1988: the death of CEU football

The year was 1988, the summer and winter Olympics took place, it was the U.S. presidential election and the Soviet Union withdrew its troops from Afghanistan. The Jan. 26, 1988, edition of the Eagle is covered.

An article titled “Football axed by CEU Senate” talks about how the senate voted to drop the football program. Prior to the senate meeting, a committee was formed to evaluate the CEU football program. The decision to form a committee was made after the third-head-football coach left. The committee decided unanimously that the football program should be dropped unless $50,000 could be added to the budget for the program. The committee said that if the program were dropped, they would use the savings to improve remaining inter-collegiate sports and to recruit students to replace enrollment losses for dropping football.

One concept the committee found was that the majority of community colleges in the US did not participate in intercollegiate football. Only 168 colleges out of 1,200 community colleges in the nation have football programs. 

In the mid 1970s, enrollments was 60 percent of Snow and Dixie college’s enrollments at the time and was declining. There were discussions that CEU might have to be closed. The institutional council said the reinstatement of the football program could enroll 100 students. 

It was financially realistic to establish and give additional funds to other athletic programs on campus. This was based on the assumption that the legislature would support the plan and boosters would provide additional resources. They also felt the program could make a more collegiate atmosphere on campus and create good relations with the public. 

The football program was never fully funded from the beginning. Since the program only operated for half of the year, the legislature reduced the college’s budget request by one half and the other half was never appropriated.

The business instructor and assistant director of the small business development center, G. Edward Harris, was appointed to the business department. He has been involved in many small businesses throughout his life such as Harris Coal and Construction in Logan, president of Alpine Valley, Inc. and he’s done computer consulting in the Salt Lake area. He received his master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis in financing and computer applications from the University of Utah. 

USUE, formerly known as CEU, has been offering a free income tax service since 1983. In this edition of the Eagle, it talks about how the CEU accounting and business department and Internal Revenue Service volunteer assistance program was offering free income tax assistance. The business and accounting students do tax returns for senior citizens and low-income earners. Henning Olsen was overseeing this in 1988 and is still doing it today. He is also a professor in the business department and is the advisor of the PBL club. 

“Our team has been playing well,” said head men’s basketball coach Ronnie Stubbs, “I think they haven’t reached their full potential and they know that, but we’re playing well as a team.” In the article called “Optimistic 2nd half should boost record,” it talks about how CEU won two of its past three games against the College of Southern Idaho, Treasure Valley Community College and Colorado Northwestern Community College. The Eagles only loss was to CSI; coach Stubbs thought it was because of rebounding and free throws. The next game against TVCC was a win for the Eagles; with six players having double digit scores. The game against CNCC was where the Eagles took it home, beating CNCC 112-91; where seven Eagles had double-digit scores.