Artistic Rendering of the New UH Football Stadium.
With the passing of Robertson Stadium as a 40-17 consolation game win for the Cougars over Tulane at the end of a most disappointing football season, its time to give some thought to larger measures and how the university may be thinking in their plans for naming the new planned venues for football and basketball. I’m not real sure what the target date is for the basketball field house, but we definitely are on board for the new football stadium in 2014.
How about, this time, we forego naming these places in favor of the generous alumni who pick up the biggest part of the tab and name them for the two icons, both still living and capable of accepting our statements of appreciation, who made success possible in each of the two big money sports.
Bill Yeoman Stadium and The Guy V. Lewis Pavilion sound pretty good to me.
What do the rest of you Cougars out there think?
All Bill Yeoman did was coach at UH for 25 seasons (1962-1986) without dumping us over for bigger bucks and “a more prestigious offer” elsewhere. Yeoman’s career record at UH (160-108-8) included four Southwest Conference titles (1976, 1978, 1979, 1984) and a winning record (6-4-1) in bowl games. The Cougars’ win over Nebraska in the January 1, 1980 Cotton Bowl pulled UH to its highest ratings finish in football history at # 4.
Bill Yeoman, of course, is the father of the veer option offense that revolutionized college football, starting with its introduction in the Astrodome in the fall of 1965. That same season, Bill Yeoman’s offense featured the first black player to suit up and start for any of the previously all white universities in Texas. Running back Warren McVea was a runner for the ages, who later led the 1967 Cougars to a 27-7 upset win over Michigan State at East Lansing in the Spartans’ opening game of their season.
Bill Yeoman is a member of both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
Artistic Rendering of the New UH Basketball Court
Guy V. Lewis coached basketball for 31 seasons at UH (592-279), leading his Cougar teams to five Final Four appearances (1967, 1968, 1982-1984) during both the Elvin Hayes and Akeem Olajuwon eras. Lewis was among the first to recruit black players (Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney, 1964) and the major cast of the famous “Phi Slama Jama” team that came later under the leadership of future Hall of Fame greats Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.
The first future UH Hall of Famer, Elvin Hayes, led the Cougars to a 71-69 win over UCLA in the Astrodome on January 20, 1968, forever changing the scope and scale of basketball in the mind of the viewing public.
Guy V. Lewis was voted Coach of the Year in 1968 and 1983. He was elected to the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
What say thee, fellow Cougars and friendly Houstonian supporters of our Tier One university? Should we honor the dedicated coaches who did the work in the trenches for years to bring accolades to our university? Or do we do what most universities do, sell the name to the folks who write the fattest checks because that’s what they expect to get for their money?
Tags: new UH sports venues
The Pecan Park Eagle 
November 27, 2012 at 4:45 pm |
I would fully support honoring coaches Yoeman and Lewis. Each put the Cougars “on the map” in their respective sports and led them to great heights.
November 27, 2012 at 7:31 pm |
This won’t go over well, but I doubt UH, an “aspiring Tier One Institution” which it is not, would want to name anything after Yeoman. Yeoman left under a terrible cloud including allegations of knowing of payments to players so their girlfriends could get abortions as well as other illegal payments to players directly from Yeoman (http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1986_226673/ex-uh-player-says-he-got-loan-from-coach-to-fund-a.html). As I recall, the investigation halted when Yeoman stepped down to limit the growing scandal, but my memory of all the details is pretty hazy now. I know you Cougars consider Yeoman an icon, but this is pretty scurvy, even worse than John Jenkins’ running up the score to get Ware a Heisman. I remember being disappointed when this came out in the late 1980s because I, too, held Yeoman in high regard. I don’t anymore.
Guy Lewis though is a class act, pure and simple.
November 27, 2012 at 9:04 pm |
Wayne, I didn’t need to turn on the headlights to see you coming. Just know this, my friend. If you are ever outrageously accused of felonious acts by questionable characters who then draw attention from scandal-happy reporters who eagerly write it up for publication and you are not then subsequently indicted, tried, and convicted of something equally serious, I promise not to write about it in The Pecan Park Eagle.
At least, you got it right on Guy V. Lewis. A .500 BA would be pretty good, if this were baseball, but that being said, I respect your right to think for yourself – and my own right to disagree with you, as I knew we would on this subject. The Bill Yeoman I know is not the man described by you or the story in that link.
November 27, 2012 at 9:14 pm |
Bill I think it is an outstanding idea.
November 27, 2012 at 11:22 pm |
Not knowing the other personalities involved and with an admittedly hazy memory of events some 25 years ago, I used the word “allegations.” I haven’t taken the time to research if the ones concerning abortions were ever really verified by the NCAA or others, but payments to players were substantiated to the degree the regents wanted Yeoman gone to stop the feeding frenzy. These issues festered for a long time and were well covered in the media, just google “Bill Yeoman illegal payments to players” and a lot comes up. If these were so prevalent in the late 1980s it makes one wonder what went on in 1968. Although improprieties were easier to keep covered up back then, they existed. Switzer and Royal had nasty recruitment wars that included some tacky tactics, issues that Switzer alluded to during the week of Royal’s death. About this time Sherrill lost out on a payment war with SMU to get Dickerson and perhaps the great senatorial candidate Craig James. Even if not true, these allegations set in a lot of people’s minds. I was a true red Cougar supporter during the mid-1960s but was stunned in the 1980s when this stuff hit the fan. I’m sure you followed it closer than I did but it left a nasty taste in my mouth. I just don’t think the UH administration wants this stuff dredged up while they’re trying to improve their academic and athletic standing in the state and nation. Your comments the other day regarding Briles and Sumlin were apropos….Sumlin in particular displayed poor character in how he left UH in a lurch prior to the bowl game. But I think you said at the time that it’s a business, and UH has to ante up to compete and keep the great coaches it develops. To paraphrase that great Texan Lyndon Johnson, “if you want to run with the big dogs you can’t stop and piddle like a puppy.” It’s real tough for a public school like UH or Southwest Texas or UT San Antonio or UTEP to “run with the big dogs” when Rice and TCU and Notre Dame can and do subsidize their athletic programs with student tuition dollars which is illegal at public institutions across the nation. UT and TAMU can’t use what people allude to as their endowment “riches” for athletics; those are state dollars and can’t be used for auxiliary enterprises like football or dorms. They get their wealth from decades of existence, precedence and alumni financial support that began long before the smaller schools came along. In UT’s case, the ability to market its product has led to substantial income, but it gets used to subsidize minor sports which are all losers at UT. UT sucks right now, but it will rise again. UH might help out by hiring Manny Diaz as its defensive coordinator.