By Jim Ecker
Perfect Game USA

 CEDAR FALLS – The University of Northern Iowa baseball team needs a $1.2 million bailout, but the money won’t be coming from the government. It needs to come from you. And from us, the baseball fans of America.

 The Panthers were told on Feb. 23 by Troy Dannen, UNI”s director of athletics, that they have to raise the entire $1.2 million by April 5 to save the program. If they don’t, the baseball program at UNI will be dropped after the 2009 season due to financial problems in the athletic department.

 The Panthers have only a few short weeks to save their program, and the clock is ticking.

 “We’re going to get this money,” vowed Zach Zirbel, one of UNI’s captains. “We’re going to keep this program alive.”

 Dannen said the baseball program runs an approximate $400,000 deficit on an annual basis, when you subtract revenues from expenses. He wants the team to raise $1.2 million so the program can be saved for three years, instead of just one year at a time, but even that won’t be enough. Even if the Panthers find the $1.2 million, they’ll have to raise another $10 million during the next three years to create an endowment to fund the program on an ongoing basis. If they don’t, the program ends.

 It’s a daunting task, but the campaign began almost immediately after the team got the bad news last week. Coach Rick Heller has received hundreds of phone calls and messages from people who are outraged and willing to help. There’s a special web site for people to pledge their support, and as of Tuesday morning, March 3 the web site had received pledges of more than $165,000 in one week. There’s still a long way to go, but it’s a start.

 "We want to help any way we can," said Perfect Game president Jerry Ford, whose company has pledged $25,000. "It's the right thing to do. Rick Heller is one of the best college baseball coaches in the country."

 You can reach the website to help Northern Iowa at www.SupportUNIBaseball.com. You can make a pledge on-line and have your pledge added to the master list, which is displayed on the website. Or if you like, you can make a pledge and remain anonymous. In addition, you can contact Coach Heller directly at Rick.Heller@uni.edu.

 There had been rumors for several years that the UNI baseball program was in jeopardy, due to financial problems in the athletic department and problems with gender-equity issues under Title IX. The problem got worse in recent months when the Iowa Board of Regents was ordered by the state government to cut 9 percent of the total budgets at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. That 9 percent cut is being passed along, and the athletic department at UNI faces a $500,000 cut (or more) in the funds it receives from the school’s general fund.

 Dannen had to decide where to make cuts, and baseball was it. Just last summer, when Dannen was introduced as UNI’s new director, he promised that no sports would be cut on his watch. He promised to raise more money for the department and to create more opportunities for women, rather than drop a sport. The economic climate changed, however, and Dannen said he was forced to make a difficult decision.

 Dannen met with UNI’s players for 90 minutes on Feb. 23 to deliver the news. “I said I’m sorry,” he said after the meeting.

 Originally, the program was going to be cut without the possibility of a reprieve. That changed after Heller met with Dannen last Monday morning, and the possibility of a $1.2 million bailout was announced.

 “Well, we’ve got a chance,” said Heller. “We’ll fight. I owe it to everybody out there.”

 Northern Iowa has had a baseball program since 1906. Iowa State dropped its program after the 2001 season, which means the University of Iowa would have the only NCAA Division I program in the state if UNI drops the sport after this year.

 The Panthers were in Arkansas for a series against Arkansas-Little Rock during the weekend of Feb. 20-22 when the news broke in Iowa that their program would be dropped. At the time, nobody knew there’d be a chance to save the program, and Heller had to unexpectedly call the team together to confirm the news. Heller had been told by Dannen and knew an announcement was coming, but was hoping to keep it quiet until after the team had returned from Arkansas. Instead, he had to confirm the worst while the team was on the road.

 “It probably was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my life,” he said.

 The players were shocked, saddened and angry, especially after being assured the program was not in jeopardy.

 “When we found out, I looked around the room and I was heartbroken,” said Zirbel, a senior. “There were so many tears in so many guys’ faces. I saw the fear in a lot of the players’ eyes.”

 The Panthers are determined to fight for their program, even though the time is short.

 “We’ve got a lot of fighters on our team, and we’re not going to give up until the last straw,” said Deric Manrique, a senior and one of UNI’s captains. “We can’t go down without a fight.”

 With your help, they won’t.