Robert Vowels has a story to tell you about athletics at the University of Detroit Mercy.
He’s been working on it since July a year ago when he came on board as the Titans’ new athletic director, bringing with him nearly a quarter-century of wide-ranging intercollegiate experience as the vice president of membership and student-athlete affairs for the NCAA for the last six years, and prior to that, commissioner of the Division I Southwestern Athletic Conference and Division II Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Central to his story is UDM’s mission — that the university be “Catholic, Mercy, Jesuit, urban and student-centered” — and that education is priority No. 1 for athletes.
“We have to stay true to that mission,” he says. “We have to make sure that students excel, academically and athletically.”
Vowels points out that UDM’s graduation rate for its athletes is 88 percent, “one of the highest in the country.”
He understands the challenge facing him, namely, that even though UDM is the only Division I university within the city limits, people kind of forget about it in the blinding glare of the media spotlighting the student-athletes in Ann Arbor and East Lansing.
Vowels is undeterred. “I believe we have a story to tell, but we have to do a better job telling it.”
The latest foray in getting the word out occurred over the Labor Day weekend with the launching of the Titan Classic Sports Network in conjunction with Mt. Clemens-based WADL-TV.
“It will be all sports all the time,” proclaims UDM sports information director Jeremiah Hergott, adding that UDM is only the third university in the nation (and the first Catholic university) to have its own network, the others being the University of Texas and Brigham Young University.
TCSN may be viewed on Channel 38.4, a substation of WADL-TV, meaning you’ll need a digital antenna to watch. Hergott says he found one “for about 20 bucks” at a Best Buy store. It may also be seen on campus over Channel 10.4.
Hergott says Kevin Adell, the founder and CEO of WADL, has been converting “thousands” of tapes and recordings of past Titans contests, dating as far back as 50-60 years ago, into digital format.
The opening show featured the 2013 Michigan Emmy-winning episode, Legends and Traditions of the Titan Court, followed by the 1977 men’s basketball game at Marquette (which ended with coach Dick Vitale dancing in celebration of the Titans’ upset win) and the women’s 2013 basketball championship victory against McNeese State.
Hergott says the network will also show present-day competition from the lineup of 17 UDM sports. “After all, we make history every day. The next day after a game, it’s instant history.”
Vowels regards the TCSN as one of numerous “platforms” in this technological age for student-athletes, friends and supporters of UDM to reconnect with the university.
Hergott, who joined UDM two years ago after four years in a similar position at Colgate University, reports the Titans social media network (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) has seen a growth of 61 percent this year, passing the previous record of 47 percent set in 2013, and that
UDM’s official athletic website, www.DetroitTitans.com, has topped 1.5 million page views for the fifth consecutive year.
Vowels has also established contracts for broadcasting Titans basketball with 97.1 FM The Ticket and WADL-TV.
“The future looks bright,” he says.
A footnote: Chris Jenkins from U-D Jesuit and a pair of Dearborn Divine Child grads, Rosanna Reynolds and Nicole Urbanick, are on the rosters of the respective men’s and women’s Titans basketball teams for the 2014-15 season. They are among 36 Catholic League athletes (16 men, 20 women) on UDM’s sports rosters.
Don Horkey is a freelance writer. He may be reached at [email protected].
