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This Day In Sports…February 28, 2020, five years ago today:
Boise State baseball, dormant since 1980, had made its official return a week earlier at the University of Texas. But this is when a 40-year home game hiatus ends for the Broncos, as they blank Northern Colorado 4-0 at Memorial Stadium before 3,279 fans. It was a magical night. It looked like a scene from “Field of Dreams” the way cars were backed up all the way down Glenwood Street waiting to get into the parking lot.
It certainly felt different inside the Boise Hawks facility. There was no beer, fans were wearing coats, and there were no leaves on the cottonwood trees beyond the outfield fence. But that only added to the atmosphere. The festive crowd was as big as the 4th of July. It took a while for the first “Boise…State…” chant. Maybe fans wondered if it was appropriate at a baseball game.
The Broncos would go on to sweep that four-game series against UNC. Little did anyone know that the coronavirus would shut down the sports world less than two weeks later, leaving the Broncos with a 9-5 record. Then the resulting athletic department financial crisis would lead to Boise State dropping baseball on July 2, one of 2020’s biggest gut punches. Coach Gary Van Tol, who had built the new program from scratch over a two-year period, watched his players scatter across the country. That included the “Dirty Dozen,” the 12 players who started training in the fall of 2018.
People have always wondered: if Jeramiah Dickey had been Boise State athletic director in 2020, would baseball have been saved? Maybe, maybe not. Dickey was asked last weekend on “X” if Broncos baseball was ever going to return. He replied: “No timetable. Have answered this before. Until we know where our industry is going, it’s not in our best interest to add a sport right now. I will never say never. I’m really sorry that happened to fans and student athletes/coaches who were representing us. Unfortunate decision.”
Dickey later added that, while noting that Boise State doesn’t have a facility, it would take a minimum of $2 million to start baseball up again. “Unfortunately we don’t have enough resources for the 18 sports we currently have,” he wrote. “Also need to navigate Title IX.” Dickey also bemoaned the loss of the Broncos wrestling program, which was axed by former university president Bob Kustra when the return of baseball was announced almost eight years ago. Dickey specifically gave a nod to “Beauty & The Beast,” the popular annual wrestling/gymnastics event that was held in ExtraMile Arena.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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