The RCAF will allow members to choose which donation level best suits their pocketbook. The entry level is $100-249, with the top level being a donation of $10,000 or more. Each level will have benefits from parking passes to a complimentary trip for two to a 2009 football road trip.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

John Bordelon knows the feeling.

During his playing career as a defensive end for the Ragin’ Cajuns, the New Orleans native suffered through the lows of an 0-10 season as a freshman in 1973 and experienced the highs of a 9-2 season as a senior in 1976.

A program littered with mediocrity over the years, no team in 107 seasons of football at UL has been worse than Bordelon’s first. Conversely, no team in the last 33 years has been better than the one in ’76.

With that as the backdrop, the president of Home Bank returns to his alma mater a savior of sorts as the first chairman of the Ragin’ Cajuns Athletic Foundation.

"It’s been a lot of frustration for a lot of years to see our teams struggle," Bordelon said following Friday’s press conference at the Petroleum Club to introduce the RCAF.

"If you look at it, all of our programs have had tremendous success at times, and it’s amazing that we’ve been able to have that success with such little funding. To think we can go to the College World Series in baseball and softball, and to the NCAA Tournament in basketball with the way things were … Our coaches and student-athletes just need more resources – we’re committed to helping make that happen."

Known as the "Hammer" in his playing days, Bordelon dropped the hammer on Friday.

While the RCAF is not intended to become his life’s work – nor for other board members that represent a who’s who of Lafayette’s business community: Ed Domingue, Rusty Cloutier, Robert Daigle, Curtis Hollinger, Charlie Moncla and Frank J. Culotta – it is his mission to give UL the funds so excellence is an expectation, not an anomaly.

The excitement of this new direction for the Cajuns was evident. Bordelon acknowledged in the 48 hours leading up to the press conference, RCAF board members received nearly $100,000 in community donations. During the press conference, two checks that topped $10,000 were hand-delivered from the audience to the podium.

"We’re probably 30 years late, not just one year or two years late," said Bordelon, referring to the first meeting concerning the foundation’s creation in March 2007. "But we’re not going to look backwards; we’re looking forward and what’s ahead of us."

It is a delicious thought.

Ever been to Troy and seen the facilities that Trojan athletes enjoy? Or Florida International? Or Florida Atlantic? Or Western Kentucky? Or …

Well, just go to Monroe. That’s about as comparable as it gets, considering UL and ULM are the two lowest-funded programs in the Sun Belt. The difference now, though, is the RCAF.

While FIU deals with a $1 million cut in July to its $22 million athletic budget, hard decisions face UL, which is being asked to cut $13.7 million from its general budget by Gov. Bobby Jindal. How could some of those cuts at the school not be directed toward athletics, which operates on a $10 million budget?

"This is all about moving forward," UL President Joseph Savoie said. "We may face temporary or momentary difficulties, but we always need to be facing forward and moving forward, which is what this organization helps us to do.

"(The RCAF) gives us the opportunity to make some significant progress and the community itself will be helping us to make that progress. The university’s ability to finance athletics is limited, some by state law and further restricted by the budget situation. But we’re committed to moving forward, so this is an outlet, an organization that will allow us to do it."

UL Athletic Director David Walker said the first vision to be realized in the marriage between the university and RCAF could be seen as soon as August when renovations are hoped to begin at Lamson Park and at the track and soccer complex.

On deck after that are "Tigue" Moore Field and Cajun Field.

As the RCAF gains financial strength, endowments for coaching salaries, scholarships and tutors for the Student-Athlete Academic Center are planned.

"This is a great day for our athletic program," baseball coach Tony Robichaux said. "What we needed was what was created here today so we can subsidize the areas where we’re lacking because of what is not available to us. This will allow us to make capital improvements that will keep us on an even keel.

"At the end of the day, education and research are still the backbone of any university. But the athletic department becomes the front porch and it’s important to maintain your front porch – that’s what people see day in and day out when they pass by your university. This group is going to help us maintain our front porch."

But, as the saying goes, be careful what you ask for. Case in point was the day’s best statement from Savoie on what the expectations will be at UL when his teams enjoy a more level playing field with increased funding and improved facilities:

"As I’ve told David (Walker) several times, we’re in the Sun Belt Conference and we ought to be competitive in the Sun Belt Conference, at least, and we ought to be competitive in the playoffs outside of the conference, as well," Savoie said. "But in our own conference, that’s the competition we’ve chose to participate against, and I expect to be among the leaders in that competition. We’ll need to do the things that are necessary to get there and I understand that.

"But the size of the institution, the breadth of our programs, the quality of our academic programs -our athletic programs should compete just as our academic programs do. That means we need to be near the top, if not at the top, in just about everything we compete in, in the Sun Belt Conference."

FROM CONCEPT TO REALITY: UL unveils Ragin’ Cajuns Athletic Foundation; join the conversation

Organization targets upgrades for facilities as key to competitiveness

Bob Heist • bheist@theadvertiser.com • April 4, 2009

The big business of running an athletic department took on new meaning at UL on Friday morning.