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Posted on Thu, Mar. 23, 2006



Tourney win is reason to cheer

BUD KENNEDY
In My Opinion

A bright blue championship “No. 1” sparkled all night from the Texas Wesleyan University observation tower, and cleanup crews worked feverishly to restore order after a night of student revelry along East Rosedale Street.

Not really. But for fans of the Wesleyan Rams, from a tiny United Methodist school that has anchored east Fort Worth since the 19th century, it’s time to celebrate both a comeback basketball championship and the comeback of their university.

When an Australian-born guard named Ben Hunt sank the 25-foot shot Tuesday night that gave the Rams the NAIA Division I championship, he put the university in headlines not only regionally but also nationally.

Even in Dallas.

One Dallas sportscaster delivered the news this way on the radio Wednesday: “Did you know there’s a college in Fort Worth named Texas Wesleyan? It won a national championship last night.”

“We’ve only been here 115 years,” replied Gary Cumbie, a former utility company executive who is now a Wesleyan vice president over fundraising. “In fact, we’ve been here longer than that other Methodist school over in Dallas.”

Texas Wesleyan hasn’t made front-page headlines the past few years. But that’s almost been good news.

Four years ago, the news was bad. The headlines told how the undergraduate enrollment had sunk, how only about 140 full-time students enrolled as freshmen and how other universities were dangling money to buy the thriving law school.

Wesleyan kept its law school and its mission: to regain its historic regional role as a competitive small-college rival to larger Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University, plus other nearby Baptist and Catholic colleges.

Not long ago, Cumbie needled SMU President Gerald Turner at a banquet.

Cumbie remembered telling the crowd that he and Turner represented similar universities: “We both represent Methodist schools. We both come from large cities, Fort Worth and Dallas. We both have law schools. And neither of us has a football team.”

Cumbie said he didn’t see Turner laughing.

Now Wesleyan has a championship.

According to the Handbook of Texas, United Methodist officials decided about 1913 to develop then-new SMU as the larger of the two schools.

Back then, Wesleyan was named Polytechnic College.

TCU had just moved to town. Almost ever since, Wesleyan has struggled to keep its share of attention, enrollment and contributions in a state where support for higher education seems irrationally connected to football.

Wesleyan had a football team until 1942 and World War II. By then, the Rams were already establishing a reputation as a small-college basketball power and had played in the 1940 national tournament.

But when TCU built Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, Wesleyan was still playing in the Southside Recreation Center on Vickery Boulevard, a city gym where players slipped on the court beneath the leaky roof.

The Rams improved in the 1970s when they opened their own Richardson Center gym.

But the coming of the Dallas Mavericks and the following for Big 12 basketball have pushed small-college basketball deeper into the back sports pages.

This year’s team was a surprise to the end, playing its way into the finals as an unseeded team and upsetting Oklahoma City University, which ironically began as Fort Worth University before moving.

On Tuesday, a few hundred Rams fans gathered at three sports bars to watch the championship game.

Cumbie, meanwhile, listened to the game from backstage during a university piano concert featuring a performance by a former Van Cliburn International Piano Competition finalist and his wife.

“We all erupted at the three-point shot,” Cumbie said.

The Ukrainian-born pianists “didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “I’m not sure they knew what to make of all the excitement.”

Today the cheers will continue at a 12:15 p.m. welcome-home pep rally for the Rams on the steps of the school library.

“We’ve got a lot of great stories to tell,” Cumbie said. The university just landed a $500,000 gift for a new science building, and new dorms are part of the growing university-area “village.”

“But we could open a building every day and not get this kind of headlines,” he said.

Buildings open all the time. But it’s not every day Fort Worth wins a national championship.


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Bud Kennedy’s column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
(817) 390-7538 [email protected]





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A university vice president made that remark? Classy.

I actually think it was a pretty good jab. In a speech where he is breaking the ice, Turner is in attendance, and it is rather funny/true it does not bother me much. Also remember this was probably before last season when we actually showed some signs of progress. If it was in a joking way, I have no problem with it. Besides, its TWU. Them talking trash to us is like us talking trash to UT. Basically they are completely irrelevant to us in sports conversations.

Us talking trash to UT is a much bigger leap than this jab.

I can't wait until we drop down to NAIA so we can settle this new rivalry on the court!!

Goodbye TCU, hello TWU.
Goodbye 'Battle for the Iron Skillet', hello 'Battle for the Iron Cross'...

Why don't we just schedule them, and crush them? We could bring some great Methodist-themed smack talk as well.

We scheduled similar teams this year anyway.

What a jerk. I bet he is pretty small where it counts if this is how he gets his self confidence.

And for the record TWU - SMU has plenty of NCAA national championships - you know - the ones that actually matter...

the guy was kidding, I have no problem with him saying it because he was obviously poking fun at his own school too because they dont even have football. But I am glad that Turner didn't find it funny and didnt laugh with them. That article is actually a huge arguement for the value of winning athletics. Somebody should forward it to Mr. Turner and the trustees for that fact alone. And to let the trustees know that our policies are causing us to take crap from everybody, including even TWU now. TWho?

I guess we now know what the T.W. stands for Teeny W.....s

Hoop Fan wrote:the guy was kidding, I have no problem with him saying it because he was obviously poking fun at his own school too because they dont even have football.

I don't think its a big deal.... but I want to point out that it is much more shameful to have a football program like ours has been, then to be a school that chooses not to play.

Wrong. At least we compete, and slowly but surely, we're getting better.

Who gives a [deleted]? It's Texas Wesleyan. As with many things in Ft. Worth, I am willing to bet I am the only one on this board that has been there. It is a dump. It is tiny. It is insignificant.

I was talking to a guy that lives in Ft. Worth who wants to go to law school and is applying there. He is actually worried about getting in. I have to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "Why are you worried about getting in there? Are you afraid your application fee check will bounce? Otherwise, I doubt there will be a problem getting in."

I know exactly one graduate of Texas Wesleyan. And in this case, the T-shirt is true, he does work for me. I knew a girl that went there out of my HS, but she transferred. And she had a horse face anyway and I bet she was the best looking girl in her class.

I think I will start my own sports league and call myself the national champion. It would have about as much credibilit as the NAIA.

The mere notion that somebody on this board would get worked up over this is offensive to me and that means this thread should be deleted.

Edit: Turner should have laughed and said, "Very funny, Gary. Now go get your shine box!"

SMU Football Blog wrote:Who gives a [deleted]? It's Texas Wesleyan. As with many things in Ft. Worth, I am willing to bet I am the only one on this board that has been there. It is a dump. It is tiny. It is insignificant.

I was talking to a guy that lives in Ft. Worth who wants to go to law school and is applying there. He is actually worried about getting in. I have to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "Why are you worried about getting in there? Are you afraid your application fee check will bounce? Otherwise, I doubt there will be a problem getting in."

I know exactly one graduate of Texas Wesleyan. And in this case, the T-shirt is true, he does work for me. I knew a girl that went there out of my HS, but she transferred. And she had a horse face anyway and I bet she was the best looking girl in her class.

I think I will start my own sports league and call myself the national champion. It would have about as much credibilit as the NAIA.

The mere notion that somebody on this board would get worked up over this is offensive to me and that means this thread should be deleted.

Not so fast my friend, I too have witnessed that dump first hand. I think I could have graduated in about 2 years with all the credit I got for my ACT score. It didn't take me long to figure out that was not the place for me.

TWU Law School?? Are their moot court events televised on "The Ocho"?

jtstang wrote:TWU Law School?? Are their moot court events televised on "The Ocho"?

Do not mock the Ocho! While Moot Court might be "almost a sport," the Ocho can do better than TWU. In fact, I believe there is a regional double header tonight with the Baylor negotiation final round and the Texas Tech appelate advocacy semifinal (bracket B). Of course, most of the Country will be getting the Columbia Law School advanced civil litigation practical final exams, otherwise known as "Where the Other International Shoe Drops!".

at least Turner didn't laugh at the joke. That's a start, right? He DOES care, right??