@MarkKnudson41
Nobody has the authority to tell the majority owners of the Colorado Rockies, the Monfort family, how to spend their money. Everyone has ideas and suggestions, but in the end, brothers Dick and Charlie get to make that call.
Doesn’t mean we can’t make a sales pitch, right?
This one doesn’t involve any new expenditures for the Rockies payroll. This is a different baseball topic. This is about a different kind of spending.
It’s College World Series week, and as per unusual, the state of Colorado can’t get off the sidelines to participate in the Omaha extravaganza. This year, the Air Force Academy did make the field of 64 and won a couple of games before falling to powerhouse Texas in the Austin Regional. The Falcons did themselves and their fans proud this season.
But when it comes to playing in Omaha, the last Colorado school to do so was the University of Northern Colorado, which played in the CWS most recently in 1974 under legendary head coach Tom Petroff. At this moment, only 18 school in America have participate in more CWS than the UNC Bears, who made the trip 10 times between 1952 and 1974. Their highest finish was fifth, last achieved by that ‘74 squad. By contrast, the University of Colorado has never been to the CWS, and Colorado State made it just once before both programs dropped baseball many years ago.
UNC has had some very good teams since that last trip, but none that could break through and start that climb back to prominence. A big part of the problem is funding of course. The UNC athletic department is hamstrung – like many others – by what it’s allowed to spend on non-revenue sports, especially on the men’s side. So Bear’s baseball has had to try to compete with better funded programs for the past three plus decades on a shoestring budget.
Head Coach Carl Iwaski, who played for Petroff at UNC in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, did all he could over his 11 seasons, but recently decided it was time to retire from coaching. He leaves behind a program that’s in a good place in the Summit League but needs more resources to get back on the path to Omaha.
There’s one prominent UNC baseball alum who has already taken a Power Five program to the College World Series in this century as a head coach and who just happens to be available to take over the reigns – provided the UNC athletic department can find a way to invest more resources into the program.
Mike Anderson, who played for Petroff too, before getting a minor league stint in the California Angels system, coached Nebraska to the CWS back in 2005. He coached the Huskers from 2003 – 2011, winning the Big 12 twice and being named Coach of the Year in 2005. He’d been an assistant at UNC before moving to Lincoln, and after leaving that job, spent four years as an assistant at Oklahoma.
His resume is stellar. The only question would be, what would it take for UNC – which has already shown interest in Anderson – to actually land him?
Anderson is back in the Greeley area working in high school baseball recruiting, and he’d very likely be willing to take the job if he was given a chance to compete. But the aforementioned UNC Athletic Department isn’t likely to be able to provide all those needed resources – which include much more than just the coaches annual salary – without some significant booster help.
Enter the Monforts.
Dick Monfort also a UNC graduate (his brother Charlie attended the University of Utah) and a big time booster of Bears athletics. He and Anderson have a history. Now, the Monfort family already donates substantially to various academic programs at UNC and throughout Greeley. Their level of giving is on a much different and higher plane than almost anyone else in the region. But this is about something less philanthropic and more…basic. It’s about paying to win.
College athletics has changed dramatically the last couple of years (and not for the better.) It’s now almost easy for a booster with deep pockets to make a dramatic and substantial difference in any program with the stroke of a pen. To be blunt: If Dick Monfort decided to, he could make UNC Baseball a powerhouse again almost by himself. He could underwrite Anderson’s program and give NIL deals to the best baseball players in the region to come to UNC. Given an influx of top level talent, Anderson could take the Bears back to Omaha within five years.
Would that be a bad way for Dick Monfort to spend money?
Be sure to catch Mark Knudson and Manny Randhawa on the Park Adjusted Rockies Podcast each week, available on all major Podcast platforms.