Erickson smash hit at box office

University of Idaho athletic director Rob Spear was sitting in his office Thursday when a gentleman he knew dropped by.

“He handed me a check for $5,000,” said Spear, who declined to identify the man, but said he was from the Moscow area. “He said, ‘I’m back in, things are going in the right direction.’ “

Spear figured the hiring of Dennis Erickson as head football coach Wednesday would provide a boost to the entire department, but he’s been blown away by the events of the last two days.

“It’s been incredible,” Spear said. “We sold more tickets (300) yesterday than we’ve ever sold in one day.”

Idaho sold 3,400 season tickets, counting corporate sponsorships and special all-sports packages for faculty, last year. “If all those renew, we’re 10 percent ahead of that in one day,” Spear said.

Spear said he is working with campus marketing and strategic communications to develop ad campaigns around Erickson. A print campaign is in the works, followed by radio and TV spots.

“We’re not going to sit on our hands,” he said. “We’re going to be proactive and work our tails off until our first football game.”

Ticket manager Brian Bartels estimated 400 season tickets have been sold since Erickson’s name surfaced during the job search.

“They’re just really excited about the hire and they want to get in now while they can still get tickets,” Bartels said. “We did bring in an extra person on Thursday, just thinking we would be pretty busy, and we were right. We’re almost as busy (on Friday).”

Since taking the job, Erickson has been on several national radio shows and he’s been discussed on TV programs such as ESPN’s PTI. Erickson has been busy assembling his staff and was unaware of his impact on ticket sales and booster donations.

“That’s what we need,” said Erickson. “We have a lot of work to do and we need all the boosters and all those other people back in the fold to continue improving the facilities. This could be a great place, but we’ve got to improve things here.”