TicketsTom Humes is a 1971 graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Business and a former chairman of UC's Board of Trustees. Humes has served the university in many capacities, including working in the office of then-president Warren Bennis in the 1970s, where he was tasked with assisting athletics with a marketing campaign focused on increasing attendance for Bearcats football (which had struggled during the decade) and basketball (which was in the process of leaving Armory Fieldhouse and moving to Riverfront Coliseum).
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Do you mind telling us about your history with UC?
Okay, well, maybe I better give you an overview. I graduated from UC in '71, and I worked at UC from '71 to '78. I spent four years in the president's office working for a man named Warren Bennis, who was the president of the university. While I was there working for him, I coordinated the efforts to raise additional money from the state of Ohio to support the university. That included what ultimately led to UC becoming a full state university. I ended up coordinating the campaign to get that approved and all the logistics involved with getting that approved.
My last year, [Bennis] asked me if I would go to the athletic department, and he explained some changes were occurring. And he said one of the things was that we were going to move basketball downtown to what was initially the new Riverfront Coliseum. He wanted to make sure that we had a successful transfer of attendance down there.
Another problem that the athletic department had was that our attendance at football games had been very, very low the previous... I'm going to say five years, at least. He wanted to do whatever could be done to increase that. So he asked me if I would spend six months in the athletic department trying to figure out how to make that work and improve attendance.
I've been involved with athletics in one way or another since I was in school. Having worked there for eight years, it was all-intensive, all-in type situation. I remained as a volunteer for many years thereafter. I care a great deal about the university and have been really blessed to have been invited to serve the university in so many different capacities. It's been a great experience and a great part of my of my life.
Can you give us a little background on Bearcatty in Cincinnati?
I think it would have been 1976––the spring of 1976. That's when we would have started working on it. We had a group of volunteers that we put together to come up with ideas and suggestions. The campaign that we created started that fall, and it became known as the Bearcatty Campaign.
We had a great history, but our programs had not been that strong recently, and we needed––particularly with football––a little excitement to spice things up.
Basketball-wise, we were moving downtown, and there were a number of people that didn't like the idea of moving basketball games downtown, so it was a bit of a hard sell. And then, of course, we needed to reach a whole new audience to try to get more people to come to the games.
With football, our attendance had been so low it was, "What do we do to generate more attendance across the board in any way we can?" We didn't have any superstar players to sell in football, so what we did is we created a concept built around the Bearcat because everybody had a positive thought about the Bearcat as our mascot.
By the way, I forgot to tell you I did do that. My senior year in college, I was one of the mascots. So I had a little bit of an up-close and personal background on that one. It was the best job I've ever had in my life––a phenomenal experience.
So we were trying to come up with ideas that would get people excited and something that would, you know, put a fresh look on things. In our brainstorming group, we came up with the idea of theming some things around the Bearcat. We had an ad agency that had done some work for me in one of my other jobs at the university. The head of that agency was Jim Jacobs, and Jim was a true advertising professional. We brought him in as a consultant, and we collectively came up with the Bearcatty Campaign. And then for basketball, we had another tag line, and it was "UC 'em at the Coliseum," to latch on to the first year downtown.
We created a significant radio program with the help of several stations in town, particularly WEBN, who was the leading station as it came to UC students and those in the early years after graduation. WEBN joined us as a corporate sponsor to help us launch the program and get students and others excited to come. We had a combination of, I'll say, primarily radio advertising with some print advertising and a number of handout brochures and things like that to be used as mailers.
And as part of it, we created a new song. "We're all Bearcatty in Cincinnati! Ohh ohh ohh what a team!" and it kind of went from there.
How long did the campaign last?
We were only sent there to do it one year, and they carried that over for the second year. After that, I don't know if they used it or not. It was a function of whether or not there were advertising dollars available.
Bennis had made it a priority to increase attendance, so he put additional dollars into marketing and advertising. He understood that if you're going to be successful in marketing, you have to spend money on marketing. So to his great credit, he recognized that the investment by the university would prove a great return. I think that was the first time, maybe, that we began our modern marketing that has continued on various levels since then.
When people think about UC basketball history, everyone remembers the '50s and '60s and everyone remembers the '90s. Why do you think this era has been overlooked? Those were some pretty good teams in the mid-'70s.
Well, I think maybe it was a general lack of enthusiasm about college sports in general in some ways, at least in Cincinnati. You know, you had the Bengals that were establishing themselves as a championship-caliber team, and you had the Reds that had been to three World Series right in that time period.
(Editor's note: In just their first decade of existence, the Bengals were already one of the NFL's better teams. From 1972-76 they amassed a 46-30 record with a pair of playoff appearances. The Big Red Machine, of course, were MLB's preeminent dynasty, making the 1972 World Series before winning it in 1975 and 1976.)
But you're right; the attendance had been mediocre. It had not been great. But in terms of football, we had our first sellout [after the campaign started] for the opening game of the season. We had done a promotion with WEBN where we agreed to spell out WEBN with the band at halftime, and they promoted the heck out of that. We sold out every seat in the place, the student section was full, and the attendance was so good, unfortunately, that we blew out the P.A. system that night because it couldn't handle the crowd. So it was almost too good of a success that first night, but then that carried over to much of the rest of the season, and then the same energy carried downtown. It took a question mark in terms of moving basketball downtown and made it a positive as well.
(Editor's note: The 1976 home opener, a 17-0 victory over rival Miami, drew 24,562 fans to Nippert Stadium––just shy of capacity. "It was the first time in a while that Cincinnati played before a mostly filled Nippert Stadium," said the Enquirer. The energy did indeed carry over. The Bearcats finished 8-3 and undefeated at home, two distinctions that were uncommon in those days. They even cracked the AP Poll for the first time in 22 years.)
The reason we're talking in the first place is we're bringing back these old '70s uniforms. Do you remember those uniforms that said "The Cats" on them?
Oh yeah, I do. And I remember the players, too. Gosh, [Pat] Cummings was always a great player for us back then. Bob Miller was always a great player for us. Gary Yoder and Steve Collier were our guards, and they were both outstanding players.
So, you know, we had a lot of good players. All they needed was a little push. The attendance was up significantly at basketball. You know, I'm going to say attendance was up about 30 percent over the previous year, which was significant in terms of what we were trying to do at the Coliseum.
They only had those uniforms for two seasons. Why do you think they abandoned them so quickly?
My understanding was that the uniforms back then were much more dictated by the coaches, with minimal input from the athletic department itself. So I think the reason for change would be that the coaches wanted to change for whatever reason.
And, you know, that wasn't something that was talked about. Nobody focused on the uniforms being good or bad back then. There were other things going on. You know, it was good to have good teams out there playing hard and representing the university well and getting students to come out to the games.
The head coach back in those days was Gale Catlett. What do you remember about him?
Gale was a character. I'll tell you the story that I remember the most about Gale Catlett. It was the first time he came out to coach a team at The Coliseum. Usually when teams were introduced, and particularly in the old [Armory] Fieldhouse, you were limited in terms of whether you had to leave the lights on or whether you could turn them off. Some colleges had gone to having the lights turned off with spotlights on them to get a little more excitement. You couldn't do that in the old Fieldhouse. But at the Coliseum, you could do that.
So they went to having the players introduced via spotlights and then the coach coming out at the end. Catlett came out wearing a blue blazer, light pants, and white and black buck shoes. They were almost funny. They were the most stylish footwear that any UC coach has ever worn on any court. But when he came out, it was accentuated by the fact that you had this big spotlight on him.
It just kind of set the tone for an increase in the excitement level of the program, as well as performance on the court.
I feel like I have to ask this question. As someone who's been around UC for decades, what was this football season and the run to the College Football Playoff like?
Oh, it was just phenomenal, and I think anybody who has been around for a number of years would feel the same way. Great pride, just great enthusiasm.
The football program has had a lot of ups and downs over the years, and there were times when we didn't have much attendance, and we didn't have the enthusiasm we needed. Sometimes maybe we didn't have this spectacular level of players, but we always had good players. We had many more good players than we got credit for sometimes. But this year was just a special time for everybody.
The most exciting thing to me was to see how enthusiastically the community responded to it. No question the students responded well, but also just the attendance and the excitement from the press. The coverage locally and nationally was remarkable. It just put a smile on every true Bearcat's face.
I couldn't be more proud to be a Bearcat, but I could have said that before this year, or I would have said the same thing 30, 40, 50 years ago. I'm still proud to say it today and just proud of the great success that the program has had and all the work that's gone in from so many people over the years to build the program and build the facilities to what they are today.
This was one of those years where it all paid off for everybody, and I think there was a great deal of pride on the part of many people who have worked and cared for a long time.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Do you mind telling us about your history with UC?
Okay, well, maybe I better give you an overview. I graduated from UC in '71, and I worked at UC from '71 to '78. I spent four years in the president's office working for a man named Warren Bennis, who was the president of the university. While I was there working for him, I coordinated the efforts to raise additional money from the state of Ohio to support the university. That included what ultimately led to UC becoming a full state university. I ended up coordinating the campaign to get that approved and all the logistics involved with getting that approved.
My last year, [Bennis] asked me if I would go to the athletic department, and he explained some changes were occurring. And he said one of the things was that we were going to move basketball downtown to what was initially the new Riverfront Coliseum. He wanted to make sure that we had a successful transfer of attendance down there.
Another problem that the athletic department had was that our attendance at football games had been very, very low the previous... I'm going to say five years, at least. He wanted to do whatever could be done to increase that. So he asked me if I would spend six months in the athletic department trying to figure out how to make that work and improve attendance.
I've been involved with athletics in one way or another since I was in school. Having worked there for eight years, it was all-intensive, all-in type situation. I remained as a volunteer for many years thereafter. I care a great deal about the university and have been really blessed to have been invited to serve the university in so many different capacities. It's been a great experience and a great part of my of my life.
Can you give us a little background on Bearcatty in Cincinnati?
I think it would have been 1976––the spring of 1976. That's when we would have started working on it. We had a group of volunteers that we put together to come up with ideas and suggestions. The campaign that we created started that fall, and it became known as the Bearcatty Campaign.
We had a great history, but our programs had not been that strong recently, and we needed––particularly with football––a little excitement to spice things up.
Basketball-wise, we were moving downtown, and there were a number of people that didn't like the idea of moving basketball games downtown, so it was a bit of a hard sell. And then, of course, we needed to reach a whole new audience to try to get more people to come to the games.
With football, our attendance had been so low it was, "What do we do to generate more attendance across the board in any way we can?" We didn't have any superstar players to sell in football, so what we did is we created a concept built around the Bearcat because everybody had a positive thought about the Bearcat as our mascot.
By the way, I forgot to tell you I did do that. My senior year in college, I was one of the mascots. So I had a little bit of an up-close and personal background on that one. It was the best job I've ever had in my life––a phenomenal experience.
So we were trying to come up with ideas that would get people excited and something that would, you know, put a fresh look on things. In our brainstorming group, we came up with the idea of theming some things around the Bearcat. We had an ad agency that had done some work for me in one of my other jobs at the university. The head of that agency was Jim Jacobs, and Jim was a true advertising professional. We brought him in as a consultant, and we collectively came up with the Bearcatty Campaign. And then for basketball, we had another tag line, and it was "UC 'em at the Coliseum," to latch on to the first year downtown.
We created a significant radio program with the help of several stations in town, particularly WEBN, who was the leading station as it came to UC students and those in the early years after graduation. WEBN joined us as a corporate sponsor to help us launch the program and get students and others excited to come. We had a combination of, I'll say, primarily radio advertising with some print advertising and a number of handout brochures and things like that to be used as mailers.
And as part of it, we created a new song. "We're all Bearcatty in Cincinnati! Ohh ohh ohh what a team!" and it kind of went from there.
How long did the campaign last?
We were only sent there to do it one year, and they carried that over for the second year. After that, I don't know if they used it or not. It was a function of whether or not there were advertising dollars available.
Bennis had made it a priority to increase attendance, so he put additional dollars into marketing and advertising. He understood that if you're going to be successful in marketing, you have to spend money on marketing. So to his great credit, he recognized that the investment by the university would prove a great return. I think that was the first time, maybe, that we began our modern marketing that has continued on various levels since then.
When people think about UC basketball history, everyone remembers the '50s and '60s and everyone remembers the '90s. Why do you think this era has been overlooked? Those were some pretty good teams in the mid-'70s.
Well, I think maybe it was a general lack of enthusiasm about college sports in general in some ways, at least in Cincinnati. You know, you had the Bengals that were establishing themselves as a championship-caliber team, and you had the Reds that had been to three World Series right in that time period.
(Editor's note: In just their first decade of existence, the Bengals were already one of the NFL's better teams. From 1972-76 they amassed a 46-30 record with a pair of playoff appearances. The Big Red Machine, of course, were MLB's preeminent dynasty, making the 1972 World Series before winning it in 1975 and 1976.)
But you're right; the attendance had been mediocre. It had not been great. But in terms of football, we had our first sellout [after the campaign started] for the opening game of the season. We had done a promotion with WEBN where we agreed to spell out WEBN with the band at halftime, and they promoted the heck out of that. We sold out every seat in the place, the student section was full, and the attendance was so good, unfortunately, that we blew out the P.A. system that night because it couldn't handle the crowd. So it was almost too good of a success that first night, but then that carried over to much of the rest of the season, and then the same energy carried downtown. It took a question mark in terms of moving basketball downtown and made it a positive as well.
(Editor's note: The 1976 home opener, a 17-0 victory over rival Miami, drew 24,562 fans to Nippert Stadium––just shy of capacity. "It was the first time in a while that Cincinnati played before a mostly filled Nippert Stadium," said the Enquirer. The energy did indeed carry over. The Bearcats finished 8-3 and undefeated at home, two distinctions that were uncommon in those days. They even cracked the AP Poll for the first time in 22 years.)
The reason we're talking in the first place is we're bringing back these old '70s uniforms. Do you remember those uniforms that said "The Cats" on them?
Oh yeah, I do. And I remember the players, too. Gosh, [Pat] Cummings was always a great player for us back then. Bob Miller was always a great player for us. Gary Yoder and Steve Collier were our guards, and they were both outstanding players.
So, you know, we had a lot of good players. All they needed was a little push. The attendance was up significantly at basketball. You know, I'm going to say attendance was up about 30 percent over the previous year, which was significant in terms of what we were trying to do at the Coliseum.
They only had those uniforms for two seasons. Why do you think they abandoned them so quickly?
My understanding was that the uniforms back then were much more dictated by the coaches, with minimal input from the athletic department itself. So I think the reason for change would be that the coaches wanted to change for whatever reason.
And, you know, that wasn't something that was talked about. Nobody focused on the uniforms being good or bad back then. There were other things going on. You know, it was good to have good teams out there playing hard and representing the university well and getting students to come out to the games.
The head coach back in those days was Gale Catlett. What do you remember about him?
Gale was a character. I'll tell you the story that I remember the most about Gale Catlett. It was the first time he came out to coach a team at The Coliseum. Usually when teams were introduced, and particularly in the old [Armory] Fieldhouse, you were limited in terms of whether you had to leave the lights on or whether you could turn them off. Some colleges had gone to having the lights turned off with spotlights on them to get a little more excitement. You couldn't do that in the old Fieldhouse. But at the Coliseum, you could do that.
So they went to having the players introduced via spotlights and then the coach coming out at the end. Catlett came out wearing a blue blazer, light pants, and white and black buck shoes. They were almost funny. They were the most stylish footwear that any UC coach has ever worn on any court. But when he came out, it was accentuated by the fact that you had this big spotlight on him.
It just kind of set the tone for an increase in the excitement level of the program, as well as performance on the court.
I feel like I have to ask this question. As someone who's been around UC for decades, what was this football season and the run to the College Football Playoff like?
Oh, it was just phenomenal, and I think anybody who has been around for a number of years would feel the same way. Great pride, just great enthusiasm.
The football program has had a lot of ups and downs over the years, and there were times when we didn't have much attendance, and we didn't have the enthusiasm we needed. Sometimes maybe we didn't have this spectacular level of players, but we always had good players. We had many more good players than we got credit for sometimes. But this year was just a special time for everybody.
The most exciting thing to me was to see how enthusiastically the community responded to it. No question the students responded well, but also just the attendance and the excitement from the press. The coverage locally and nationally was remarkable. It just put a smile on every true Bearcat's face.
I couldn't be more proud to be a Bearcat, but I could have said that before this year, or I would have said the same thing 30, 40, 50 years ago. I'm still proud to say it today and just proud of the great success that the program has had and all the work that's gone in from so many people over the years to build the program and build the facilities to what they are today.
This was one of those years where it all paid off for everybody, and I think there was a great deal of pride on the part of many people who have worked and cared for a long time.