By Bryan Clark
Staff Writer
It’s been more than a year since the St. Bonaventure University men’s basketball team won its first Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament Championship. The championship trophy currently sits in the men’s basketball office, hidden from the public.
Several athletic trophies glisten from cases in the Reilly Center concourse. The women’s basketball, baseball, swimming and diving and tennis programs showcase trophies they’ve earned throughout their histories. If other athletic teams show off their accomplishments, why doesn’t the men’s basketball team?
Syracuse University’s 2003 National Championship men’s basketball championship trophy greets fans from its case on the Carrier Dome’s first floor. If Syracuse, a major collegiate athletic program, prominently showcases a national championship trophy, why can’t St. Bonaventure do the same for a conference championship trophy?
The achievement is acknowledged with a banner hanging in the Reilly Center. That isn’t enough. The trophy symbolizes the hard work, passion and support it took to win that championship.
What would happen if the men’s basketball department removed the trophy from its office? Would a giant boulder roll down from the top of the Reilly Center like in “Raiders of the Lost Ark?” It’s unlikely that moving the trophy would be a catastrophic event.
The athletic department and security officials could certainly find a way to safely display the trophy. Fear of vandalism shouldn’t deter any effort to showcase the trophy.
People shouldn’t need proof in the form of a trophy to know the Bonnies won the 2012 A-10 Championship, but why do people keep photographs, souvenirs and other mementos? They promote nostalgia. The trophy would help preserve happy memories for the St. Bonaventure community.
It’s true the trophy belongs to the men’s basketball team and that the players and coaches directly earned the championship. Alumni, fans and students weren’t scoring points, playing defense and directly helping the team win at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall during those three games.
But many alumni, fans and students traveled to see the Bonnies win that championship, cheering passionately for and enthusiastically promoting their school in the process.
The fans had a role in the championship quest. After a rally honoring both basketball programs last season, men’s basketball Head Coach Mark Schmidt has acknowledged the significance of the program’s success to its fans.
“I knew how important basketball is to this community,” Schmidt said, recalling when he arrived at St. Bonaventure in 2007. “The more years I stay here, I see that it’s really important. It brings us together.”
Many wonderful moments in a person’s life take place in college. For many students last season, those happy moments will include the men’s basketball team winning the 2012 A-10 Championship. They will tell and retell their friends, co-workers, spouses and children stories about the program’s glorious run in March 2012.
If they return to campus, they should be able see the A-10 Championship trophy in the Reilly Center and relive the team’s extraordinary accomplishment.
The trophy is a treasure to the men’s basketball program and to St. Bonaventure alumni, fans and students. Share this great achievement with the past, present and future members of the St. Bonaventure community.
Put the 2012 A-10 Championship trophy on public display.
