Wednesday Bulldog Update - 3/6/13
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FORMER PRESIDENT DR. DONALD W. ZACHARIAS, 1935-2013
The
Mississippi State University family suffered a great loss this week
with the passing of former president, Dr. Donald W. Zacharias. He
served as president of this great institution from 1985-97. Not only
was Dr. Zacharias the second-longest tenured president at MSU, he had a
significant impact during that 13-year span, and was a great friend and
fan of athletics. He died this past Sunday at age 77 of complications
from multiple sclerosis. Dr. Z will be sorely missed.
A public
memorial service celebrating his life and work will be held tomorrow at
11 a.m. in the Colvard Student Union's Foster Ballroom on the campus.
Parking will be available at the Palmeiro Center, just west of Humphrey
Coliseum, and shuttle buses will transport guests to and from the Union,
beginning at 9:30 a.m.
NORTH END ZONE PRIORITY DEPOSIT DEADLINE NEARS
As
construction at Davis Wade Stadium continues, the April 1, 2013,
deadline for new premium seating deposits looms less than a month from
now. The new north end zone will be complete in time for the 2014
season and those who make a deposit by the deadline will be placed in
priority rank order and will be assigned seating before those who wait
until after April 1st (2013).
Additionally, the re-seating of
Davis Wade Stadium will take place prior to the 2014 season. Donors who
make major gift donations to the "Today.Tomorrow.Forever" athletic
facilities initiative will be placed in rank order and will be assigned
their seats before the rest of the general donor base.
If you
have not already done so, I would encourage you secure your seat
location for the 2014 season now. Visit the Bulldog Club web site: www.msubulldogclub.com or call 1-662-325-3074.
ATHLETIC FACILITY ENHANCEMENT PROJECTS
We are excited to announce today (see full release here)
that Mississippi State athletics has raised over $40 million as part of
its "Today.Tomorrow.Forever" initiative toward athletic facilities.
For that, we thank you the Mississippi State supporter.
That
record dollar amount is the result of gifts and pledges toward the Davis
Wade Stadium expansion, the Leo Seal Jr., Football Complex and future
projects for nearly every sport, and is totally philanthropic. It does
not include monies from ticket priority.
While several athletic
departments at schools around the country have seen a decline in private
support, the Bulldog Family continues to be relentless in pledging
major gift donations.
Yesterday, we announced a $500,000
donation from the Danny Cupit Family of Jackson, Miss., to enhance the
men's basketball locker room at The Hump. We are very grateful for his
family's generosity. It is gifts such as Danny's that keep us
competitive in the SEC. It is important that we maintain our facilities
and continuously make enhancements to attract outstanding
student-athletes.
As with our other facility renovation or
expansion projects, the Danny Cupit Family gift is part of the
"Today.Tomorrow.Forever" initiative. See the full announcement here.
While
philanthropic facility gifts are important, so are the gifts from those
of you who are Bulldog Club members at the $100 level. It takes every
Bulldog doing their part, regardless of amount, for us to win in the
SEC.
MISSISSIPPI STATE FOOTBALL RETURNS TO THURSDAY EXPOSURE
Playing
college football games on Thursday night creates great exposure for
Mississippi State, our athletic program and football team, as well as
for Our State. We announced earlier this week that our game with
Kentucky in late October has been moved to Thursday night, the 24th, and
will kick off at 6:30 p.m.
It is a perfect opportunity for us
to play a Thursday night home game. We have seven home games this
coming season, so six remain as Saturday starts, giving fans the weekend
chance to be back on the campus. The competition for televised
exposure is substantially reduced on a Thursday night, giving us a great
opportunity to sell our school and program, which is one of our
foundational principles in athletics. And the university had already
scheduled fall break for that week, meaning faculty, staff and students
will be excused from classes that Thursday and Friday. That certainly
helps with parking and traffic congestion, as well as eliminating the
interruption of the academic mission of the university.
We have
not played a Thursday night game since 2011, and look forward to
playing host to Kentucky this season on Thursday night.
The full 2013 football schedule:
8/31 - Oklahoma State (Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX)
9/7 - ALCORN STATE
9/14 - at Auburn
9/21 - TROY
10/5 - LSU
10/12 - BOWLING GREEN (Homecoming)
10/24 - KENTUCKY
11/2 - at South Carolina
11/9 - at Texas A&M
11/16 - ALABAMA
11/23 - at Arkansas (Little Rock, AR)
11/30 - OLE MISS
HAIL STATE WITH SCOTT STRICKLIN RETURNS THIS MONTH
"Hail
State with Scott Stricklin" returns to Park Heights Restaurant in
Tupelo (335 East Main Street) on Monday, March 25. We've had great
receptions across the state and look forward to being back in Tupelo
later this month. Reservations for dinner and the show are encouraged,
and may be made by emailing arma@eatwithus.com
or by calling 662-327-6982. The hour-long radio show is heard on all
Mississippi State Radio Network affiliates state-wide and streamed live
online at HailState.com.
A reception will be held at 6:30 p.m.,
followed by dinner and show beginning at 7 p.m. It will feature
newsmakers from around the nation, guests from the university, and
questions from fans at Park Heights, as well as around the state.
Questions may be submitted via twitter (@hailstate and @stricklinmsu).
This show presents a different forum for us to promote Mississippi State and the athletic program.
SUPER BULLDOG WEEKEND REMINDER
Don't
forget to put the weekend of April 17-21 on your calendar, when MSU
will host the 28th-annual Super Bulldog Weekend. The weekend actually
begins Wednesday when the first round of the SEC Women's Tennis
Championship (which MSU hosts) will be held. Then, on Thursday night,
ESPNU will televise the first game of our baseball series with Auburn.
On
Saturday, we will stage an open house at the new Leo Seal Jr., Football
Complex at the north end of campus between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Also Saturday, due to construction at Davis Wade Stadium, the football
game will be played at 1 p.m., with the baseball series finale against
Auburn slated for 4.
We have launched the SBW site (www.hailstate.com/gameday),
so please visit it often this spring for updates. I hope you'll make
plans to join us in Starkville for what is always a fun weekend.
Once
again this year, the Starkville Area Arts Council will host the Cotton
District Arts Festival during SBW. Held in the historic Cotton District
in Starkville, the festival blends art, music and food into a showcase
event. It has been named one of the top 100 events in North America by
the American Bus Association, as well as a Top 20 event in the
Southeast.
Additionally, the Old Main Music Festival will be
staged at the MSU Amphitheater, just southwest of Davis Wade Stadium,
that weekend. Music ranges from bluegrass to country to rock-and-roll,
all performed by national touring acts.
BASEBALL RADIO NETWORK AND LOCAL STATIONS
There are 20-plus stations on the Mississippi State radio network (see list here), a number that has remained fairly consistent through the years. There are 40 games on the network (see schedule here), leaving just 16 that are what we call "local" broadcasts only.
In addition, all of our baseball games are available through our HailStateTV audio and/or video broadcast on our web site (www.hailstate.com/hstvlive).
We have heard suggestions to add a balls-strikes-outs graphic interface
to the screen on our HSTV video presentation and are considering that
addition, which requires a fairly substantial financial investment.
Games
that are not included on the network generally are in direct conflict
with men's or women's basketball, which take precedence, or are weekday
afternoon games. Those games are only available locally on either
WKBB-FM (West Point, 100.9), WNMQ-FM (Columbus, 103.1) or WXWX-FM
(Tupelo, 96.3). It hasn't been all that long ago that when baseball and
basketball conflicted, the baseball game was distributed via Internet
only.
All Southeastern Conference games are on the full baseball radio network.
MISSISSIPPI STATE HOME SCHEDULE
Wednesday, March 6 - Softball v Memphis, 5:30 pm
Friday, March 8 - Men's Tennis v Tennessee, 2 pm; Softball v LSU, 6 pm; Baseball v Central Arkansas, 6:30 pm
Saturday, March 9 - Softball v LSU, 1 pm; Baseball v Central Arkansas, 2 pm
Sunday, March 10 - Softball v LSU, 1 pm; Men's Tennis v Georgia, 1 pm; Baseball v Central Arkansas, 1:30 pm
We appreciate what you do for Mississippi State
Athletics and want to encourage you to get others involved. There are
three things you can do to help the athletic department at Mississippi
State reach its desired goals -
1. Buy Season Tickets
2. Financially Support the Bulldog Club
3. Get Others To Do The Same
Thanks for taking the time to read this Update.
Hail State!
Scott Stricklin