By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – With business leaders from the Upper Cumberland converging on Tucker Stadium for the monthly Cookeville/Putnam County Chamber of Commerce's Business Before Hours event Tuesday morning, Tennessee Tech head football coach Dewayne Alexander and former University of Denver and Columbia University athletics director M. Dianne Murphy – both Tech alumni and former student-athletes – issued a call to action and support.
As the west grandstands stood to the right in silent witness, its final season in place set to begin in just weeks – Tech's first home football game coming on Sept. 16 against North Alabama after back-to-back road contests at Furman and New Mexico – Alexander and Murphy urged the gathered dignitaries to support the Golden Eagle program and continue to invest in the changing landscape of the Golden Eagles' home.
Murphy, who was a member of Tech's first varsity women's basketball team, while also competing in volleyball and tennis, recalled the days of her youth coming to Tech football games in Tucker Stadium and what the University meant to her father, then the owner of Murphy's Shoe Store.
"He believed winning teams did a lot intangibly and tangibly for the Upper Cumberland," Murphy said. "My family, like other families, benefitted economically from Tennessee Tech, but we also benefitted in a myriad of other ways. I cannot imagine living in Cookeville without Tennessee Tech. Think about that."
After a successful career of her own in Division I athletics, Murphy came back to Cookeville after 47 years away and fostered a great bond with the late Ottis Phillips, both united in the cause of updating Tucker Stadium to modern standards and building a state-of-the-art Football Operations Center.
"In 1967, as a junior in high school, I attended one of the first football games played at Tucker Stadium," Murphy said. "Sixty-seven years later, Tucker Stadium remains relatively unchanged. Let me be clear from my perception – the eyesore on campus is Tucker Stadium and the missing ingredient to winning football teams is a dedicated operations center.
"The city of Cookeville and Tennessee Tech are at a crossroads. As a community, we have an important decision to make on the Upper Cumberland's most prominent sports venue. Working together, Golden Eagle football and special community events can be a reality in Cookeville. Winning teams demand state-of-the-art facilities. Other communities in our state with fewer advantages than us have built new stadiums and new practice facilities. They've made a significant investment into football. If they can do it, we can too."
Relaying her own experience, Murphy noted that the presidents at Denver and Columbia, much like Dr. Phil Oldham's current vision for the Tech campus, understood the value of athletics to a university. She said they all understood athletics as the public face of the university, athletics unites a university and community, spectator attendance enhances the community, winning teams enhance the university's visibility and that the investment of resources into athletics and its facilities led not only to winning, but the public perception of the institution.
The money, however, can not come from the state – Tennessee allocates funding for academic buildings, but not for athletic facilities.
"So it's up to us as alumni, community members and friends of the University to invest in a new stadium and a new operations center," Murphy said.
While demolition and construction on the updated stadium will begin following the end of the 2023 campaign, there's still ways to go on the Football Operations Center, which is still a much-needed piece.
Alexander emphasized while that work was still a bit away, the Golden Eagles are still very much focused on the season ahead.
"The video said the stadium was coming in 2025 – the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagle football team is coming in 2023," Alexander said. "The Big South/Ohio Valley Conference Football Association is new and exciting and gives us nine teams and we were picked fourth in the preseason. The three teams picked in front of us, they've all got to come here to Tucker Stadium. We don't want it to be a pleasant experience. We've got the best home schedule we've had with big, exciting games.
"We have 35 young men this year that are in their fourth, fifth or sixth season of playing college football. That's a lot of experience, a lot of maturity. We have a lot of guys in this world of transfers that have chosen to stay at Tennessee Tech because they believe in what we're doing, they want to see this thing through. These young men have all been with me from the get-go. They've been loyal to this school. They've represented this University in a positive way and will continue to do so for the next 40-50 years."
The veteran coach also emphasized the importance of the University and the community and its support in the program's recruiting efforts.
"People ask what we're selling when we recruit – we're selling the best-ranked university in the state of Tennessee," Alexander said. "A university that lets you compete worldwide. We sell a community that cares about its university. When we bring recruits and their families to Cookeville, they feel the connection between the university, the community and the athletic programs."
Alexander pointed to the College of Engineering's Ashraf Islam Engineering Building being built not far and in eyesight of Tucker Stadium, as well as the additions of the Marc Burnett Fitness and Recreation Center, Stonecipher Hall and the Lab Sciences Building towards the growth of the Tech campus.
"It's exciting and hopefully by this time next year, you're seeing the same thing happening over here with the new stadium coming out of the ground," Alexander said.
"There's no better time to be a Golden Eagle than right now. There's no better time to have a business in Cookeville than right now. There's never been a better time to be a student at Tennessee Tech than right now. There's never been a better time to be a supporter of Tennessee Tech than right now. You can look around and see that and feel that. I see all the changes that have taken place since I stepped foot on the campus in 1983."
With the athletic department winning the Ohio Valley Conference's Institutional Sportsmanship Award and Golden Eagle football winning the last five OVC Team Sportsmanship Awards for the sport, the emphasis is on winning the right way.
"We're going to win. The best is yet to come and we're going to do it the right way. We've had five straight OVC Sportsmanship Awards. We've had the highest GPAs in program history since it started getting tracked in 1973. The only element this is missing is the consistency of championship football games. We've won 10 Ohio Valley Conference championships – the most of any team that's currently competing in the conference – but it's been sporadic. We want the football program to mirror what's been done with our University – Tennessee Tech is excellence."
Photos | Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
