Open letter to the 1996 team

Coach Bob Pruett and members, of the D-1AA (now the FCS_ national championship 1996 team are honored on the field of the FAU game, alongside their families during the 20th anniversary of the team's championship.

So I woke up this morning to a message from a fellow Marshall University alum on my facebook page. It was a simple, short message that included just one word. 

"Embarrassing." 

Attached to that one-word message was an article from Chuck Landon in today's Herald-Dispatch. In that article Landon talks to several former Herd greats, were talking legendary Marshall players like John Grace, BJ Cohen, Rogers Beckett, and Albert Barber. Players who not only helped Marshall capture a 1996 D1-AA National Title but also helped build the national name recognition that the Herd earned during the 1990s and early 2000s. These are players who should be revered in the Pantheon of Herd greats, looked upon as guys current players should strive to match in accomplishments and guys that older fans can fondly share memories of with those too young to have witnessed their greatness first hand. 

But, instead what I read was how the players weren't met with reverement or even respect, by members of the current Marshall Athletic Department, in a place that they had given so much. Grace, who went on to become a three-time Canadian League All-Star may have said it best. 

"We left skin out there on that field," Grace told Landon. "I've still got marks on my legs now. I came to one game this year and couldn't even stand on the sidelines at my own university. Yet they're going to send me letter after letter after letter asking me for my money."

Herd fans know that sting all too well. Athletic director Mike Hamrick has consistently disrespected the fans for not doing what he deems as enough to help the program and then in the next breath will ask the same fans he just disrespected for more money. This attitude with the fans was unacceptable, but treating former players, who literally paved the way for everything Marshall athletics has been able to build and accomplish in recent years, in terms of facilities and national recognition is downright appalling. 

Cohen, who played several years in the Arena Football League at the height of the league's success and won two Arena Bowl Championships, confronted Hamrick the same way he confronted quarterbacks in the backfield during his playing days. But, unlike those QBs Hamrick sidestepped and evaded Choen. 

"I asked him, 'Why is this happening? Whose decision is it?'," Cohen told Landon. "His (Hamrick) tone was like 'Well what do you want?' that's what he asked me. 'What else do you want?'" 

Well, how about some respect Mr. Athletic Director? Instead of treating players from the '96 title team like unruly fans who leaped the concrete walls of the stadium onto the field to cause a ruckus and hassling them with security guards, why not treat them with the respect that they deserved, that they had earned? 

Now you have former greats, guys who are fan favorites saying that they don't know if they'll ever come back to Huntington/Marshall, a place that should be like a second home to them, always welcoming and friendly for what those guys have given it, instead has made them feel like unwelcomed bothers. 

"If I never come back it would not be a big deal to me," Beckett who played five seasons in the NFL said. "I never thought I'd feel that way after 20 years." 

He shouldn't feel that way, but because of the way he was treated during a weekend that was supposed to celebrate him and his teammates he does. Now, I'm sure Hamrick has a different perspective of how things happened, but his perspective matters very little at this point. You have an all-time great from your program that doesn't ever want to come back and visit an institution that he dedicated some of the best years of his life to. No matter what, no matter the "other side" of the story, that's a problem and Hamrick needs to get it fixed. 

But, that's not what this blog post is really about. What it's really about is this. While the Athletic Department may have not given you the respect, admiration and appreciation you deserve, know that the Marshall fans do. I was just eight years old when Marshall won that 1996 National Title. I remember going to every game with my Dad following my own youth football games, in which I wore the thigh-high (to an eight-year-old) striped "Cat in the Hat" socks that guys like Randy Moss, Doug Chapman, and others from that '96 team made famous. 

You guys were my heroes. I didn't go in my yard to pretend to be Troy Aikman or Steve Young, I pretended I was Eric Kresser or Chad Pennington. I didn't recreate last second touchdowns to win the Super Bowl as a kid, but instead last second scores to give Marshall a win over Western Michigan in the MAC Championship game in 1999, because there were no last second touchdowns to recreate in 1996, that team was simply too dominant. 

You were players I'd try to emulate during my own football games as a kid. I'd watch the way you carried yourselves from the moment that you stepped on the field, until the final whistle. I adopted your swagger, I mimicked your technique and now I fondly remember all the great moments you supplied me and my father with during my childhood. 

My Dad is my best friend, but a big part of that bond we have was built through sports. Marshall athletics in particular and the players from those mid-90s teams through the MAC years provided opportunity after opportunity for my father to teach me the game, for my father to point to players playing it the right way, and for us to celebrate a lot of wins. So to all of those former players, who helped make those teams so fun to watch and helped countless Herd fans share what have now become great memories with friends and family, I thank you. 

I know it may not mean much coming from a random fan on a blog, compared to the current athletic director, but I wanted to say it anyway. Thank you. Thank you for your effort, thank you for your dedication to our school, but most importantly thank you for the memories. Memories I will always hold with me. I hope that you can see past your frustrations with the university's athletic department and see that many fans are just as disillusioned as you are and that you guys are respected, revered and even cherished throughout Herd nation. 

I hope things can be repaired because for such legendary former players or any players for that matter to feel so unwanted by their university is a travesty and as my friend put it, an embarrassment. 

- Justin Prince.