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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Friday, September 26, 2008 9:00 PM CDT
Our View: New athletics director sees the 'blues' at EIU

By the JG/T-C Editorial Board
editorial@jg-tc.com

If Eastern Illinois University Athletic Director Barbara Burke has her way, opposing football teams will sink in a sea of blue from now on.

Fans at many college athletic events demonstrate support by wearing their team’s colors at home games.

Many have seen the Assembly Hall or Memorial Stadium bathed in orange at University of Illinois basketball and football games.

It’s time to paint the stadium blue at EIU. The Family Weekend game today against Jacksonville State is a good time to start.

Burke hopes to increase fan participation and park “more Eastern Illinois championships” on her office walls.

Burke encourages fans to wear blue and many have no excuse. She and Ryan Gilmore, the new director of marketing and promotion, have been handing out blue T-shirts to hundreds of people.

Burke has been making the rounds of service clubs and other organizations to outline her goals and introduce Gilmore. At the end of each presentation, Gilmore dispenses blue T-shirts with a bold Panther logo.

Short-term goals call for increasing the sales of tickets for the football season as the Panthers seek a fourth straight postseason berth and the Ohio Valley Conference championship.

An initiative to bump up attendance at the EIU football games targets season ticket holders unable to attend all five games. One way is to donate unused tickets back to EIU athletics to enable underprivileged children and youth groups to attend games.

An incentive for families to attend football games is the creation of the “Fun Zone,” a pre-game play area for children.

An inflatable jump house and slide plus a mechanical bull will be available prior to each home game.

The sports department is developing a disciplined, goal-oriented philosophy for developing athletic programs.

Internal senior administrators and personnel handling fundraising and marketing affairs meet jointly each week.

The seed of any sports program is support. Support from outside donors, alumni, former athletes and fans.

Support is nourished by the kind of enthusiasm generated by fans wearing the university colors and cheering on their teams.

Burke is Eastern’s first female athletic director. She is proving to be organized, goal-oriented, creative and cognizant of the need for outside sources of revenue.

In the few short months Burke has held her post she has accomplished a great deal. She has managed to put together a smooth running team inside the sports department.

We expect to see the EIU athletic program move into high gear under Burke’s stewardship.

It’s got a good start.

And there’s something to grab the attention of basketball fans in Lantz Arena — a black Panther head dominating the middle of a refurbished court.

The project was funded by the Eastern Illinois Panther Club. The EIU Facilities Department completed the project.

The basketball court makeover and Burke are helping to put a new face on EIU athletics.

Break into the blues.

JG/T-C Editorial Board

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