Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: "We're going for it all"
6/16/2016 8:22:00 PM | General, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Women's Volleyball, Wrestling
By: Skip Myslenski
Pat Ryan is thinking back to the 1950s and his first visit to McGaw Memorial Hall, then the home of the basketball 'Cats. He was, he remembers, excited for this moment, but that feeling ebbed when he finally entered the building. "It wasn't much," he remembers, and then he remembers this about that time at Northwestern.
"Our athletic programs did not strive for excellence. They didn't strive to be excellent as the rest of the university did. In many cases, the goal of the athlete could only be to be mediocre: 'We're in the Big Ten Conference, if we could be mediocre, that'd be OK.' Well, [Shirley and I] believe that if you strive for mediocrity, you've failed by definition. And so we wanted to be part of seeing this university strive for excellence in every aspect, and particularly in giving athletics a chance to achieve that goal."
Now Shirley Welsh-Ryan, his wife, is remembering her husband's first meeting as a member of the school's board of trustees. This was back in 1978, in that stretch when the Wildcats football team won just three of its 55 games, and here he listened as the university's president ran down the importance of athletics. "He couldn't take it," she recalls, and so he rose and debated that point, arguing that there was value in seeking athletic excellence.
He argued that so forcefully, in fact, he said this to his wife when he got home from that meeting: "I'm going to be fired."
"They don't fire trustees," she assured him.
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These memories flowed late Thursday afternoon at the press conference to discuss the recently announced renovation of Welsh-Ryan Arena, a renovation spearheaded by a leadership gift from the Ryans, and another of $10 million from Stephen and Susan Wilson.
"We have to give them a tool box to succeed, not to just sit there in the Big Ten," explained Ryan, who along with his wife has benefitted the school in numerous ways. "They're playing at a very high level of competition, and they deserve facilities and the tools to achieve excellence."
"It's a game-changer for our volleyball program," volleyball coach Shane Davis, whose team plays its home games in Welsh-Ryan, said of his new tools.
"It's going to have a huge impact on our recruiting. It was the last piece of the puzzle for Northwestern wrestling," said head coach Matt Stornolo, whose team competes there as well. "Academically, we can offer what other programs can't. We've historically been one of the most competitive programs in the country. This is the last piece of that puzzle, to have a state-of-the-art facility."
"I could be here all day talking about how it's going to effect recruiting," said men's basketball coach Chris Collins. "This facility is going to be on par with anybody we compete against."
"Since they made the announcement," said women's basketball coach Joe McKeown, "nationwide, the texts, the phone calls, the messages from alumni, even some of our competitors who're afraid we're going to build something they can't beat -- this sends a message that we're serious about basketball."
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The renovation itself will begin the day after the final game of the 2016-17 basketball season, and take some 18 months to complete. That will transform the affected teams into road warriors, and the plans for just where they will practice and compete have not yet been finalized. But when they return, they will have a new playpen that will have chairback seating and wider concourses; more restrooms and concession areas; new locker rooms and coaches' offices and a new air about it. The importance of this was not lost on McKeown, whose team was recently handed two more powerhouses (Rutgers and Maryland) to contend with. "Facility-wise, in women's basketball, they're great programs, just great, great programs," he explained.
"We've been able to compete the last two years, three years with everybody. So we've proven we can do that. But I think also, people want to see this. They want to have a place they can showcase, a place they love going. As you and I know (since we both spent time in Philadelphia), people love going to The Palestra (a grand, old gym on the campus of Penn). People love it here (at Welsh-Ryan), I love playing in this arena, it's old school. But to have something like this and to keep it within the framework of who were are -- that's important to me.
"We're not going to build a 20,000 seat arena. But to have something that people just love coming to, families, community, I just think it'll be really cool. Then for the players who'll play in it, it's just a great opportunity. And the hardest thing sometimes when you are 16-years old and you see what everybody's doing and other schools are really putting facilities in the forefront of recruiting. I tell them all, 'You can't take that practice gym and put it on your back and go get a job. You can take a Northwestern diploma and go get a job.' But for our players who'll come through here, it's going to be awesome. It's a win-win for everybody."
"It's the missing piece to what we needed," Collins would finally conclude, echoing sentiments heard often on this afternoon. "There is no ceiling now, in my opinion, to what our programs can accomplish. When I heard Mr. Ryan speak earlier about excellence -- you shoot for the stars, you go for it all. That's what we're doing. We're going for it all. There should be a standard of excellence. We're Northwestern. We have a standard of excellence with every aspect of our university. Now to be able to say that we have that in basketball as well, it's just an exciting time."
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