COLUMN: Smith Speaks but ETSU is a World Away

So this is what it’s come to.

Two worlds. Two realities. Two dreams. Two vastly different, disunited visions of the future.

And while one side reaches out, the other digs in, buries its head and waits for the storm to pass.

Atlanta Falcons head coach Mike Smith was the guest speaker Saturday evening during the Buc Football and Friends Foundation’s sixth annual banquet inside a packed room at the Holiday Inn in Johnson City, Tenn.

Smith, the former East Tennessee State University record-setting linebacker and 2008 NFL coach of the year looked sharp.

He spoke sharper.

He talked about commitment, hope, devotion, teamwork and success.

He used words and phrases that would make any successful CEO, teacher, world leader, parent or youth athletic coach smile and nod in agreement.

And Smith exuded confidence as he shook open hands and grinned wide while pictures and autographs were requested and granted.

But, while the Falcons coach worked the room and an estimated 180 proud, upbeat ETSU football supporters turned out to honor Smith and Buccaneers football teams from 1962, 1969 and 1996, ETSU was nowhere to be found.

ETSU athletic director Dave Mullins? Absent.

Representatives of ETSU’s athletic administration? None.

Bucky, the blue pirate mascot? Nowhere to be found.

ETSU’s president, Dr. Paul Stanton? No way.

Smith was just 3.6 miles away from the college where he once roamed the turf, chomped up runners, rang up tackles and developed from a young man into a young adult.

But he could have been in China.

Since Stanton, Mullins and a small group of pals made a back-door decision to drop football in 2003, slowly turning ETSU’s athletic program into a member’s only country club, the university has treated football supporters like they’re carrying and spreading a plague.

Need proof?

Smith said he has no received no contact from ETSU since winning arguably the most prestigious coaching award in professional sports.

No open hand. No call of congratulations. No guest-speaking offer.

Right now, even if Smith wanted to say a few words to Buc fans – and easily raise a few thousand much-needed dollars – at an ETSU basketball game inside the Memorial Center, the Falcons coach would first have to walk up and buy a ticket.

Unreal.

And short-sighted.

But here’s the real question: What if Smith had won a Pulitzer or a Nobel Prize? A Grammy or an Emmy? Heck, what if Smith had simply chosen another sport as a child, and was eventually awarded coach of the year honors in MLB or the NBA?

Would ETSU still be ignoring Smith then?

Absolutely, positively, no way.

So why is East Tennessee State and its financially strapped, struggling, little-known athletic program ignoring him now?

Because, God forbid, Smith played football.

Even Phil Roe, U.S. Representative, R-Johnson City, found a way to show up and support an event ETSU completely ignored.

“I was trying to think of some jokes, but the only joke I can think of is that we don’t have football at ETSU,” Roe said.

Jerry Robertson, president of the BFFF, said ETSU football supporters are simply waiting for an administration change. Then, Robertson said, Buc football backers will be ready and willing to work with any group open to new ideas, new visions and a sense of the undeniably important role football plays for children growing up and adults living in the South.

Right now, though, the only place collegiate football is welcome in the Tri-Cities is in hotel banquet rooms filled with flickering memories and wavering hope.

Will ETSU ever play football again?

Can the university field and support a successful team while Goliaths like the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech continue to swallow up and paint the Northeast Tennessee corridor in Big Orange and maroon?

Smith said he believed so.

He pointed toward the past, spoke of the positive effect football has had on his life and dreamed of a blue-and-gold future.

But for now, it’s two different, competing worlds. Two different realities in the weird, backwards, often black hole-like universe of East Tennessee State athletics.

And while Smith and a large group of Buccaneer football supporters watched old videos of ETSU football shown in black-and-white and color on a projector screen, a banner hung inside the banquet room said it all: East Tennessee State University/normal college/20??