Deion Sanders wants baseball to return to Colorado

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to call June 11th, 1980 one of the darkest days in CU sports history.

The Buffaloes have had more than their fair share of losses over the years but, cutting six sports teams at one time was a drastic measure that yielded very little benefit.

The eliminated programs included wrestling, baseball, swimming, diving, and men’s and women’s gymnastics.

Gymnastics Coach Sid Freudenstein said, at the time to Sports Illustrated, "I've never felt so abused in my life."

There’s certainly blame to go around. Many schools have been forced to cut low revenue sports while adhering to Title IX regulations. 

In this case, it was more a combination of hubris and lavish spending by the head football coach, Chuck Fairbanks, that all played a part in an athletic budget that was deep in the, dare I say, red.

Fairbanks, who’s been praised as innovator by Bill Belichick and others, was an absolute disaster at Colorado. His three year stint was worse than Karl Dorrell, achieving just 7 wins compared to 26 losses.

Larry Schultz, head baseball coach said at the time, “We always preach to our players that the game isn't over until it's over. The problem is we didn't even know we were in a game." 

So, here we are 43 years later and there’s still no baseball. But, for the first time in many years, there is hope.

“We’re going to command so much money for this university that we’re going to add a baseball team.”

Those were the words of Deion Sanders during his weekly Coach’s show.

Can Coach Prime live up to that promise? It’s hard to say. But, clearly there’s potential value for the football team in adding baseball. Every year there are multi sport athletes who seek out these types of opportunities to compete in more than just football.

Either way, the prospects of baseball returning and possibly softball beginning, seem a whole lot more realistic now than ever before.