games. Of course, television will dictate if the game is selected by one of the Big 12 television partners. If the game is not chosen, then we assess those factors that lead to greatest attendance and the best fan experience.
We have found that in recent years we attract more fans with night games as opposed to day games. At the same time, many season ticket holders are concerned about traveling home after a game that starts in the evening.
With that, we have found that 6:00 p.m. kickoffs are the best option for games in September and October. Once we reach November, we will kick-off in the afternoon due to reduced temperatures and in order to ease the travel of out-of-town fans.
Ian
Ian, With the football game against Tech conflicting with the Men's basketball game can the University reschedule the basketball game for the evening so all who would like to watch the Tech game and go to the Ferrell center can?
Trent Collier
Waco, Texas
Trent,
As I mentioned above, we will provide fans at the men's basketball exhibition game on Saturday the opportunity to view the Baylor - Texas Tech football game on BaylorVision. I want to thank Coach Drew for his willingness to have the football game shown, along with Bill Chaves and Nick Joos on our staff who have made the appropriate arrangements.
Ian
Mr. McCaw, Rumor has it that Baylor has sent more tickets to the Texas A&M ticket office because it sold out its allotment.
I'm hoping this rumor is untrue. I realize we're hoping to sell as many tickets as possible, but the fans who missed out on the first allotment of tickets can buy their tickets the day of the game.
By sending them more tickets, we're giving them an advantage that they would NEVER give us. At the Texas game, I couldn't help but notice how tiny the Baylor section was. They don't give opposing teams as many tickets as they want, and we shouldn't either. Why are we doing this for them when they would never do it for us?
Any tickets that aren't sold to Baylor fans can be bought on game day. It would be a shame if we ended up selling out and turning away Baylor fans because we gave our supposed rival more tickets.
David Kaye
Waco, Texas
David,
We did send Texas A&M about 600 tickets early in the week to ease the overwhelming number of calls that our ticket office was receiving. In addition, the Big 12 dictates that all schools provide a minimum of 4,000 tickets to the opponent for each game, but each visiting team can determine how many tickets it needs out of that allotment. While we would prefer to sell all 51,000 plus tickets to Baylor fans, we simply have no way of knowing whether Baylor or Texas A&M fans are purchasing the tickets.
Moreover, at this time, we do not have a large enough fan base to consistently fill the Stadium. Growing our fan base is among our highest priorities, so I encourage each of you to ask friends and family members to purchase season tickets to Baylor sports. There truly is no better way to support the athletics program!
Ian
Dear Mr. McCaw, I am a 1969 Baylor grad and a second generation Baylorite. Will it ever be revealed to Baylor fans the grounds on which Terrance Parks was dismissed from the football team? He seemed to be an outstanding player. Also, who officially dismissed him?
Thank you.
Barbara b. Henderson
Longview, Texas
Barbara,
Student privacy laws prevent the university from disclosing the reason for student-athletes being disciplined or dismissed from an athletics team. With that, we do not announce details or reasons for dismissals. We will miss Terrence and wish him much success in his future endeavors.
Ian
Ian, Hand out Growl Towels for $1 before the A&M game.
Gradie Folmar
Dallas, Texas
Gradie,
You had the same great idea as our marketing staff! Special thanks to the generosity of State Farm Insurance, we did provide Growl Towels to the first 20,000 fans at no cost.
Ian
Mr. McCaw; Is it true that the university is considering doing away with the traditional interlocking BU as an official mark of Baylor?
Marcus McDaniel
Waco, Texas
Marcus,
No. The interlocking BU mark is here to stay. We are using the Baylor spirit mark much more extensively in our signage and marketing initiatives for branding reasons, but we will continue to utilize the interlocking BU when appropriate.
Ian
