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Worth Their Weight in Gold
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That pretty well sums up the attitude of those associated with Oral Roberts University. It has to do with the Golden Eagle men's basketball team's trip to the NCAA tournament, which attracted the type of positive media attention that ORU hadn't seen in a very long time.
Even as a 16 seed--the lowest in a regional--ORU generated headlines such as:
"One 16th-Seeded Team May Truly Have a Prayer" (The New York Times)
"ORU Will Take David-Goliath matchup" (Dallas Morning News--front page of the news section; click here to read the story)
"The secret's out: Green a major talent" (The Commercial Appeal, Memphis)
"Is an ORU miracle possible?" (The Herald Democrat, Denison/Sherman, Texas)
"A wing and a prayer" (Yahoo! Sports)
"Someday, a No. 16 seed is gonna win" (The Sun Herald, Mississippi)
It helped that the Memphis Tigers, ORU's first-round opponent, were not as highly regarded as the other three #1 seeds in this year's tournament, but on close examination, what America's sports writers decided was that the Golden Eagles were not a flash in the pan; they were a team that had the best chance in a long time of upsetting a #1 seed.
Comments from these writers included talk about star forward Caleb Green's "eye-popping numbers," and described guard Ken Tutt as "a force" Green as a "bona fide star," and ORU as "perhaps the strongest 16 seed in tournament history."
ORU definitely gave Memphis a run for their money on March 17 in Dallas' American Airlines Center. The Eagles had the lead several times in the first half, but the Tigers showed their claws and went ahead for good with mere minutes to go before the half ended. ORU was never able to trim the Memphis lead to less than eight points. Final score: Memphis 94, ORU 78. The Eagles, however, shot 52.8 percent from the field--against a team that likes to hold (and usually does hold) opponents at 30 percent or below.
An untold number of ORU fans made the trip to Dallas to watch the Eagles. In Tulsa, the Alumni Association hosted a watch party in the campus cafeteria that drew between 250 and 300 alumni, students, faculty, staff, and family members as well as the ABC, NBC, and CBS local affiliates and radio station KRMG. Sodexho sold snacks as fans celebrated the highs and endured the lows of the game.
Even losing though, ORU can tell you, has its privileges.
An article in the Tulsa World spelled out some of the financial benefits of making it to the Big Dance. By winning the Mid-Continent Conference tournament (and earning that automatic berth in the NCAA tourney), the Eagles earned $35,000. Another $35,000 went into the coffers as a result of ORU's March 17 game. And, the NCAA doles out dollars to each conference every year; the Mid-Con will divide that money among its teams, which means ORU gets another $50,000-60,000. (Read the whole story by clicking here.)
Then, there's that other plus: the effect on a school's reputation. In interviews, Athletics director Mike Carter cited Gonzaga University, a Catholic school that has gone from obscurity to national prominence thanks to basketball success. The publicity alone from its team's feats in '01 was worth about $47 million, one study said. Last year, the school completed a capital campaign, topping their original $119 million goal and raising $148 million.
Dr. Jeff Ogle, Vice President for Student Development, says that "the recent accomplishments of the ORU Golden Eagle men's basketball team are no small thing so far as student recruitment and retention is concerned. The positive impact of 'March Madness' media attention is well documented with the experiences of Gonzaga University when its men's basketball team came upon the 'March Madness' scene a number of years ago.
"Our participation in the tournament and the resulting media attention will have been noticed by hundreds of individuals across the country who are considering ORU."
In the week before the tournament game, the campus store was a busy place. Students and staff were in there buying ORU T-shirts and other logo gear. People were excited about the upcoming game.
"For those of us who are already part of the ORU family," Dr. Ogle, an ORU alumnus himself, added, "the accomplishments of our team bring a sense of pride to the ORU community. We are proud of what our team stands for, the vision that we have, and the manner in which we are accomplishing our purposes in the athletic world.
"We are also proud of our guys, the players, and coaches that make up our TEAM. They have given deeper meaning to President Roberts' TEAM slogan: Together Everyone Accomplishes More--for the 2005-06 school year. They have worked hard and accomplished much...and it has been great fun for all of us as we have cheered them on throughout this season."
Oh, and being in the tournament shouldn't hurt men's basketball recruitment. Men's assistant Corey Williams told the Tulsa World that there is new interest in ORU on that front. And since Texas is a fertile recruiting ground for ORU, playing in Dallas and receiving so much press in that area can only help.
What does this all mean for ORU? And how should alumni respond to ORU's reappearance on the national stage?
- Tell others that you're an ORU graduate.
- Speak to college-bound students and encourage them to get more information about ORU.
- Pray for campus leaders as they make plans for ORU's future.
- Increase your financial support of the Alumni Foundation, which helps provide the extra funding ORU needs to build scholarship funds, improve facilities, offer more research opportunities in the hard sciences, and make academic programs more useful to students as they prepare to enter the workforce.
- You are part of this team. Your contributions make a difference. Click here to make a gift now.
