Million dollar gift to MUBB

[Billy Hoyle]

Imagine what Marquette would be like if they never had a strong basketball program.  When they hired Al, Marquette was largely a commuter school that had very few students outside of a 100-mile radius.  Outside that circle, who had even heard of Marquette, especially if you weren't Catholic?

How many buildings on campus existed before 1964?  How big was the endowment?

Exactly.  Boston College was where rich people sent their kids too dumb to get into better schools. Then Doug Flutie came along (and it's why the phenomenon is called "The Flutie Factor" in academia) and BC blew up and is now a top 40 school nationally.

At MU we closed a dorm in the 90's, enrollment was under 1500 for the entering classes in the mid 90's. After the Final Four enrollment was capped at 1800.

And, Gonzaga may be the best example. The school was dying, enrollment was down to less than 600 for the 1998-99 entering class, they were experiencing mass layoffs, buildings were closing. There was even a vote scheduled in April to drop athletics to D3. Then, the slipper fit...

http://www.espn.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/119205/how-the-basketball-program-helped-gonzaga-university-flourish