Sprint Football aims for expansion

In 1934, Franklin Roosevelt was president, Franklin Field sold out for football games and the 21st Century Project was 60 years away from the beginning of its four-year existence. The year also marked the official beginning of sprint football. Now, 64 years later, the sport is poised to enter a new era. A June meeting involving coaches and athletic directors from the Collegiate Sprint Football League outlined the league's goals for the future. The main wish was to protect the programs in the schools which already have the sport -- Cornell, Penn, Princeton, Army and Navy. There is, however, a common desire to expand the league. "We're looking to convince some schools to join the league," CSFL Commissioner and Princeton Associate Athletic Director George VanderZwagg said. "It's strange, since we have five schools with solid, popular programs. But leading up to the meeting in June, no other schools seemed interested in joining." According to Penn coach Bill Wagner, the league already has some ideas of what it would like to do for expansion. "We're looking at some schools from Massachusetts and Virginia," Wagner said. "We might also try to add the Coast Guard Academy to the league and then have two divisions, one with the service academies and one without. Then maybe we'd have each school play the other schools in its own division twice and the ones in the other division once, with a championship game between the two division winners." VanderZwagg said that the league is also considering several rule changes designed to make the game more fun to play and entertaining to watch. "We might do something like allow players in motion to go to the line of scrimmage in order to increase the wide-openness of the sport," VanderZwagg said. "Right now we are using the NCAA varsity football rules, but we might try some new rules to increase the marketability of our sport. We're looking to make the game more attractive internally in each school, not just externally, so that there is more student interest in sprint football." Schools are also concentrating on providing their sprint football programs with solid financial futures. Princeton almost had to discontinue the sport because of financial struggles. According to VanderZwagg, however, the Tigers' sprint football program is once again in good shape. At Penn, the situation is even better. The Quakers enjoy the benefits of great alumni support which has prevented problems like those occurring at other schools. "Fifty percent of our funding comes from alumni gifts," Wagner said. "Cornell has already endowed the sport, and we are currently in the process." According to Wagner, a regrouped Board of Trustees and a separate Board of Directors are providing information to past captains about opportunities to help Penn endow the sport. The captains are then supposed to relay this information to their teammates in what Wagner anticipates will be a hugely successful fundraiser. The successful endowment of Penn sprint football would protect its financial security and help ensure the longevity of the sport. The mailings being sent out to alumni are not the only efforts to give sprint football solid financial backing. "We have a fundraising telethon this week," Penn sophomore offensive lineman Erik Franks said. "There is also the alumni game, when former players pay to come back and play a game against the current team." Sprint football has survived name-changes, economic crunches and gender-equity issues over the last 64 years. While there are more changes anticipated to improve the state of the game, there is not a sense of panic, but certainly a sense that the league must survive on persistent resource improvement. "While we would clearly like to make changes, especially expansion, we feel like we can successfully exist for a long time as a five-team league," VanderZwagg said. At Penn, there is great reason for optimism. In Wagner, the Quakers have a coach who provides stability after 29 years at Penn. Recent success, including the 1996 ELFL league title, has also increased positive feelings about sprint football. "We have a good program," Franks said. "As long as Wags is the coach, it'll be here." With alumni support and successful league changes, however, sprint football should remain a fixture on Penn's campus long after Wagner's reign is over.