Remember When: Guenther Cuts Fencing & Men's Swimming

Wow, 1993....has it been that long? The fencing team was quite good, won some NCAA championships. But hey, ya gotta save money, right?

Financial considerations were the major factor behind the decision. TheDivision
of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) will save $327,352 from the projected 1993-94
budget with the move.

I wonder how much money the DIA "made" with the attendance of 34,000 this past Saturday night. But as long as the DIA budget is in the black, Guenther's defenders will say he's doing the right thing!

But Illinois is not planning to add a women's sport, softball or soccer,as
was expected."We will not add any more sports until we are confident with the
budget,"Guenther said.

Wow, times changed eh Coach Guenther? Now we have not one, but two additional women's sports teams. Softball & soccer!! How ironic.

This is the best line from the article:

The DIA has an annual opperating budget of 18 million dollars, therefore this elimination is 1.9 percent of the budget."I think the fattest places in our department frankly are the administrationand the fattest programs; if you want to get some fat that's where you go," DeForrest said.

"It seems kind of ironic that it went the other way around."It is not
a prudent business decision to go after a mere one percent ofthe budget
when you're trying to trim fat all the way around," he said.

I agree. You can start by cutting the fat out of Coach Guenther's salary, now at $500,000 thanks to the asinine decision of the Board of Trustees to give him a 20% pay raise for no good reason.