On fall afternoons, Boston University’s Nickerson Field never experiences swarms of enthusiastic students decked out in scarlet and white, cheering on the football team.
This Saturday, however, a handful of diehard fans huddled under a single umbrella to watch alumni relive the days when football was more than just a memory at BU.
Boston Terriers United For Football sponsored the game, and ”Keeping the dream alive’ is our theme,’ George ‘Butch’ Byrd, class of 1964, said of the organization.
After playing for BU, Byrd went on to play for the Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos. While BTUFF focuses on bringing football back to BU, Byrd said it also stresses the importance of all athletics.
‘It’s October BU should be playing football,’ Byrd said. ‘We’re out here making a statement that this can be done. If we managed to get a game together, there’s no reason why there can’t be some sort of formal program.’
The alumni were scheduled to play Harvard University alumni on Saturday morning, but the Harvard team never showed up, much to the amusement of the BU players.
Instead, BU alumni divided into teams for a good-natured scrimmage.
Next year, BTUFF organizer Al Drucker said he hopes to more securely lock Harvard into a game.
‘We communicate basically via email,’ he said. ‘Hopefully when we have more time to plan the event, we can meet with them face to face. It’s always better to just sit down to lunch with people and get things squared away.’
Drucker said the organization plans on sponsoring another alumni game sometime this spring.
‘It’s a growing organization,’ he said. ‘There are a lot of people behind us.’
Byrd and Drucker both said Daniel S. Goldin would provide a fresh opportunity for BTUFF when he becomes the president of BU in November.
‘Hopefully the new president will be a more receptive audience for BTUFF,’ Byrd said. ‘We just want the administration to hear our voice.’
He said he hopes BU will bring back football to fill a void.
‘We think that since the football program ended, BU has been missing something,’ he said. ‘There is a reason that students fill the stadiums at schools like Harvard and [the University of] Notre Dame. Football, especially in the fall, adds something to university life.’
Byrd said he believes football brings more than just entertainment to the university.
‘BU is always trying to advance itself as a university and trying to make itself more appealing as it competes for students,’ he said. ‘People are looking for a school that is well-rounded in academics and athletics. Right now at BU, hockey is our only flagship sport.’
Regardless of the players’ skills, Byrd said BU needs a team.
‘We don’t need a Division I team, playing schools like Syracuse [University] and Penn State [University],’ Byrd said. ‘We just want it to have a presence of some sort on campus.’
BTUFF has participated in a variety of BU spirit-oriented activities such as hosting dinners for BU sports teams and ushering at the high-school superbowl, held annually at Nickerson.
‘All of our athletic programs can be improved,’ Byrd said. ‘BTUFF is an organization that is here to support that.’