N. Colorado prexy says: Knock it off

GREELEY, Colo. – University of Northern Colorado president Kay Norton gathered every student-athlete and all athletic department personnel on a recent night for a mandatory meeting and a pointed message: Knock it off.

“We must make clear to each other and to the world who we are and who we are not,” she said. “We are not cheaters, we are not criminals and we are not racists.”

A rash of high-profile run-ins with the law and the NCAA the last two months had begun to suggest otherwise:

•The backup punter was charged with trying to kill the starter by sticking a knife into his kicking leg in a nighttime ambush.

•A senior lineman got cold-cocked in a bar, needed eye surgery and ended up with a disorderly conduct citation after allegedly telling a Hispanic man that he didn’t like Mexicans.

•Three assistant football coaches were suspended and another resigned for running an unauthorized practice in the spring that first-year coach Scott Downing said he knew nothing about.

•Two players were charged with assault after fighting a man in a parking lot.

This is not what the school had in mind when it jumped to Division I to gain more national notoriety.

“It is disconcerting. But I consider these things growing pains, because we have committed to making the athletic program more transparent and more visible – when things go wrong as well as when things go right,” Norton told the Associated Press. “I would point out that none of these individuals were recruited by the new program or as a result of making the move.”

That doesn’t mean Downing is washing his hands clean of his program’s problems.

“They are my kids, though,” Downing said. “It doesn’t matter whether I recruited them or not. They are my kids. They’re our football players. They represent the University of Northern Colorado. From Day 1, we have talked in terms of being respectful and loyal and serving our community, and I still think that’s the basis of our program. We have to be valued members of our society.”

Before the events of the last two months, the 12,300-student campus an hour’s drive north of Denver was best known as the alma mater of Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Michener.

The Bears football team was a Division II powerhouse, winning national titles in 1996 and ‘97.

But the administration decided the way to put Northern Colorado on the map and attract more students was to move up to Division I-AA and join the Big Sky Conference. That five-year transition period is nearly complete. The Bears were 1-8 headed into today’s game against Montana.

“We wanted the quality and aspirations of our athletic program to match those of our academic program,” Norton said. “Our niche in Colorado for too long has been that of a well-kept secret.”