It apparently took forty consecutive losses to convince U of T football coach Steve Howlett that enough is enough, as he resigned on July 4th, 2008. But who can blame him, considering that Howlett will be remembered as the coach who brought on the embarrassing 0-49 (and counting!) record to our beloved institution and athletic program.
Rather than act like our model sibling American schools and fire Howlett 3-4 years ago, U of T embraced the futility and mediocrity of our football program and let him ride to eventual rock bottom.
At least now he has abandoned the sinking ship and moved on with his life.
Howlett was hired to fix a football program that hadn’t had a winning season since 1995, when they went 4-3-1 (Four wins! Do you believe it?). Instead, the program has not progressed and we are stuck waiting for the next coach to fix this slumping team.
Why can’t a large metropolis like Toronto produce a winning football team, let alone produce a single win? Excuses are meaningless—U of T just doesn’t take responsibility, and no one seems to care.
With a losing streak as embarrassing as the one we currently own, there is no outcry from students, faculty, or the athletic administration. To the students, it has become an ongoing joke. They have accepted this record and use it as a tool for self-deprecation.
The administration, hell-bent on tradition, appears to be content with a team that simply goes out and plays. Having a high budget for sports doesn’t guarantee success, but what’s the point of a competitive university team if the results don’t matter?
Still, excuses are made. High entrance marks are preventing some players from attending U of T. Not having a permanent home while the old stadium was torn down and rebuilt also turned players off. It is ironic that while that stadium was rebuilt, the team wasn’t.
Does the athletic administration know something about the football program that we don’t? While maintaining a budget as high as it was, Howlett stayed on the payroll despite his lackluster results.
Football is not high on the to-do list for our school and sadly, it shows. However, football becomes important when there is outcry from the media realizing that we haven’t won a football game in five years.
Hopefully a new coach can be brought in who will vow to reverse this streak. The record could be broken, perhaps sooner than we may think, but a new coach can’t fix everything. We may progress in scouting and attracting new, skilled players, but if U of T continues with the mentality that it is okay to lose then we will never advance. Until the football team is no longer at the butt end of constant jokes, they can’t improve. As with those mediocre Toronto Maple Leafs, time is needed for things to be reversed, and now is a good time to start.
