The 2021 book, The Cinderella Strategy, by Graham Honaker and Jerry Logan is a great primer on how a university can leverage athletics- specifically Division I men's college basketball- as a catalyst for growing a university's enrollment, endowment, prestige and furthering its mission.
This book should be required reading for anyone directly involved with administration or day-to-day management of men's basketball, marketing, alumni and student affairs or the athletic department.
The following notes provide a summarized gist of the book and how Milwaukee might be able to follow the Cinderella playbook to vault this basketball program and in turn, this university, into echelons that have only ever been dreamed about (the MVC... the Atlantic 10?).
Administration
At Butler, things began to set the Cinderella stage when in 1989, Butler's board of directors and president of athletics formed joint oversight of the direction of men's basketball- previously the Butler men's basketball program was more of an extracurricular afterthought and not a major driver of the university's overall image and outreach mission.
UWM can replicate this by having more of a focus on building a perennial March Madness-caliber basketball team. As of now, the men's basketball team is not highly regarded or given stewardship-like oversight.
Butler balanced the zealousness of athletics trustees and boosters vs. the faculty president.
UWM can put a major focus on building a phenomenal basketball program without losing sight of its academic mission. Dr. Thomas Gibson, the new chancellor, is likely well aware of the opportunities and risks involved in pursuing athletics excellence.
After the unexpected departure of Bobby Fong, a very academic-minded president, Butler hired a president (Jim Danko) with a collegiate business administration background in 2011 and elevated AD Barry Collier to vice president. Coming from basketball-crazed Villanova, Danko knew full well how to grow and leverage a first-rate college basketball program. This set of personnel moves propelled Butler's men's basketball program like a rocket- riding the high of the 2010 and 2011 NCAA Championship appearances into the proverbial NCAA Hoops stratosphere.
Chancellor Gibson seems to care about growing the profile of UWM; we will see if he has any interest in boosting the men's basketball program to reach that goal.
Butler had a relentless focus on culture, character, hiring from within that has allowed them to see virtually seamless success from 2000-2025.
When (not if- he will get hired away eventually) Lundy gets bought out for a bigger opportunity, who will replace him? Can we form a good culture of high-character, trustworthy, excellent leaders and mentors and hire an assistant when that time arrives? Can we prepare assistants to take the head coaching job so that we can hire internally and not always hire an executive search firm to look outside of our program?
When renovating Hinkle Fieldhouse Butler was adamant on making necessary upgrades and changes but holding firm to its roots (don't alienate longtime supporters, just grow the tent 🎪).
Will we build a proper on-campus arena some day or upgrade Panther Arena to be a modern venue that will last another 25-50 years downtown? Or will we alienate long-time fans and supporters and just sink into the "pull-out bleacher school" that former AD Andy Geiger claimed UWM has been all along and always will be?
Butler had a famous mantra: "Do not confuse complacency with stability" that spurred the more academic, less athletically oriented stakeholders to get on board with the mission of making "Butler" a household name and a nationally recognized university.
You can ignore athletics, but only if you realize that in doing so, many people are going to also ignore you, by default of our culture (and the way young impressionable minds (and the minds of great faculty looking for promotions) work).
Balance patience and risk while staying authentic and true to the mission of the University
This is key and can be achieved. Not every school has to succumb to a "Pony Excess" misadventure and give the keys to the university Cadillac to boosters and people whose decisions could ruin the academic mission or the long-term athletic mission. By being prudent, but bold and brave- this balance can be achieved, and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee can be transformed like Butler.
Students
Butler saw skyrocketing enrollment in the 00's and 10's years of their upward march.
It happened at UWM after the '03-'06 runs and after the '10-'11 season and after the 2014 NCAA appearance. When the Panthers play well and get statewide and nationwide publicity- high school students notice that, and they start choosing their secondary education target schools accordingly. If we want a strong enrollment and competitive applicant pool- we fund and fine-tune the men's basketball program.
Former Butler coach Todd Lickliter is quoted in the book as saying, "We need the student body to support us... they need to see you in the class they need to see you working, they need to see you as a pier so that they can feel good about supporting you"
Despite NIL, this is college basketball and college players are students and should be seen as such and should galvanize the support of their Panther student cohort. By way of our players seeing other students and getting involved in things and being seen doing things on campus and in the community for UWM, Panther students will have a big reason to come out and support. That much-needed support has been sorely lacking in recent seasons.
Employees
Butler saw top-tier faculty drawn to their school in the aftermath of their cascading basketball success.
If you win it all, they will come (top-tier faculty, along with top students).
Butler increased faculty salaries which also boosted faculty caliber
UWM should take a page out of this book, if they can find a way to afford it. In most purchases, unless you are swindled, you get what you pay for.
Alumni
After the winning cranked up, Butler saw alumni engagement (ie. donations) increase which greatly increased their endowment.
Butler was able to identify some very successful alumni and simply asked them if they would care to support the hoops mission and make a donation to renovate Hinkle Fieldhouse. They swung for the fences by sending out a letter and asking. And they hit pay dirt. Multiple times.
Could we succeed in finding and convincing hidden UWM constituents (Satya Nadella, other notable alumni) to make generous donations to our future by supporting Milwaukee Panther Hoops?
Community
Butler saw a tremendous upswing in what was already a rabidly supportive community, and they leveraged that throughout their upward climb.
Milwaukee can do the same, if the university and the AD truly build a coalition of 1000s and work to make them repeat donors and annually satisfied customers who are proud of the product they buy and support.
Marketing
Joining the Big East brought Butler's name next to Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, etc.
Can you imagine Milwaukee being in the same conference as St. Louis, Dayton, Drake or Bradley? If not, why not? Moving to a decidedly better conference like the MVC and A10 should be the goal. We should have joined a better conference when the iron was really hot... But it is never too late to shoot for bigger dreams, especially when you are a school in a city of nearly 600,000 and have an enrollment of over 20,000.
After years of letting prime real estate in Hinkle go unfilled or sold for peanuts, Butler introduced many-tiered pricing, focus on court side seats to bring in significant additional game revenue.
I suspect we have been moving in this direction... there are some fans who are willing to pay more for a truly unique, courtside or near-courtside fan experience. There are ways to keep things affordable and increase revenue without gouging ticket buyers.
Joining the Big East, the Bulldogs got on the FS1 TV market and that has gotten them national exposure during the regular season.
It's hard to imagine seeing the Panthers play conference games on anything other than ESPN+ (does anyone remember the Horizon League Network?) and the advent of omnipresent streaming subscriptions vs. cable TV channels complicates things like "TV deals", but who knows? Maybe a non-ESPN broadcast deal could happen if this program got better than anyone's wildest dreams.
Butler marketed the basketball program brilliantly with authentically unique aspects like their "Blue II" live mascot and "The Butler Way" slogan and idea.
Butler made sure they had the vision in place for when they would get the "halo effect" (the afterglow of an ultra-successful season which leads to newfound support, etc.). Does Milwaukee have a similar plan? Any ideas for how to communicate an authentic image of UWM and the Milwaukee Panthers to a national audience? Maybe Milwaukee could bring back the live Panther mascot and/or come up with other traditions to make our program truly unique.
Key enabling factors for writing a Cinderella Story:
- Marketing and branding
- Enrollment and recruitment
- Civic and alumni relations
- Fundraising and student life
The key strategies:
- Build a flagship program
- Establish ironclad university-flagship program (men's basketball) synergy
- Build a national profile
Last most important point...
The growth opportunity that a Cinderella story provides: "Must remain in service to the university's mission and traditions" in order for it to be sustained. Otherwise, (and alternatively in the case of treating the basketball program as no big deal and just ignoring this legendary success-chasing altogether...) what are we even doing? 🤷
go panthers.
remember the little things. 🏆🏀
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