Recently, President Holoman and Director of Athletics David Orr have decided to make a potentially controversial decision: the resurrection of our long-dead football team. When questioned about this choice, they were excited about this movement, seeing the potential to introduce the community to what appears to them to be the most popular sport in the country. In addition, our school tends to bring in a large swathe of athletic students, so bringing in more options seems like the most obvious choice to further expand our enrollment, helping Centenary grow to be more than just the best-kept secret in Louisiana education. Add on the over one-million-dollar donation to bring the program back on, and it quickly becomes obvious that this appears to be a savvy business decision. 

Centenary’s original football team started solid. However, over time leading up to World War II, budget cuts and a declining fan base began to result in it diminishing. Unfortunately, that in and of itself was not the sole reason. At the time, we were known as “The Ironsides,” a brutal rough, and tumble group of athletes that developed a reputation for being particularly cruel on the field and borderline criminal off the field. As such, they were shut down and the college mascot was rebranded as the Ladies and Gents. Fast forward to 1966, an attempt to revive the team was made not by the Athletics department but rather the student government. Wanting to give them a shot at coming back, they were given a trial run for one game the December season. It was then that the Centenary Gents duked it out against the Loyola Havoc Wolves. To say it went poorly would be an understatement. In our only match of the season, Centenary was crushed 42 to nothing, and since then, that seemed to be a sign to keep Football out of the college. That is, until now.

I think this decision is not in and of itself a bad one. It will bring attention, students, and money into Centenary, allowing the college to grow and develop which is never a bad thing; however, I do disagree with their choice to not poll the student body about how we felt about changing the culture of our school, as this heavily affects our daily life and the value of our education. Time will tell what this entails for the college, but for now, I am holding my breath for the precedent that this sets for the future of the college. 

Mat Stogner

I am an English Major with a focus on creative writing. I work in the library where I can often be seen doing homework, sorting books, or working on my passion project, a Dungeons and Dragons livestream that I've been running for over a year now (twitch.tv/argentzephyr).

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