Chaney laments demise of Cheyney program
The news hit like a thunderbolt, even though nobody was really all that surprised.
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference was first with an announcement, followed later by a similar statement from Cheyney. The nation’s oldest historically black university had decided to drop its NCAA Division II status at the conclusion of the upcoming spring season due to financial difficulties.
“Wow. I am just so sorry to hear that,” said former legendary CU basketball coach John Chaney in an interview Wednesday with the Daily Local News. “It’s a shame that Cheyney, the first American land-grant college, is going through this.
“They are suffering in just about every way possible from a lack of student enrollment, which is the backbone of any college.”
As a result of the move, the PSAC is losing a charter member.
“There is tradition and history there. It is sad,” said PSAC Commissioner Steve Murray. “Times have certainly changed. The realities of the finances are really difficult right now.”
Last December, Cheyney discontinued its football program, which began competing back in 1914. According to the release, the school will seek a new conference association for its men’s and women’s basketball teams, along with the women’s volleyball program, and will assume independent status during the 2018-19 academic year, in a classification outside of the NCAA.
“These are extremely difficult but necessary decisions that are being made on behalf of our entire student population, and to help ensure the university’s fu-
ture,” Cheyney President Aaron Walton said in the statement. “We want to continue to provide our student athletes the opportunity to participate as part of the overall college experience.
“Unfortunately, we cannot continue to do so at the current level of competition. These changes are essential if the university is to achieve financial sustainability. They will remain in effect until we achieve our financial objectives.”
What happens to the remaining six athletic programs — men’s and women’s cross country and track, along with women’s bowling and tennis — is a bit murkier.
“They are going into hiatus. We are looking to figure out how get financially stable and then bring everything back,” said CU interim Athletic Director Sue Kilian.
According to Murray, the decision to exit the NCAA and PSAC was essentially made for Cheyney after it dropped football because it lowered the number of sports offered to nine.
“Division II and III require 10 sports,” he said. “And Division II requires a certain amount of scholarship spending, and they just were not going to be able to keep up.
“The conversation was that dropping football would put you below 10. And the scholarship figures were below the minimum. It’s a reality that they weren’t going to meet the entry levels.”
Both the Cheyney and PSAC statements acknowledged that school officials have consulted extensively with the PSAC on moving forward. The best option for the two basketball squads and volleyball is probably the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. It currently includes 81 mostly small colleges and junior colleges across the country and holds 12 national championship tournaments in seven sports.
“We encouraged Cheyney to look at the USCAA,” Murray said. “Many of the Penn State (satellite) campuses are involved with that group. It’s separate from NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics). That might be a better long term solution for them.”
Kilian added: “Steve and I had talked about that in prior years as we knew that financial strain was draining the university. It’s not the only option, but it’s our best option for right now. The NAIA doesn’t really exist much around here so there would be a travel issue.
“The goal is to resolve the insolvency of the University. And then make decisions from there.”
Sharp cuts in state aid and higher costs have contributed to the financial woes. But perhaps most significantly, the university has been increasingly saddled with an enrollment crisis. The number of full-time students at Cheyney has been steadily dropping for the last decade. It was 1,471 in 2008-09, and is now reportedly at 709 undergraduates.
“I remember being up to 3,000 students in the late 70s-early 80s,” said Chaney, who went 232-56 from 197282 at Cheyney, and won the PSAC’s only men’s basketball national title in 1978 before beginning a legendary run at Temple University. “And every year since we left, it seems as though there has been a decrease in the number of students. Now it’s at an all-time low.”
The university’s Council of Trustees was informed of the actions during its meeting Tuesday. The PSAC Board of Directors will take formal action on the announcement from Cheyney during its annual meeting in May.
“We worked extremely hard to try and figure out what was best for Cheyney financially,” Kilian said. “The ultimate goal is to keep Cheyney open and viable. And financially, athletics was a drain.
“In order for Cheyney to recover, we need to take a step back in order to move ahead.”
While Cheyney struggled in most sports for years, the Wolves were among the most successful basketball programs in the nation when Chaney was at the helm and C. Vivian Stringer was the women’s head coach from 1972-83. Her teams went 251-51 and the 1982 squad was the NCAA Division I national runner-up.
The Cheyney men have 15 PSAC hoops titles — by far the most of any school.
“I remember as a college student at Gannon in the early 1980s, the excitement of Cheyney coming to town,” Murray recalled. “Watching John (Chaney) coach was a big deal and those teams were so good, so disciplined and amazing to watch.
“And what Viv Stringer did was truly amazing. They were playing partially in the PSAC and then in Division I.”
The high-water mark for Cheyney athletics came in 1979, when the football squad grabbed a share of its only PSAC East crown; Chaney’s squad won the PSAC title and Stringer’s team went 26-7 and earned a bid to the AIAW Tournament, which preceded the NCAAs.
“Cheyney needs help from the state,” said Chaney, who went on to win 516 games in 24 seasons at Temple from 1982-2006. “It’s being affected by politics and everything else. They are getting hit from so many angles you can think of, it reduces its ability to function as it should.
“Athletics — especially when they are successful — have a tendency to increase enrollment. Sports tend to have a life of their own. You don’t see signs saying, ‘We are No. 1 in mathematics.’
“When we lose athletics, we lose a great deal of what college is all about.” NOTE » Murray, the PSAC commissioner, indicated that the league is working to get back to 18 football members as soon as this fall, with the front-runner being Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W.Va. “We have started conversations already. Shepherd is number one on the radar. With their geography, they are a perfect fit.”