NEW MISSOURI AD HITS THE HIGHWAYS

In the three weeks Mike Alden has been on the job as athletic director at the University of Missouri, he has seen a lot of Missouri highway.

On Wednesday, Alden was in Cape Girardeau, continuing his effort to gain statewide support for the athletic programs at Missouri's "flagship" university.

Alden, who replaced Joe Castiglione as Missouri's athletic director on Aug. 15, met at the Drury Lodge with local Tiger backers along with Southeast Missouri State University football coach John Mumford, who was in attendance for his weekly radio show.

"You can't run that program being in Columbia all the time," Alden said. "Not if you expect the rest of the state to support what you do.

"There's an emphasis placed on that with me. You have to have solid support in every corner of the state. They don't just run Kansas State out of Manhattan, Kansas. They try to control the whole state."

Alden is familiar with Southeast Missouri State. As a football player at Evansville University in the late 1970s, his Purple Aces traveled to Cape Girardeau to play the Indians.

"We came down here to play the Indians and got spanked," Alden said.

He also is familiar with the kind of relationship which exists between schools like Southeast and the University of Missouri. Prior to taking the Missouri job, Alden was athletic director at Southwest Texas State University, a Division I-AA school like Southeast.

"The correlation is almost identical to the correlation between Southwest Texas and the University of Texas," Alden said. "I believe there is a trickle down to the rest of the state if the state school is successful. The more successful the University of Texas is, the more successful Southwest Texas and Stephen F. Austin are."

In the past, Mizzou has been criticized for ignoring certain areas and schools in its athletic recruiting efforts while overemphasizing others. This region has not been a recruiting hotbed.

"We want to have a presence," said Alden, 40, who also faces facilities issues including the possible replacement or renovation of the Hearnes Center. "You have to recognize that the recruiting process isn't something that should happen when there is a great player in Cape. You have to have a presence even when there is not."

Along the same lines, Alden says his travels are not merely a public relations ploy or a means of introduction.

"We have not done a good enough job of soliciting support statewide," Alden said. "We are going to do a better job in the state from recruiting to drawing attendance to support. But it is a two-way street. We want to hear recommendations for students and athletes. We need to see that support come back."