STARTING FROM SCRATCH: HOW MERCER RESURRECTED FOOTBALL
After 71 years, the FCS playoff Bears formed a program in 2013
BY JEFF KOLPACK
The Forum FARGO
When Mercer
athletic director
Jim Cole steps off the plane at Hector International Airport on Friday, it won’t be his first steps in Fargo. He was at one time a pitching coach for the Madison Blackwolf in 1997 when they were part of the old Northern League.
He remembers the Roger Maris Museum at West Acres Mall. Those were the days Darryl Motley was crushing it for the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks.
“We couldn’t get that guy out,” Cole said.
Over 25 years later, the football program he oversees is becoming a tough out in Division I FCS football.
The Bears play North Dakota State on Saturday afternoon in an FCS quarterfinal game and they are doing it despite being a decade-old program, resurrecting football in 2013 after 71 years of inactivity. Cole was on the ground floor of the plan, getting his marching orders from the university president to get it going. The school was looking for a way to grow enrollment and enhance the college experience. Add that football is popular in Georgia and the marriage made sense.
“Stay for the weekend, there’s parties on Friday night, tailgate and football games on Saturday,” Cole said. “We were looking for some campus life, a way to get alumni back together. We used to have homecoming for a basketball game but it’s still not
the same. Mercer is a very small, private institution and we needed a little gravitas, we needed something to get people talking about us.”
In announcing the formation of the program, Cole got a plain white helmet from a friend at the University of Georgia, had it lettered to reflect Mercer and held a press conference. The brainchild of the move was school president William Underwood, who got successful local automobile dealer Charlie Cantrell on board.
“He wasn’t a good leader, he was a great leader,” Cantrell said. “We just thought it would be a good fit for middle Georgia. Football has been a game changer for us.”
The Bears played in the non-scholarship Pioneer League that first year and were an instant success going 10-2, 6-2 in the conference, setting a record for most wins by a startup college program. They did it with a roster almost entirely of freshmen and redshirt freshmen, with the exception of a couple of sophomores and one senior. That was Josh Shutter, who came over from the Mercer soccer team.
The plan was to remain a Pioneer League member, a conference that fit private school Mercer with the likes of fellow privates like Butler, Valparaiso, Drake and Stetson. But when Georgia Southern left for FBS in 2014, the SoCon wanted to keep a Georgia school in its league footprint, so Mercer called an audible and started raising money for scholarships.
“I had to scrap that whole model because we had three years of kids on campus who were
non-scholarship,” Cole said. “It wasn’t the ideal way to do it because I would have loved to recruit three scholarship classes, but we stayed with it. We had to scrap our whole business plan and go the other way.”
Like Abilene Christian, NDSU’s second round opponent last week, Mercer is located in prime high school recruiting country. The team is built the NDSU way, using mostly high school recruits and not much in the way of the transfer portal.
Mercer is just over an hour away from Atlanta. In an era when a host of FCS schools like Georgia Southern made the jump to FBS, having another school willing to invest in football is important for the subdivision.
“Abilene Christian is going to be an issue here moving forward,” said NDSU head coach Tim Polasek. “They have athletes. I respect (Mercer) in the ball they’re playing, they’re scheduling people. I think it’s really important for as many programs as possible to reinvest, hire the best people they can hire so that it is competitive. We all want to be in a competitive world, I think our fan base wants that so I think it’s critical.”
Last year was a breakthrough of sorts with Mercer reaching the FCS playoffs for the first time defeating Gardner-Webb (N.C.) 17-7 in the first round. The end came at South Dakota State in a convincing 41-0 defeat to a team that would go on to win its second straight national championship.
This year marked the first regular season conference title for Mercer. Campus life is alive and
well on weekends in Macon, Georgia. The city has more to it, now, than being the home of the Allman Brothers and Little Richard.
Downtown Macon, located minutes from the stadium, has seen revitalization and creation of new businesses that can be attributed to the resurrection of football.
The website stadiumjourney.com called Five Star Stadium, which was funded by Cantrell, a “hidden gem of college football.” Cole said plans are on the board to continue to upgrade the facility, mostly with userfriendly areas like suites.
More investment like a collective and Alston payments are a constant discussion, Cole said.
“We participate in that as best we can,” he said. “But that’s an arm’s race that sometimes you just have to draw the line.”
The program three years ago created “Project Frisco,” a blueprint on how best to get the Bears to Frisco, Texas, for the FCS national championship game. It addressed items like strength and conditioning, facilities, nutrition and travel.
“I believe we have a national championship coming,” Cantrell said. “Now whether that’s this year or whenever, that’s our goal and we want to achieve that.”
When it came to comparing to other schools, Cole said it pointed to the Dakota and Montana schools. Like last year at SDSU, he plans on checking out NDSU’s environment this weekend.
“When I’m building that plan I’m constantly looking at what they have out there to see, what do I
need to do?” Cole said. “I’m just trying to build a little better mousetrap every day.”
As hoped, enrollment at Mercer has increased in the last 10 years.
“And I think it’s directly related to athletics,” said Cantrell, a member of the school’s Board of Trustees. “A big part of athletics is football, that’s the No. 1 driver in sports. It’s helped our enrollment tremendously.” Readers can
Will McLelland/USA TODAY Sports
Mercer Bears running back Dwayne McGee (3) stiff arms Alabama Crimson Tide linebacker Justin Jefferson (15) during the second quarter Nov. 16, 2024, at BryantDenny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Will McLelland/USA TODAY Sports
Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer, left, talks with Mercer Bears head coach Mike Jacobs during warmups on Nov. 16, 2024, at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Will McLelland/USA TODAY Sports Mercer Bears quarterback Whitt Newbauer (8) tosses the ball to wide receiver Kelin Parsons (13) against the Alabama Crimson Tide during the first quarter on Nov. 16, 2024, at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
North Dakota State receiver Bryce Lance grabs a pass last
Sam Goetzinger
