Reaction to HU dropping football: Ex-QB Carlos Garay

(All members of the Hofstra community are invited to share their thoughts about the dropping of the football program by emailing Defiantly Dutch at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.)

Me being around the program for the last 10 years, I wasn’t that surprised, because I kind of knew that’s what Rabinowitz wanted from the very beginning, when he took over for Shuart. I knew he was against the program from day one. But I was still shocked that it actually happened, Everybody—all the alumni—was trying to get the program to be better. The last [few] years [were] a little questionable, because the new coach wasn’t the coach that we all wanted from the ‘90s. The guys that played for Gigantino wanted him to be the head coach. So the guys from the ‘90s kind of rebelled a little bit against he program. And then, prior to that, with the new regime coming in, we knew changes were amongst us.

I think that was definitely part of the plan, because from what I understand, they didn’t even interview him. And he was by all means the leading candidate who should have taken over for Coach Gardi. He’s a proven winner, everybody loved him, guys played for him, would all kill for the guy. He was the perfect person to take the job. And when Rabinowitz and Jack Hayes totally nixed him, that was a major downfall for Hofstra.

I’ve met Dave Cohen. He did a very nice job from the beginning. I kind of doubted him as well as everybody else, but as I got to know him, he was a great guy unfortunately set up to fail. Obviously, he didn’t know what was going on either. He got blindsided. He was definitely set up to fail. If they wanted the program to succeed, they would have hired Greg Gigantino, because just from Gigantino joining as the head coach, you would have had everybody from the ‘90s supporting the program. It’s a no-brainer. And Gigantino would have been the guy, who, like coach Gardi, called people up and told his player to come support the program. They would do that. If they get a call from Dave Cohen, nobody’s going to listen, you know what I mean?

I wasn’t privy to the financial situations of what was being pushed into the program. But just knowing how they marketed the program…they didn’t push the program like it should have been pushed. When you leave it up to a coach—first of all, the new coach, Cohen, was trying to get the team going. He shouldn’t be worried about how the school’s marketing the program, you know what I mean? And the school didn’t market the program. The program marketed itself because of all the pros, from Wayne Chrebet on. The program marketed itself. And the program did well—well enough,  better than average, without any push from the school.

Basically [Rabinowitz] did a two-year investigation into the program. Why did he not involve the alumni? Why didn’t he tell the alumni at least, or at least the football program, that you’re on the chopping block? Because if that would have happened, people would have come out of the woodwork to make sure that we would make it successful, you know what I mean That’s what kills me the most. They did this all behind closed doors with a committee that had no ties to Hofstra football, [no] current ties with Hofstra football. He claims that there were two people that used to play football [on the Board], but they’re not currently involved with what goes on at Hofstra football.

What shocked me also is that he basically said it’s not financial, it’s strictly a business decision. And the business decision is based off of people who don’t have any interest in football. That’s like a blind side [to] and backstabbing of everybody that graduated that has anything to do with the football program. And not just football players—Kickline dancers, cheerleaders, pep squad. They say that Hofstra wasn’t a nationally recognized program. You kidding me? Wayne, when Wayne made the NFL, that really boosted Hofstra’s notoriety all over the country. I go places, I go all over the country and I say I’m from Hofstra. They say ‘Wayne Chrebet.’ That’s what they know about Hofstra. Yes, it’s a good school. It’s always been a good school. But what gives you notoriety is the sports, the publicity of the sports. I can’t understand how they don’t see that.

When they talk football, it’s “little ol’ Hofstra.” Yes, but they’re talking about Hofstra, you know what I mean [laughs] I mean, the last 10, 15 years, they talked about Hofstra on a national stage. Nobody would know Hofstra unless you saw football. Unless you were in [film] production, you wouldn’t know Francis Ford Coppola went to Hofstra. There’s big name people—you wouldn’t know they went to Hofstra unless you went to Hofstra. People don’t know that there’s a lot of big names—Governor Patterson got his law degree from Hofstra. Nobody knows that unless you’re in politics or know Governor Patterson or look at his resume. You wont know that. He doesn’t mention that he went to Hofstra. Every time they talk about a football player, they say ‘Marques Colston from Hofstra University.’ There you go. Right there, that’s publicity. Kids grow up, they say ‘Marques Colston, I want to go to here he went to school. Wayne Chrebet, I want to go where he went to school.’ It’s a good school too, you know what I mean? It’s crazy.

If he wants to talk about national notoriety, he’s getting it now. It’s bad publicity. They’ve got problems if they don’t have a football team. If you’re going to go to a good communications school, you know what? I’ll find a communications school that has football. He’s producing bad publicity for Hofstra.

You can go back when I played, when we were 8-1-1, we had probably one of the best teams that we ever had, we didn’t have tones of people there. But you know what? We had a good TV contract and everybody saw the games. They got rid of the TV contract. Why? Well, talk to the administration. They got rid of the contract because they didn’t want anybody to see Hofstra football. It’s all part of the plan to get rid of football. He executed it perfectly. But you know what? He pissed off a lot of people. Football has been around at Hofstra since the inception of the school. He’s not attributing anything that’s happened to Hofstra and how big Hofstra has gotten over the past 10 years—nothing as even been attributed to football. He’s blind. He’s blind about that.

I’m actually really happy that everybody is speaking up [and protesting the decision]. It’s a major part of school. You take it for granted, kids take it for granted. But you know what? Every major big-time school—all the Ivy League schools have football, they don’t make money from football, but you know what, its part of life. It’s part of the school atmosphere. And to get rid of that part of the school—you get rid of football, you’re getting rid of 100 football players. That would be 100 students. You’re getting rid of cheerleaders, getting rid of Kickline, getting rid of reporters—everything that is involved with football. Yeah, football costs the most, because it’s the most important. He says football costs the most. Of course it does, it involves the most people and it’s going to give you the most notoriety. Take the program to the highest level and you’re getting more people involved.

That’s kind of why I went to Hofstra University—my uncle went to Hofstra [and played football]. Hofstra was a great family, it was a great place to be because everybody knew each other. But as President Shuart left, Rabinowitz took over and he pushed, he broke the family up. Basically, to put it into simple terms, he systematically dismantled the family and everything that [Joe] Margiotta and President Shuart built up, he just crumbled down in a matter of a couple weeks. They built it up over 50 years, these guys went to school in the ‘50s, they grew up, they lived and breathed Hofstra football. Those guys are the heart of Hofstra. And my uncle went there and a lot of his friends. I know it’s more of a family. Hofstra was more of a family then.

My uncle went there, his son, his daughter—my niece—goes there. She doesn’t play sports, but she goes to school there. She never would have gone to Hofstra if we didn’t go there. There’s tons of other schools to go to, but she knew how the program worked. She knew when I say ‘the program,’ the program is all of Hofstra…the whole experience is more of a family.

My uncle met his wife there, she went to Hofstra. Many of their friends all went there. It was a big blow to us. It hit us really hard.

This was kind of a wakeup call to everybody, [to] the alumni and everybody that took it for granted that football will always be there. The old saying ‘You don’t realize how great you have it until it’s gone?’ You know what? If we get football back—when we get football back—it’s gonna be bigger and better than ever.

Reaction to HU dropping football: Ex-assistant coach Greg Gigantino

(All members of the Hofstra community are invited to share their thoughts about the dropping of the football program by emailing Defiantly Dutch at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.)

His initial reaction:

Well, maybe more saddened than surprised. I think I said this to some of the guys, but if you just sit back and look at the whole thing—the whole spectrum, not just the football team, just the type of things that [have been] happening in the last seven years there, then no it doesn’t surprise me, knowing some of the people involved.

On how close he came to being named coach after Joe Gardi retired in 2005:

They did interview me. You know when you’re getting bull[expletive] [laughs]. There’s in reality interviews and then there’s tokens and things like that. I think that whole thing came down to people wanting—I don’t need to mention names—to get out from the old regime and start anew with the idea in the back of our minds [that] if this thing doesn’t go really good, we’re going to get rid of it. And I think the last thing that whoever made this decision wanted was some big public debate about it. It was done behind closed doors and they made up their minds and that was it.

On how things would have been different if a Gardi-era staffer succeeded him as head coach:

I’m not going to sit here and say we’d be back in the top 10 and in the national championship hunt again. I know [what] would have happened is that all those guys in the pros and all those alumni we have would have stepped up and helped the program. There was always an issue of getting people in the stands, and nobody got more publicity or no one did it better than Coach Gardi stirring the pot. Good or bad, he stirred the pot. You sat in those press conferences. Coach could say crazy stuff, but he would definitely tell them exactly the way he thought.

On how he has been affected by two programs dropping football (Gigantino’s daughter, Sarah, was Northeastern’s administrative assistant/football operations):

It’s been shocking. It’s been terrible. My daughter, her job has been eliminated. They’re going to make an effort to keep her in the athletic department, but she likes the football part of it. I told her just hang in there, just like all the coaches. I know when they get fired or recently with the guys at Northeastern, you’ve got to try to help your buddies. There’s still a brotherhood among coaches. There used to be a real strong one. Now, it’s not what it used to be, but you’re still going to help people you know and have confidence in and have trust in.

On how quickly Hofstra went from Division III to the I-AA playoffs to extinction:

I think that’s one thing people don’t get. That’s the years people don’t get. Wayne’s last year, us going to Delaware and tying them. We’re an extra point and a field goal away from being undefeated with no scholarships. Obviously we weren’t in a conference then. If we were in a conference, we could have maybe won the conference and gotten into the playoffs. And then ’95, that was just a whirlwind—Kharon [Brown] and New York Times, us 10-0 and we’re number whatever we were in the country at that time going down to play Marshall, who was no. 1 in the country. How much better could it get than that? What a story that is.

And that’s the amazing thing about it: We were playing Gettysburg and Division III Stony Brook and I don’t even know who else we played [in 1990], I can’t remember. And then five years later, we’re in the I-AA playoffs with 15 scholarships. [That’s] all we had that year, Adam Brown’s first year. It was the first time we had scholarships.

The one thing you’ve got to give coach Gardi credit for is he evaluated that talent [and did] a fantastic job of bringing guys in that were going to be big-time players  And nobody’s taking credit for Jim Shannon. Jimmy Shannon came in and he was the best defensive back we ever had there. But nobody knew about him. The guys on the team—the Clark brothers [Brian and Pat] and [Jon] Evjen and [Gene] McAleer and all those guys, those guys are all non-scholarship guys that we got. Those guys were fantastic.

I’ll never forget the day Dick Steinberg came into our office to look at Wayne. I was in charge of [talking to] pro scouts and Dick was the GM of the Jets at that time. I asked him what he thought of Wayne. He said ‘He’s good, he’s great, got great hands, so nifty, but I want to know who is that guy throwing it to him?’ It was Carlos [Garay]. But, again, that was all part of Coach Gardi—evaluating those guys and all that stuff.

On if he thinks Northeastern and Hofstra dropping football is the beginning of a trend:

Well, let me tell you my friend, it wasn’t the schools. In one of those two instances, I’m sure it was one guy’s dream to get rid of it. Would they have done this if they were 10-2 and in the playoffs? No, but I’ll go to my grave thinking that this was in the plans for a long time. I’m not familiar with the Northeastern people, but when you whack a 70-year-old program, that’s a tough nut to bite.

It was a bad day for all of us, my friend. All of us.

Alums want answers

Former Flying Dutchmen football player Chris Cocozziello figured someone was playing a cruel joke on him last Thursday at 10:45 a.m., when the athletic director from another area college called to tell him Hofstra was disbanding its football program.

“I didn’t believe him, I told him it was impossible,” Cocozziello said. “I told him it was impossible but I’d find out, I’d call around. Just not having any notice, I didn’t think it was possible.”

Of course, it didn’t take long to learn the impossible had become reality. “I was dumbfounded, obviously,” Cocozziello said. “And from there, basically, you go through a myriad of emotions. The biggest thing was just an unbelievable sadness. You get so sad about it. You feel devastated by it and you feel betrayed…we just felt very betrayed.”

Now, Cocozziello and hundreds of football alums are determined to find out some answers, if not get their program back. More than two dozen Hofstra football alums attended the press conference Monday hosted in Manhattan by former Flying Dutchmen Cocozziello and Brad Gerstman at The Public House, the restaurant owned by Cocozziello.

Gerstman, a lobbyist with Gotham Government Relations, opened the half-hour session by calling for the program to be reinstated and for a legal review of the process by which Hofstra came to the decision to determine if the University violated either its “…internal bylaws process and procedure” or committed a “…break of fiduciary duty.” He also said he hoped state legislators responsible for securing grants and funding for Hofstra would reconsider their positions in light of the decision to take “…away from our community such an important piece of the institution.”

Cocozziello and Gerstman later expressed disappointment at the secretive style in which Hofstra decided to end football, the lack of alumni input into the decision and the feeling that Rabinowitz has been aiming to end football since he took office in 2001.

“How do you have a review of a program internally with just the board of trustees and possibly the athletic director?” Gerstman said. “A full review would include the head coach, obviously, alumni, other people that are involved, prior athletes and football players [all focused on] how can we move forward with a solution to continue operating an NCAA football team.”

Cocozziello said he and other former football players had heard from the Hofstra alumni office regarding donations to the university as recently as November and that nobody had ever indicated the program was under review. Had alumni been aware the program was in trouble—which Cocozziello said happened at schools such as Northeastern, which disbanded its football program 10 days before Hofstra—Cocozziello said ex-players would have begun an aggressive fund-raising campaign immediately.

“There’s a difference between calling people for money and asking them to contribute to an operating program or calling people telling them that the program is in trouble and could close its doors and stop and die,” Cocozziello said. “There’s a different type of impetus for us to get together and people to come in with money.”

Cocozziello said football players have had an uneasy feeling about the future of athletics at Hofstra since Rabinowitz took over for James Shuart. He pointed to the gradually lessening impact of people with ties to Hofstra and longtime coach Joe Gardi—who, in Cocozziello’s words, “was retired” after the 2005 season—as examples of Harry Royle, a former Hofstra football player, was replaced by Jack Hayes from the University of Connecticut in 2004 and Joe Margiotta, the powerful ex-football player who was a founding member and former president of the Pride Club, saw his role reduced in the years prior to his death in 2008.

“There were not a lot of people with Hofstra ties and ties to the alumni that were put in those positions,” Cocozziello said. “At that point in time, once you make that decision and once the Board of Trustees were the only ones in the room when any of this was decided…there really wasn’t anybody around there to really speak on behalf of the football program that had years of experience [with] the program.”

The ultimate happy ending for football alums may be an extreme long shot, but Cocozziello said he was hopeful someone would eventually answer the questions that arose following the decision to end football and explain to Rabinowitz the value of a football program.

“This was done under the cover or darkness by a group of people that frankly had an agenda to follow through on,” Cocozziello said. “At this point, if nothing else, not only would we like answers but the opportunity to be heard. Over the years, we’ve supported the university and benefited, as so many have, from the things that the university—a full university with athletic programs, with a football program and what that brings to the community. We’ve all benefited from it, so we just want to try to give back and keep that intact. That’s really our goal here.”

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch. As always, all members of the Hofstra community are invited to share their thoughts about the dropping of the football program by emailing Defiantly Dutch.

Tradition is euthanized

Almost 48 hours have passed since Hofstra ended its football program, a good bit longer than I would have liked before putting my thoughts to screen. But times like these demand caution and a few deep breaths, even as the emotions run high.

The news is no longer as fresh, but the disappointment and disgust is stronger than ever, as is the belief that Hofstra football is dead not out of a desire to invest in academic initiatives but because president Stuart Rabinowitz wanted it dead.

Before tackling Rabinowitz (I bought a box of football puns at Job Lots in August, gotta use 'em while I can), let’s get this out of the way: Unless you’re one of the 172 season ticket holders, or somebody who donated funds to the football program, you are not blameless in the demise of Hofstra football.

That most certainly includes me. Being out of state covering baseball playoffs is a pretty good excuse for not going to a game between 2003 and 2007, but what about my scattered attendance between 1996 and 2002? What about going to home games once the playoffs were over in November? Nah, too tired or too this or too that, I can always go next year.

Within hours of the news Thursday, a Facebook group called “Help Keep Hofstra Football” was formed. There were more than 2,000 members by dinnertime. As I type this in the wee hours of Saturday morning, there are 5,043 members. Where in the hell were you guys when it mattered?

The uproar over the demise of Flying Dutchmen football reminds me of when I get mad at my wife for deleting a year-old show on TIVO.

Her: “You were never going to watch it!”

Me: “Yeah but I liked having it there.”

That’s what Hofstra football was to 99 percent of us. That old reliable show whose existence you were aware of, but which you never actually planned to watch (I really am going to watch the last season of My Name Is Earl, though, I swear).

We all could have done more to save Hofstra football. But the person who could have done the most instead killed it, even if Rabinowitz said Thursday “…there really is no concrete rebuttal possible” to the decision.

But there sure are plenty of Unispan-sized holes in it. For instance: Rabinowitz said dropping the program to the non-scholarship level was not a legitimate option because if Hofstra is going to compete athletically, he wants to do so at the highest level and for national championships.

Yet he also said no other program is in danger of being cut. Well, if rubbing shoulders with the elite is the objective, then everything except the basketball, lacrosse, soccer, softball and wrestling programs should be in big trouble.

Many, many programs at Hofstra are not going to compete for a national title or receive national media attention, and that’s fine. Athletic competition, even if the ceiling is no higher than a conference championship and the audience no vaster than friends and family, is a vital part of the college experience.

I wrote this when I was a student in 1994, and I believe it to be as true now as then: Even the sports that exist in complete anonymity—cross country, tennis, baseball—have a ripple-like effect on building Hofstra’s reputation. The parents of Hofstra athletes are scattered across the country, wearing Hofstra garb and spreading the school’s name recognition, year after year after year.

And over the last 15 years, nobody has boosted Hofstra’s profile more than its football alums. Hofstra gets scads of free publicity every weekend in the fall thanks to the likes of Wayne Chrebet and Marques Colston and Willie Colon and Raheem Morris. But Rabinowitz said Thursday he didn’t like the tone of the publicity Hofstra got via its grads in the NFL.

“I think we’re so proud of Marques and Wayne Chrebet and all those people and all they did for us,” Rabinowitz said. “But when you hear those names, what I hear, whether it’s explicit or not explicit, is ‘Wow, isn’t that shocking. Little Hofstra, these players made the NFL.’”

But what, precisely, is wrong with people identifying Hofstra with the ability of the underdog to make something better of himself? Isn’t that what college is all about? Grabbing hold of an opportunity, making a fresh start in a new place and reshaping your life? How many thousands of students arrived at Hofstra and pulled a Chrebet or a Colston of their own? I can tell you I sure did.

There aren’t a whole lot of kids born on third base thinking they hit a triple when nearly two-thirds of the population is comprised of commuters. Hofstra is not Yale, even though it charges like it is.

Speaking of that: When Rabinowitz talks about how the money from football will go towards need-based academic scholarships, I don’t want to hear him tugging at the heartstrings with stories of kids who can’t afford to go to Hofstra or can’t afford to finish their studies there. Not when he has presided over a school whose costs have risen at rates that almost defy description.

During the 1999-00 school year, the Hofstra student paid $20,922 for tuition, room and board and student fees. The cost this year? $42,526.

Tuition and room and board at Yale, by the way, is $47,500, an increase of 3.3 percent. Tuition at Hofstra this year ($29,980) increased more than nine percent from last year ($27,600). Tuition rose almost four percent from 1998-99 ($13,328) to 1999-00 ($13,750).

“No, it’s a relatively inexpensive school,” Rabinowitz said to Mike Francesa Thursday. Let them eat cake.

Even if the university wanted to reallocate football’s funds to general scholarships, there was still so much more that could have been done to save the program and allow it to survive at a lesser level. Why not call on the Hofstra and Long Island communities to offer their support or else? Why not solicit donations from the NFLers to help offset some of the giant investment?

It should also be noted that, in the mid-1990s, the lagging wrestling program was told to raise its performance or else. And look where it is now.

If, after a year or two, the Flying Dutchmen are still wallowing around .500, Shuart Stadium is still playing to one-third capacity and the endowment is still couch change, fine. The decision wouldn’t sting any less, but at least there would have been a feeling that all options had been exhausted in trying to save Hofstra football.

And at least people would have had a chance to say goodbye to Shuart Stadium and their memories of it, even if they said hello to football far too infrequently.

But that’s how it works at Hofstra. This was the plan all along, and the less people that knew about it—and the less time they had to build a case for the survival of football—the better. Rabinowitz can say the final conclusion was reached Wednesday night, but it’s really hard to believe he didn’t know the answer to the question as soon as the two-year review of athletics started.

It’s still hard to wrap my mind around the finality of it all. This isn’t analogous to getting fired, because the company usually goes on. In some ways, this isn’t even like a business folding, an analogy that CAA commissioner Tom Yeager used quite eloquently Thursday (I’m going to miss that guy when Hofstra is in the A-10 next year). There’s always the possibility that the displaced journalists at a newspaper, for example, could start their own website.

There is NO picking up the pieces from this, NO coming back from it. The big red button has been pushed. If there’s anything left after the dust settles, it’ll take decades before it’s inhabitable again.

Nothing happens quickly in college athletics, yet it took Hofstra just 19 years to go from Division III to Division I-AA power to defunct. From 1991 through 2000—Hofstra’s independent years—the Flying Dutchmen went 13-5 against Marshall, Montana, Buffalo, UConn and South Florida. Everyone except Montana—which is in the I-AA playoffs for the 17th straight season—has moved to I-A. The four I-A schools have combined to make 15 bowl appearances.

Again: Nobody really expected Hofstra to make the leap to I-A, and as I have written many times before, it was impossible to expect Rabinowitz to turn a James Shuart-like blind eye to the reality of football’s bottom line. But to let the program crumble? To destroy what generations of campus leaders built? To leave dormant in the fall a gorgeous stadium named after a former school president who played football here?

As someone who gave his life to Hofstra and rescued the school from real financial distress and gave it the type of foundation that has made Rabinowitz’ big dreams possible, Shuart deserved better. A lot better.

Instead, Rabinowitz didn’t even refer to Shuart by name Thursday. “My predecessor was president for 25 years, was a football player,” Rabinowitz said.

Even if you support the decision, or don’t mind the dismissal of football, think about this: It has taken nine years for the first 65 years of Hofstra athletic traditions to be erased. Flying Dutchmen? Gone. A football program that was almost as old as the school itself and produced more professionals than the rest of the programs combined? Gone.

Of Hofstra football, Dave Cohen always said “tradition never graduates.” Turns out, though, it can be euthanized.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.

Kahmal Roy (WR coach & former star WR) on HU ending football

We spoke tonight with Hofstra wide receivers coach and former star wide receiver Kahmal Roy, who is the only member of the staff to have played football at Hofstra. Here are his thoughts on today’s announcement:

Like most people involved, I was just shocked about it, you know? It was news to us. I actually just came out of a school for recruiting and I got a phone call letting us know what was going on. So I was pretty shocked about it and it hit me pretty hard.

On if he thought this was a possibility:

I can only speak for myself, how I felt about the state of affairs of the program. That was not a thought that came into my head—ever. It was more of just trying to figure out ways to get this program back to the prominent status that it once had and figure out how to get these kids to win. And that was, from my point of view, the only concern that I had, was to make sure that we kind of returned Hofstra back to the state that it was in around the time that I played and a bit before that, where we were a regular playoff team and competing well and won conference championships and things of that nature.

I just feel terrible for our players. A couple players called me crying and I was kind of at a loss, because being an alumni and all that, I was kind of dealing with it all myself on a different level. It’s tough on the kids and it’s tough on those guys. Some of those guys can hide their feelings and some are open books about how they feel. So it was just tough.

On the range of emotions he is feeling:

It’s still just kind of—I just feel strongly about the situation on a lot of different levels. That’s all I can really say about it. My main focus right now is just to make sure those kids are being put in the right situation. This is tough for them now. So we’ve got to make sure we finish our jobs as coaches, to make sure that we mentor them and put them in the right situation to be successful. That’s my main focus and the main focus of the staff right now, to make sure that something good comes out of it for the kids. They’re the most important thing. Coaching is overrated. The players are what make the program and we’ve got to make sure that they’re put in a good situation.

On if his thoughts today ever drifted back to his playing days:

I think about that everyday man [laughs]. That’s something that I always wanted those kids to experience. And I’ve always talked to certain kids about it to just even for a small second, [to] just visualize those types of feelings that we experienced when we played and try to reach for that goal. It’s something that, when you experience that, you want other people that you’re involved with to experience it, too, because it’s a great feeling. So I always think about that. All the time. Every time I’m sitting down to game plan for a team or doing the drills or just watching those kids run around in practice or in a game, I always get that feeling of being out there and doing it like we did.

On trying to get back from Florida during the day:

They told us to come back. I was in the process of trying to get my flight changed. World’s crazy monetarily--$400 for a flight, $100 change fee and then the price of the flight was crazy. Still in my hotel room now. I’ve been on the phone with the airline I used to fly.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.

Dr. James M. Shuart on Hofstra ending football

Just spoke to Dr. James M. Shuart, the former Hofstra football player and President who was the program’s biggest supporter throughout his 25-year reign and for whom the football (err, lacrosse) stadium is named. Here are his thoughts on today’s news:

Well, I feel sorry for the football team and for the students. It’s a good part of your college life for all students to have these things. It’s to bad, but they talk about having budgetary problems and that’s what happens. Trustees have to make those decisions, you know?

(On if he was surprised by the news)

Beginning to hear some noise about them. But I’m not part of it. When you’re out for nine or 10 years, you’re not around too much [laughs]. I get to see the games and see basketball as well and lacrosse. It’s always fun. And I was also a football player as a student at Hofstra, so that’s part of my life, you know? I played as a football player in 1949 to 1953 and then I worked for Hofstra for 40 years and spent 25 years as president. And I did what I could to do my best for students to use the things [on campus]. And football was part of it. Obviously, my job was more than just that, but it was good.

Now the trustees I guess, and the president feel that they can’t do it. And what can I say? I wish them well. I wish the coaches and the players well. I hope they’ll be OK. They’re really good people and there deserves to be something nice for them. And then I can be happy about that.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.

Joe Gardi on Hofstra ending football

Just spoke to ex-Hofstra coach Joe Gardi, who oversaw the Flying Dutchmen football program’s emergence from Division III power to Division I-AA playoff contender. Here are his comments on today’s decision by Hofstra to drop football.

(On if he was surprised by this)

Nope. I’ve been expecting it for years.

(On why he expected it)

No comment.

Well, the phone’s been ringing off the hook. Had a player who I coached [who played for] the Buffalo Bills, Herve Damas. Herve called me from Europe, he’s in medical school and he was devastated. I think it’s a sad day in the Gardi household. I feel, personally, that my legacy is gone. And I thought it was a pretty good one. My daughter started crying. My wife started crying. It’s a sad day. But I’m not surprised.

(On if he has spoken to former President James Shuart)

I called him. I don’t think he was surprised. Jim was one of the first guys I called. I wanted to share my thoughts with him.

My biggest concern is Dave Cohen and his family and the coaches and their families and all the hard work and effort that we put into building Hofstra’s program. Somebody once told me, high up in the administration right now, that we put Hofstra on the map because we won before Jay Wright did. And I’d go to airports and meet an alumnus. In restaurants—one guy in a restaurant in Garden City thanked me for doubling the value of his education, his Hofstra degree, which was nice.

But I think about all the old players that we worked so hard. My old coaches, most of whom are doing extremely well now, they’re in the pros or somewhere. But we put a lot of hard work and effort into this and it’s a sad day.

I think all of Long Island should be concerned. It’s a sad day for Long Island. The days of Jimmy Brown and Long Island producing great football players might be gone.

(On if he thinks this is the beginning of a trend nationwide):

Well, I saw Dave Monday and I told him I was worried about that domino effect. Because they like to follow suit.

A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into building a strong quality football program. I feel bad, as I said, for Dave and his family and the football staff, the players, the alums and the supporters for the program. Our former players and coaches should hold their heads high. It shouldn’t take away from their accomplishments and it shouldn’t take away from the fact we were responsible for putting Hofstra on the map first.

It’s hard to figure out which might have been our best year at Hofstra. But certainly, that ’90 team, we were Division III, had to be one of the most exciting, And then I think we had Gio Carmazzi for one year, we went 10-1. A lot of great times. When I retired, I was concerned that this would eventually happen. And I wonder if Northeastern hadn’t dropped football, whether Hofstra would have.

My thoughts today were for Cohen and his family and Joe Margiotta, who was one of my biggest backers and probably the biggest fan of Hofstra football. And you know Joe passed away. We gave so many young men an opportunity to have a great education and play football at a very high level. The fact that we were springboard for a lot of young men to go on and play pro ball makes me proud. I think we probably sent more kids from a I-AA team to pro ball. You know, for a lot of years, we sent more kids to the pros than a program like Rutgers. And we would have loved to have played those teams.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.