College basketball notebook: Former FGCU president supports Eagles at Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. — Even though he retired from the office of Florida Gulf Coast University’s presidency last June, Dr. Wilson Bradshaw wasn’t going to miss his chance to travel with the FGCU women to the program’s fifth NCAA basketball tournament appearance.

As part of those postseasons, he has been to Tallahassee twice and once each to Miami and West Lafayette, Indiana (home to Purdue). Especially since Bradshaw now lives in St. Augustine, a six-hour drive from Fort Myers, that makes this trip out to Palo Alto by far the longest he’s had to make.

“I was surprised that we had to come so far out, but there was no doubt in my mind that I would be here,” Bradshaw said.

The two-day extension to the trip has afforded Bradshaw and the 30 or so fans that flew across the country on the team’s charter a unique opportunity to enjoy a change in scenery. Though Bradshaw has been to California several times because his son lives in Oakland, he and the other fans have made a greater event out of the tournament run, including, for example, a trip to Napa Valley on Sunday.

More significantly, Bradshaw sees the trip as a prime opportunity for greater nationwide exposure of the FGCU brand.

“We can’t buy publicity like this. I think it speaks volumes about FGCU,” Bradshaw said. “We’re still so very young, so it’s very powerful, not only in athletics, though that’s what we’re talking about today. But if you look at the academics and the programs we now have, it’s just been an unusual phenomenon in higher education across several dimensions.”

Unfortunately, due to the travel demands, Bradshaw’s wife, Jo Anna, was unable to make the trip out to the West Coast. But if FGCU were to have made the first Sweet 16 in program history?

“Even if we had to walk, she’s going to that,” Bradshaw said with a smile.

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No musical shenanigans, despite Stanford Band’s reputation

On the West Coast, Stanford’s marching band has earned quite a reputation for its nontraditional, irreverent style.

It has previously been banned from Disneyland, temporarily suspended from visiting the University of Notre Dame, and was actually barred from the entire state of Oregon for a period due to a halftime show that criticized the state’s logging practices.

Apparently, that reputation didn’t make its way all the way down to Fort Myers — FGCU Basketball Band director Brandon Robertson hadn’t been aware of anything special about his Stanford counterparts, despite his sharing an alma mater (Florida State) with the Stanford band’s director.

A lot of times, Stanford’s band likes to poke (friendly) fun at opposing marching bands or have rallies with their counterparts, but no such plans or mingling was in store this time around, with the FGCU band focusing wholly on supporting the small but vocal section of FGCU fans who made the trip to California.

“It means a lot, because we’re 3,000 miles away. We’re the only fans here, the only supporters that the women’s team has, so we’re going to give it our all,” Robertson said. “Four hundred percent, making sure that we can leave this arena here with the 'W.'”