Kansas University men’s swim coach Doug Dickinson make that former KU swim coach Doug Dickinson has been flooded with phone calls and e-mails from individuals who do not want the sport to die.
“My phone has been ringing off the hook. I’m getting three e-mails a minute,” said Dickinson, who learned on Sunday afternoon that KU men’s swimming would be cut because of budgetary concerns.
“Kansas swimming has been around 70 years and in two days I’ve found out how much people care about the program.
“People are coming out of the woodwork everywhere,” Dickinson added.
Dickinson he was a 12-time All-American at the University of Texas has seen men’s swimming hacked from the budget at other universities the past five years.
He is surprised it happened at Kansas.
“I am upset because we didn’t get a chance to do anything from our side in terms of fundraising,” Dickinson said.
“When Dr. (Bob) Frederick told me the news I said my only regret is we had no chance to try to raise money.”
The news from Kansas’ athletics director didn’t come as a complete surprise, however.
“I knew we had a million dollar shortfall,” Dickinson said.
“But every report reiterated Dr. Frederick didn’t want to cut sports.
“Once sports cuts were mentioned I am no fool. It’s no secret men’s swimming is a tenuous thing across the country.”
Dickinson said some schools like Southern Cal have endowed scholarships.
In other words, a fundraising effort is made for say, a lump sum of $1 million. Scholarships are funded off the interest from that amount.
Dickinson realizes it likely is too late for some plan to be enacted to save KU swimming and men’s tennis, which also was cut, but he’s not lost all hope yet.
Frederick has a meeting scheduled with KU men’s swim and tennis athletes and coaches for Thursday afternoon.
“We’d like to get the day and time changed because a lot of parents want to attend,” Dickinson said.
“That’s a terrible time for the parents to get in here.
“I think there’s a slim-to-none chance of swimming being reinstated. But the problem is this was a business decision. The business of college athletics is people 18-, 19-, 20-, 21-year-old kids.
“The kids are crushed. I didn’t prepare to see 20 crying athletes on Sunday. I don’t know if there’s anything we can do except raise awareness,” he added.
This is a bad time for Dickinson to be out of a job. “There couldn’t have been more devastating news from a personal side,” Dickinson said. “My fiancee just started a fantastic job in Kansas City a month ago. It’s not easy to up and leave right now.
“I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ve got to coach. The reason I got in coaching is to give back to the sport that gave me so much.
“It’s my lifeblood and oxygen.”
He thought he had KU swimming on the track back to respectability.
“This year was a tremendous battle. To put in all the work I did sweat-equity,” he joked.
