festivalgirl
10-08-2008, 02:13 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/sports/ncaafootball/08tulane.html?ref=sports
October 8, 2008
At Tulane, Sports Revival After Katrina’s Wind and Water
By KATIE THOMAS
NEW ORLEANS — Rick Dickson did not have much to brag about when a group of 23 prospective athletes visited Tulane University in January 2006, four months after Hurricane Katrina flooded the campus and caused the cancellation of classes for the fall semester.
The home football stadium, the Superdome, was closed for repairs. The athletic center, which had been inundated in four feet of water, had only recently reopened. Of 16 sports that were offered at Tulane before the storm, eight were suspended in a round of budget cuts meant to stave off financial collapse.
Dickson, the athletic director, and Scott Cowen, the university president, were grimly forthright in what they told the athletes: If you are afraid of adversity, they said, this is probably not the right place. You are inspired by this type of opportunity, or you are not.
Yet, by the end of the weekend, all but two of the athletes committed to Tulane, a success rate nearly unheard of in college athletics.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of a weekend like that,” Dickson said.
Like so many institutions in this city, Hurricane Katrina knocked the Tulane athletic department to the ground, threatening its survival. But Dickson’s story illustrates what some say has been an unforeseen consequence of the storm’s aftermath: the disaster has energized the student body and unified the community around athletics in a way rarely seen in the university’s 174-year history. ..........
October 8, 2008
At Tulane, Sports Revival After Katrina’s Wind and Water
By KATIE THOMAS
NEW ORLEANS — Rick Dickson did not have much to brag about when a group of 23 prospective athletes visited Tulane University in January 2006, four months after Hurricane Katrina flooded the campus and caused the cancellation of classes for the fall semester.
The home football stadium, the Superdome, was closed for repairs. The athletic center, which had been inundated in four feet of water, had only recently reopened. Of 16 sports that were offered at Tulane before the storm, eight were suspended in a round of budget cuts meant to stave off financial collapse.
Dickson, the athletic director, and Scott Cowen, the university president, were grimly forthright in what they told the athletes: If you are afraid of adversity, they said, this is probably not the right place. You are inspired by this type of opportunity, or you are not.
Yet, by the end of the weekend, all but two of the athletes committed to Tulane, a success rate nearly unheard of in college athletics.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of a weekend like that,” Dickson said.
Like so many institutions in this city, Hurricane Katrina knocked the Tulane athletic department to the ground, threatening its survival. But Dickson’s story illustrates what some say has been an unforeseen consequence of the storm’s aftermath: the disaster has energized the student body and unified the community around athletics in a way rarely seen in the university’s 174-year history. ..........