Rice Financial Support

[50's PONY]

March 28, 2005, 10:58PM



RICE NOTEBOOK
Former Rice football player, wife on mission to bolster athletic program's support
By MOISEKAPENDA BOWER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

The contentious debate last spring concerning the viability of Division I athletics at Rice shook Michael Ecklund to his core. As a former football player on South Main, he shared the concerns of fellow alumni as several members of the school's community painted a bleak financial picture of Rice athletics.

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"When that came about, there was a great outpouring of support," Ecklund said of the discussions of the Board of Trustees. "My wife and I started to notice that over a few months ... it seemed like everybody crawled back under the rock they came from. We started questioning ourselves. People like us somewhat took the program for granted. That made us start talking to some people, and we found there are a lot of people that care about the program. They just hadn't been involved or didn't know much about it."

As a result, Ecklund (Class of 1994), his wife, Michol (Class of '97) — a former Rice cheerleader — and a core of 10 others began organizing the first Rice Athletics Summit.

The summit, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on April 9 at the "R" Room above the south end of Rice Stadium, is designed to provide an update on the athletic department and form an action-oriented group that can provide support for the athletic programs.

With so many issues plaguing the Rice athletic department — most notably lagging attendance in football and basketball and an estimated annual operating deficit of $8 million — the Ecklunds decided to do all they could to lend their support. And in their opinion and that of their cohorts, it was time to do more than scratch a check.

"We wanted to put something in place for people that were interested and do care about the program and wanted to get involved, that they had an organized and coordinated way to do it," Ecklund said. "We figured that if we got everybody together, we could get all the information out — a kind of state of the union that says where we're at."

The summit will avoid grand issues, such as the tabled debate over a new convocation center that would include a facilities upgrade over Autry Court. Ecklund would like the summit to produce unwavering support for the athletic department and yield ideas for more successful fund-raising tactics. By providing a forum for those interested in helping, Ecklund hopes to organize those efforts into something beneficial to Rice athletics.

This grass-roots campaign to bolster the marketing department and increase dialogue between Rice students and student-athletes is looked upon as a positive by Rice athletic director Bobby May, who will provide an update of his department at the summit.

"We're involved because we're the group they're trying to help," May said.

The summit is open to Rice students and alumni and interested members of the community.