Boeh's perfect Bobcat world would
include a packed Peden stadium

Tom Boeh

Photo: Chris Hondros

By Bill Estep

Ohio University Athletic Director Tom Boeh looks into his green and white crystal ball and
sees a packed Peden Stadium watching a winning football team, achievement of gender equity, improved facilities, an increased emphasis on marketing the Bobcats, and "providing the best student-athlete experience possible."

Of immediate concern for Boeh and his staff is winning football games and putting more fans
in Peden. Ohio and three other Mid-American Conference (MAC) schools with poor football attendance - Eastern Michigan, Ball State and Kent - were put on notice by the league office last year that they needed to meet NCAA attendance requirements or face a $75,000 fine and possible probation or expulsion from the MAC.

Beginning with the 1995 season, Ohio University needed to average 17,000 for home games over a four-year period or enlarge its 20,000-seat stadium to 30,000 and draw 17,000
fans a game for one season. In 1995, OU averaged only 9,143 for five home games.

Boeh, hired to replace Harold McElhaney last June, says he is encouraged by the progress second-year Coach Jim Grobe is making in turning around a football program which has won only 17 games in the past decade. University officials were impressed with Grobe's freshman recruiting class signed in February. Several high school seniors turned down offers from more prestigious football schools to sign with the Bobcats, including quarterback and two-time Cincinnati Enquirer Player of the Year David Murphy of Cincinnati Colerain and place-kicker Greg Krauss, who kicked a 56-yard field goal at Clearwater (Fla.) High School and passed on Florida State.

The Bobcats open the 1996 season with a Thursday night home game on Aug. 29 against Akron in the first game under the lights at Peden Stadium. Boeh wants to build on a 316 percent in- crease in season ticket sales last year - from 600 to 2,500 - and dramatically increase corporate support of football games, broadcasting and marketing.

Boeh says he also wants to improve the entertainment package at football games and "create more of a festive atmosphere, encouraging people to come with their families and tailgate, have lunch, and enjoy a traditional college football atmosphere."

"It's hard to imagine worse luck with the weather than we had last fall. It rained every single game," Boeh says. "But that's not an excuse. The reality is, we need to increase our season ticket base and create more of an event at the games,
so that fans may have an enjoyable experience regardless of the weather or the final score.

"And we need to expand our market base a little bit more so that it really encompasses all of Southeast Ohio as well as other areas of the state. We're going to be considerably more aggressive (in marketing) in those towns an hour away, like Chillicothe and Lancaster. We're looking to create an entertainment alternative."

Boeh credits the Ohio Sports Network for expanding word of the Bobcat fortunes in the region. The network, created in the fall of 1994 by the University Relations Division, has broadcast a total of seven football and men's basketball games on a regional television network that has included stations in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Huntington and Charleston, W.Wa. The OSN radio network numbered 13 stations for men's basketball games this season. Boeh expects the network's radio and TV coverage to increase next year. Ball State is the only other MAC school with its own regional TV network.

OU's Office of Media Productions, in cooperation with the athletic department, also regularly feeds footage of basketball and football games to Ohio and West Virginia TV stations via satellite.

"The television broadcasts provide a three-hour commercial for Ohio University and our athletic programs," Boeh says. "(Director of Marketing and Broadcasting) Alan Bailey has done a terrific job. It's really an exceptional network, given its age and resources."

Boeh says he has been an advocate of Title IX and achieving gender equity during his entire career, which has included stops at the University of Illinois as director of marketing and sports information for women's sports, and most recently at Northwestern University. As part of OU's effort to reach gender equity, locker room and playing facilities and three women's teams will be added over the next three years. A women's golf team will debut next fall, followed by women's soccer in 1997-98 and a third team in a sport yet to be decided.

Boeh says a major reorganization of Intercollegiate Athletics -one designed to "empower staff mem-bers and create more built-in accountability" - will be implemented in May. Longtime administrator Peggy Pruitt will become senior associate athletic director of internal operations with oversight responsibility for the coaching, training and equipment staffs, and academic guidance area. First-year Associate Director of External Affairs Tim Van Alstine will supervise all publicity, marketing, broadcast and ticket operations.

As part of its new image, Ohio's athletic department was expected to unveil a new Bobcat logo early this spring.

Boeh says a five-year plan focusing on all aspects of athletic operations should be complete by summer. He believes enhancing and adding to Ohio's practice and playing facilities will be vital to the Bobcats' success. Ground is expected to be broken this summer on a new baseball stadium financed by $1 million in private funding, and plans also call for adding a new weightroom and venues for women's field hockey, softball and soccer.

"We need to take a hard look at our facilities and bring them up to speed with the rest of the conference and other schools in NCAA Division I-A," Boeh says.



Bill Estep is editor of Ohio University Today.

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Revised April 11, 1996
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