Incarnate Word announces plan to field football team
Web Posted: 04/17/2007 05:13 PM CDT
Jerry Briggs
Express-News Staff Writer
The University of the Incarnate Word announced on Tuesday that it plans to field the first scholarship college football program in San Antonio since the 1970s.
University president Dr. Louis Agnese said it was a proud day for him and for the school.
"Oh, I'm very proud," Agnese said. "It's one more piece in the overall puzzle of development of the university."
With New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson bankrolling a 3,000-seat on-campus facility, Incarnate Word wants to kick off in NCAA Division II in the fall of 2009.
A search for a head coach will begin immediately. UIW officials hope to break ground on the facility in June.
The first athletes will arrive in the fall of 2008, officials said. In 2009, the Cardinals are expected to take the field as the first scholarship football team in San Antonio since Trinity in the early 1970s.
Trinity, the only other university in San Antonio with football, now competes without scholarships in Division III.
"We've been developing professional schools, graduate programs, sports programs, and this is just one more thing," Agnese said. "In Texas you can't be a university and not have football. So it was time."
Benson, the owner of the New Orleans Saints, will underwrite the cost of the facility, which will include a grandstand, offices, dressing areas and a weight training room.
The facility will be known as the
Gayle and Tom Benson Fieldhouse. Gayle Benson is Tom Benson's wife.
When asked why it was so hard to say no to Agnese, Tom Benson laughed and said, "That's a great question. I think that's because he represents a great university, and he's done great things with it. He's been a great fit for this school."
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