Southeast's program has grown from two to 16 sports

Southeast Missouri State University's athletic program started out with humble beginnings about a century ago and has grown into a full-fledged NCAA Division I institution featuring 16 intercollegiate teams, nine for women and seven for men.

"It's changed a lot over the years, that's for sure," said Marvin Rosengarten, who spent about 35 years at Southeast, as a football player, assistant football coach, head track coach, athletic director and director of athletic development before retiring in 1991. "I think the athletic program has come a long way, and think they've made great progress."

In the early 1900s, there were just two sports at Southeast -- football and men's basketball. Football apparently had the earliest start, fielding a team for the first time in 1897, although the school's media guides only show team won-lost records beginning in 1904. Basketball's first recorded season was 1906-07.

But more sports were gradually added over the years -- although a few were also eliminated along the way, including women's field hockey, wrestling, men's soccer, men's tennis, and men's and women's swimming -- then Title IX brought women's sports into the forefront beginning in the 1970s, and in 1991 the athletic program made the leap to NCAA Division I status after having previously competed in Division II.

"Things have come a long way at Southeast," said current athletic director Don Kaverman, in his sixth year at Southeast. "The athletic program has really evolved over the years, and a lot of folks don't realize how huge a commitment it was when the university decided to elevate from Division II to Division I, especially financially."

The NCAA mandates that a university must field teams in at least 14 intercollegiate sports -- a minimum of six men's and eight women's -- in order to be a Division I member. Southeast currently fields 16 teams, although that will drop to 15 after this year when men's golf is eliminated due to budget cuts.

Southeast currently fields nine women's teams (basketball, volleyball, softball, soccer, gymnastics, tennis, cross country, indoor track and outdoor track) and seven men's squads (football, basketball, baseball, cross country, indoor track, outdoor track and golf).

Kaverman said after golf is eliminated, the university will likely remain at 15 teams in the foreseeable future.

"For now, I'm not an advocate of adding any sports at this point, until we're confident we can fully fund the sports we currently have, and provide them the opportunity to realistically compete for championships," said Kaverman, citing university-wide budget cuts, along with state budget cuts, that have hampered Southeast's athletic program.

As for the possibility of golf being continued after this year through private funding, Kaverman said that's not likely.

"Not at this point," he said. "I know there's been a lot of discussion in the community, but it couldn't be just a one-year commitment, and being able to identify that kind of funding on a long-term basis is not something it looks like we'll be able to come up with."

Southeast's athletic facilities have also undergone quite a facelift over the years.

While Houck Stadium, where the football team plays, was built in 1930 and is still in use, various improvements have been made over the years, and Kaverman said more are in the works.

And since 1987, the men's and women's basketball teams have played in the Show Me Center, a 7,000-seat multipurpose building built at a cost of $13.5 million in a joint venture of the city of Cape Girardeau and the university.

There have been various other facility upgrades in recent years, including new softball and tennis complexes, and new basketball offices and locker rooms at the Show Me Center.

"The facilities have gotten so much better over the years," said Rosengarten, who added with a laugh, "When I go back to when I played [in the early 1950s], we were dressing under the stadium, we had terrible equipment, we went to the games on an old bus.

"When I came back in 1964 [after coaching at high schools in Sikeston and Arizona], I thought we had better equipment at my high school in Arizona. We were in the dark ages. There just wasn't any money."

Said Kaverman: "We've made major facility upgrades in the time I've been here, and I'm proud of that, especially since the state was not in great financial shape. Improving facilities is the toughest thing to do in tough times. It's a credit to everybody at the university that we've been able to do that.

"I think people will see continued upgrades to Houck in the next year or so. It's important to continue making that kind of progress."

Also in the area of progress, Kaverman said he is proud that Southeast's women's athletic program has been able to thrive as consistently one of the best in the Ohio Valley Conference, which the university joined after moving up to Division I, and that the student-athletes continue to excel in the area of grade point averages and graduation rates.

"I think we have the best women's program in the OVC without a doubt," he said. "Since we've been a member of the OVC, our women have won more all-sports trophies than any institution, and even when we haven't won, we've been in the top two or three.

"Academically, our student-athletes continue to have higher graduation rates and grade point averages than the rest of the student body, which we're very proud of."

While Kaverman considers Southeast's athletic program to be on solid ground, he realizes it continues to face numerous challenges, particularly in funding. Kaverman believes it's at least partly due to budget cuts that Southeast's two highest profile sports -- football and men's basketball -- have struggled in recent years.

"I think clearly we've had our challenges from a competitive standpoint the last three or four years, but I do feel we're making progress," he said. "We're as conscious as anyone to our challenges, and part of that is improving our resources, to be able to recruit the way we need to, and to continue to upgrade our facilities."

Added Kaverman: "I know people focus on football and basketball, but you have to look at all our sports, so many of which have been doing well, and for us to remain as competitive as we've been in these tough financial times, I think is a credit to our coaches and student-athletes, and I'm proud of that."