UNCP is building its football program
toward a first game in fall 2007

Football will return to UNCP in fall 2007 after more than 50 years absence.

A search for a new head coach has started. The first recruiting class will be signed in spring 2006. Construction and planning for upgraded and new facilities are well underway. The first game will played in fall 2007.

"It's first and 10," UNCP Athletic Director Dan Kenney told the Football Advisory Committee at its June meeting.

Football will join other UNCP sports. Clockwise from top left, future Belk Athletic Complex for soccer and track and field; English E. Jones Health and Physical Education Center for basketball, volleyball, and wrestling; tennis courts, softball field, baseball field. Center, Pine Needle artist's concept of UNCP football helmet. Related stories: UNCP begins search for a football coach UNCP football campaign receives gift

"The head coach is the key to a start-up program," Kenney said.

"We are seeking someone with public relations skills, someone who can relate to our community and our community can relate to," he said.

"Our coach should be an unbelievable spokesman for the University and have unbridled enthusiasm for the program," he said.

Some 1,100 new seats are being installed at the Belk Athletic Complex on campus. That will bring stadium seating to a total of 1,600 with plans for more, Kenney said.

A new irrigated practice field, located on the north end of campus, was completed last spring and additional drainage work on the two practice fields has also been completed at the Belk Athletic Center.

Faculty, students and alumni gave overwhelming support for football in surveys, according to Kenney.

Getting tickets. Sandy Waterkotte, vice chancellor of UNCP's Office for Advancement, said planning on a campaign for football is well underway.

"The two most asked questions are: 'who is the coach' and 'how can I get season tickets?'" Waterkotte said. "We are working on a ticket plan."

UNCP has a football fund-raising campaign.

"We are on the edge of history and excitement is building," Waterkotte said.

Members of the Football Advisory Committee include: Carl Meares Jr., Fair Bluff, N.C., chair of the Board of Trustees; trustee Dick Taylor, Lumberton, N.C.; Jesse Oxendine, Charlotte, N.C., and a member of UNCP's 1951 football team; Olivia Oxendine, Southern Pines, N.C., and former Alumni Association president; former trustee Bob Caton, Lumberton, N.C.; former trustee Mac Campbell, Elizabethtown, N.C.; Alphonso McRae, alumna and Athletic Hall of Fame member; and assistant professor Steven D. Bourquin of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Chancellor on the radio. Chancellor Allen C. Meadors participated in a live radio program from IT'Z Sports Bar and Grill in Fayetteville, N.C., in July.

Meadors and Kenney appeared on "The Press Box," WFNC radio's live sports talk show, hosted by Fayetteville Observer sports writer Brett Friedlander and Allen Smothers.

Additional information about the university's upcoming football program is available from the Athletic Department at 910.521.6227, e-mail athletics@uncp.edu, or the Office for Advancement at 910.521.6252, e-mail advancement@uncp.edu.

Related story: UNCP begins search for a football coach

Related story: UNCP football campaign receives gift from Mac Campbell