June 19, 2003
TO: Fans, Friends, and Supporters of LSU Athletics
FROM: Skip Bertman, LSU Director of Athletics
This week:
- Congratulations to Pat Henry and the LSU Track & Field Teams
- Another Outstanding Year for LSU Athletics
- LSU’s Goal: Top Five Across the Board
- Improvements: PMAC, Parking, Stadiums
This past week I really enjoyed attending the College World Series. Although I’ve been there 18 times in the past as a coach, this was the first time I attended the CWS as a fan. It is similar to making the Final Four in basketball or the Rose Bowl in football, and I feel very proud that LSU was there for the 12th time.
Our outdoor track and field team won another national championship for the women and came in fourth in the men’s competition. This is the 25th national championship for Pat Henry and for LSU Track and Field it is the 28th national title.
We have completed another outstanding year in our 20 sports. I am proud of the coaches and the athletes both on the field and in the classroom. I am proud of the fans as over one million have watched our athletes in home events this past year. Our web site, LSUsports.net, receives more than eight million page views per month, also among the best in the nation among college sports websites.
In my opinion, no other program in America can offer the pageantry, the pride and the passion of LSU athletics. In the future, I hope we can be in the top five in every category. We hope to establish a level of excellence in every facet of our program.
We hope to be in the top five in athletic accomplishments, but also to be among the best in academics as well. We hope to maintain our athletic medicine programs in the Marty Broussard Center and our strength and conditioning operations as top five programs. Our radio and TV programming is also among the best. We hope to stay among the best in customer service as well.
We want to rank among the best in the country in our NCAA compliance program, in promotions and marketing and in game management at events, and providing family entertainment and improving the quality of life in our community.
To start, we have committed over $300,000 in improvements to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for this year. Improvements for this coming basketball season will manifest itself mostly in improvements to entrance ways and aesthetic enhancements on the entire concourse. Future investments will include all new seats in the arena and even structural changes.
Also in the next few months, we will be creating over 45 acres of free parking this fall on the west side of Nicholson Drive for the convenience of football fans.
In the near future, we will make improvements in the football stadium, Alex Box Stadium and Tiger Softball Park as well. Our men’s and women’s golf programs housed at the University Club are already enjoying the addition of a beautiful locker room for both teams, and an upgrade to the women’s basketball locker room facilities was completed this past year.
The successes of this past year started with the opening of the magnificent Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes, it continued with the success of our athletics teams on the playing fields, courts and arenas, and was punctuated by the academic successes outlined in my last letter to you.
LSU, along with Texas, was one of only two schools in the entire country to have a team in a New Year’s Day football bowl game, to place both their men’s and women’s basketball teams in the NCAA tournament, and to place their baseball team in the College World Series. With two more national championships in women’s track and field, and other successes in Olympic Sports, Tiger fans can hold their heads high on the national scene.
We will not rest on our laurels. We must look at our current state of affairs as a solid foundation for our future. We are in a position, with the proper management and planning, to move to the next level of excellence in all areas of your athletics program.
We must not let this opportunity pass us by. We must continue to look to the future and create an attitude of excellence throughout the athletics program that will carry us to greater and greater accomplishments, on and off the field, for the next quarter of a century.
I encourage you to send your feedback to LSUvision@etigers.net. Although we cannot guarantee a response to each and every e-mail, please know that all e-mails will be read.
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Thank you for your continued support of Tiger Athletics.