Columnist
CHARLIE BARNES
Charlie Barnes is the retired Senior Vice President and Executive Director of Seminole Boosters; he is also President of the Seminole Greek Alumni Foundation. Contact him at cbarnes161@comcast.net
16
SPRING 2020
“THANKS, COACH; WE’LL TAKE IT FROM HERE” Some years ago, FSU Vice President for Alumni Affairs Jim Melton was squiring around a group of visitors, most of whom, he chuckled, “represented rival institutions.” When the van topped the hill going down toward Doak Campbell stadium, the visitors gasped. “I wanted to be gracious,” Melton said, “but one of them actually cried when they saw our stadium for the first time.” “Isn’t it amazing,” he confided later, “the effect that five million bricks can have on some people.” Melton plucked the five million number out of the air because none of us knows how many bricks there are. But here’s what is known: each one of the bricks in those massive walls represents a single, separate act of tribute, of support, of ambition, of vision on the part of hundreds of thousands of Seminole fans across seven decades. Every brick carries within it the hopes, dreams and commitment of fans who began building this magnificent structure exactly 70 years ago when it was just a small ‘erector set’ with wood plank seats. You know about the time value of money. Blend that principle with the time value of loyalty, and the result is the most beautiful college football stadium in the country; the largest contiguous brick construction in the United Sates. Those individual bricks represent volunteers who sold Seminole Booster license tags door-to-door for $5 each in 1951 to support the new stadium. How many more bricks account for the thousands of Seminole Boosters who gave $10 and $25 each to be members in the years when we weren’t winning many games, but the promise of better days sustained their pledges of loyalty? Many of those bricks symbolize the first appearance of Golden Chiefs in 1976. They reflect the intense and abiding
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loyalty of thousands of Seminole Booster volunteers who made personal calls and visits to encourage their friends and other Seminoles to join the cause throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The bricks soared higher with the reality of our first $1 million donor in 1989; then those monumental walls drew even greater strength from more than 100 $1 million donors over the course of the next 30 years. Doak Campbell Stadium stands on the same formidable ground where it first appeared in the fall of 1950. All the while, the campus, the city, the people and all the accommodating environment surrounding it have evolved. You may have read recently that the Seminole Boosters sold Burt Reynolds Hall. President Thrasher assigned David Coburn to focus on cleaning up the Athletic Department’s recent shortfalls, and solving that plight includes selling off some income-producing Seminole Booster assets to raise ready cash. The new Florida State University Athletic Association (FSUAA) brings Seminole Boosters and the Athletic Director to the same table. Certain Athletic Department contracts and expenditures will be subject to more timely oversight. In addition, any new Athletic Director will bear enhanced responsibility for fundraising. Athletic Director David Coburn is performing his task with the impressive intellect and no-nonsense stoicism that has long been his signature. Be assured that our Florida State Athletic program is making the right moves going forward. Going forward is the key phrase here. Going forward has always been the vision of our fans, donors and supporters. Not every institution has the capacity or the will to do so. The right decisions, the hard ones, usually in the wake of misfortune, are always daunting. But the goal, always, is
