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I attended TU about the same years you did. I was also apart of that marketing team. We definitely had the tools that made it easy to market sports but we also put in work work. We contacted every football alum with letters and calls to assure they attended the Lehigh game. We were miles better than what we have now. We hit endless community events, had a social media plan, and put docs page to use. We had a presence on campus with posters, fliers, and player participation. Sports had a slight increase in attendance before the winning. We had great leaders too, Mike Hollis was an engine. It shows because he’s worked in the NBA with the nets and is now working in the NHL. As soon as he left I started to see marketing decisions that made zero sense. Waddell came and we went into overdrive, he didn’t play around but was great. He once sent an intern home for wearing Terp gear and I loved it. The Waddell & Hollis combo was unmatched.

Ok so it was more one thing.. lol. I meant it was dumb that students stopped caring and coming to protest “rules” that were previously in place. Not much changed just kids shitty attitudes. Also the girl who did the flip had a father in high places. Good assessment. The blunder was the season after frisco. Losing the opener to a non scholarship central Connecticut team at home was the start of the free fall to where we are now. Never winning the big game or highly attended game hurts too. Winning helps a decent bit with the students but not a lot on the causal fan side. Waddell was the man. Crazy and spent money like a drunken sailor but he wanted something more for Towson.

I attended TU from 2009 - 2013. When I arrived, people did not give a shit about Towson athletics. Apathy at its highest. We were terrible at football/basketball. I wanted to get involved as a fan and attend games, but my roommates were die-hard Penn State fans and I couldn't pay them to come to a game. All they wanted to do was drink at the tailgate, then go back to the dorms/apartments and hang out with girls. It's not until T-West came to town and we started winning and garnering some regional/national attention, did people finally say, "Hey, Towson is pretty good at football." Then Grant Enders and Jerrelle Benimon came along. Friends of mine were finally willing to go into the stadium/arena and watch a game. We regularly talked about the team, kept an eye on the score for away games, and talked about upcoming seasons. We started going to lacrosse games as well. It slowly started becoming cool to go to the tailgates and games. Even the girls wanted to go, which was unheard of. Then we had our blunders and couldn't capitalize: Tailgating fiasco Losing to Lehigh in the playoffs in-front of a sold out crowd (the hype for this game was insane btw and wow was it a bummer when we lost) Missing the playoffs with our best team ever in 2012 Getting blown out in the Natty NCAA basketball tourney ban etc Kids want to be "cool" and feel like they are a part of something greater. Going to a boring tailgate to watch a bad product is not "cool." You can do all the marketing, promotions, staff changes, facility upgrades you want, but if you don't win, students will not care about TU sports. Just f****** win. It's that easy.