In a 1987 speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, President Reagan implored Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to “open the gate!” and “tear down this wall!”
And 20 years later the University of Colorado athletic director made his own fervent plea. Mike Bohn should have been standing just off Highway 36 at the Boulder Overlook, knee-deep in another snowstorm and another dilemma, when he said Wednesday: “We’ve got to break down the barrier between Boulder and Denver. Enough of the Republic of Boulder stuff. We need Denver in order to succeed.”
Obviously, the Buffs’ basketball quandary pales in comparison to the significance of the historic Berlin Wall (I provided the analogy, not Bohn), but there is a roadblock located approximately at the Broomfield exit.
The people of Denver habitually have refused to cross the Boulder Turnpike Wall to see CU basketball, and CU basketball too rarely has reached out to the people of Denver.
Thousands of advocates of the University of Kansas attended Wednesday night’s Big 12 conference game at the Events Center and were rewarded by a simple 75-46 victory. The Buffs’ performance was unmentionable and, thus, won’t be mentioned.
Neither Toto nor Bohn is in Kansas anymore. (Bohn played football and basketball at Kansas; Dorothy reportedly did not play women’s basketball.)
The Berlin Wall fell two years after Reagan’s appeal.
Bohn hopes it won’t take that long to bring Denver and Boulder together.
He already has realized financial progress. The basketball program has a special club for boosters who contribute $25,000. “We’re up to 58 now, and 50 are from Denver,” Bohn said.
Fifty is not so impressive.
“The number from Denver a year ago was one,” he added.
The next step for Bohn is to hire a basketball coach to replace lame-Buff Ricardo Patton, “who has passion. He must be passionate about coaching, passionate about working hard, passionate about recruiting, passionate about helping in fundraising and passionate about getting involved with the students and the academic community at CU.
“And he must know and care about Denver and Colorado, and he has to be passionate about spending time and effort in Denver.”
Close that breach, coach!
“We’re not Stillwater (home of Oklahoma State) or Lincoln (home of Nebraska),” said Bohn, who was not putting down Boulder, a thriving city of just under 100,000, but where most residents and students prefer activities other than college basketball and football – and have more alternatives than cow-tipping or corn-husking. “We are Denver’s state university.” Again, that wasn’t a putdown. Bohn has served in athletic positions at the Air Force Academy and Colorado State. (As previously stated, I feel like I’ve known the 45-year-old AD since he was 10; he graduated from Boulder High.)
Bohn and I agree. I’ve been telling five head coaches since Sox Walseth (was) retired in 1976 they should get closer to, not distance themselves from, Denver. None really listened. They occasionally did recruit players from Denver. Patton primarily was responsible for persuading Chauncey Billups to stay home. Bill Blair (1976-80) signed four of the state’s top players one year, but let the eventual best (Tom Chambers) get away. “See what good it did me,” Blair said, then fled. But Blair, Tom Apke, Tom Miller, Joe Harrington and Patton didn’t lovingly embrace Denver – as the high school coaches always have attested.
The next coach must burn tread to Denver almost daily – and see a lot of players at gyms, eat a lot of rubber chicken at luncheons, shake a lot of alumni hands at meetings, show up at a lot of radio talk show remotes, say hello to a lot of mamas and papas and knock on a lot of doors to sell CU, not Fuller Brushes.
Then, back in Boulder, win a lot of games.
Passion, Bohn said.
“Bill McCartney taught us all it will work.”
So, even though Bohn will not admit it, he did approach Larry Brown, who has passion and knows and loves Denver. Brown wasn’t interested.
And Bohn, even though he will not admit it, is foremost sighted on Jeff Bzdelik, late of the Nuggets and now at Air Force, and Mike Dunlap, late of Metro State and now with the Nuggets. Bohn, who met with Dunlap on Tuesday, will not talk to Bzdelik until the Falcons’ postseason is over.
As my compatriot Mark Kiszla first wrote, those two should be the Buffs’ prime candidates. Dunlap ought to be 1, Bzdelik 1A. Dunlap has four things Bzdelik doesn’t – two national championships, a pipeline to Australia and a connection with Colorado high school coaches and players in summer camps.
Each can tear down the wall.
Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com.
