Growing pains in Greeley

University of Northern Colorado president Kay Norton gathered every student-athlete and all athletic department personnel on a recent night for a mandatory meeting and a pointed message: Knock it off.

“We must make clear to each other and to the world who we are and who we are not,” she said. “We are not cheaters, we are not criminals and we are not racists.”

A rash of high-profile run-ins with the law and the NCAA over the last two months had begun to suggest otherwise:

* The backup punter was charged with trying to kill the starter by sticking a knife into his kicking leg in a nighttime ambush.

* A senior lineman got cold-cocked in a bar, needed eye surgery and ended up with a disorderly conduct citation after allegedly telling a Hispanic man that he didn’t like Mexicans.

* Three assistant football coaches were suspended and another resigned for running an unauthorized practice in the spring that first-year coach Scott Downing said he knew nothing about.

* Two players were charged with assault after fighting a man in the parking lot.

This is not what the school had in mind when it jumped to Division I to gain more national notoriety.

“It is disconcerting. But I consider these things growing pains, because we have committed to making the athletic program more transparent and more visible -- when things go wrong as well as when things go right,” Norton told The Associated Press. “I would point out that none of these individuals were recruited by the new program or as a result of making the move.”

That doesn’t mean Downing is washing his hands clean of his program’s problems.

“They are my kids, though,” Downing said. “It doesn’t matter whether I recruited them or not. They are my kids. They’re our football players. They represent the University of Northern Colorado. From Day 1, we have talked in terms of being respectful and loyal and serving our community, and I still think that’s the basis of our program. We have to be valued members of our society.”

Before the events of the last two months, the 12,300-student campus an hour’s drive north of Denver was best-known as the alma mater of Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Michener and for its Monfort College of Business, the first business college ever awarded the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award.

The Bears football team was a Division II powerhouse, winning national titles in 1996 and ’97. But the administration decided the way to put Northern Colorado on the map and attract more students was to move up to Division I-AA and join the Big Sky Conference. That five-year transition period is nearly complete. The Bears, who play Montana on Saturday, are 1-8 this season.

“We wanted the quality and aspirations of our athletic program to match those of our academic program,” Norton said. “Our niche in Colorado for too long has been that of a well-kept secret.”

All that changed the night of Sept. 11, when punter Rafael Mendoza was ambushed and knifed in his kicking leg. Police arrested his backup, Mitch Cozad, a walk-on from Wheatland, Wyo., who has been charged with attempted first-degree murder and second-degree assault.

Though Mendoza has returned to the team, he walks with a limp, finds sitting in classrooms and on long bus rides excruciatingly painful at times. He’s also changed his punting style, because he cannot extend his leg as far as he did before the attack.

“My mom worried that I was coming back too soon,” Mendoza said. “But I just told her I wasn’t going to let him take away everything I had. I don’t walk right. I can’t kick the same. But I wanted to be a part of the team, because I love football.”

While Mendoza recuperated and prosecutors prepared their case, Northern Colorado took hit after hit in October.

Senior defensive lineman Jacob Carlson was charged with disorderly conduct after getting into an allegedly racially-charged bar fight and was suspended from the team. But Mendoza, who is Mexican-American, said the incident didn’t create a racial divide on the team.

“It was a shocker, sure. But it was out of character,” Mendoza said.

Athletic director Jay Hinrichs’ work -- directing the move to Division I-AA and raising $16 million for athletic, recreation and club sports facilities on campus -- has been overshadowed by the troubles.

“I’m disappointed. I’m embarrassed,” Hinrichs said. “But is it hard to walk through the community with our heads held high these days? Absolutely not. We walk with our heads held higher, and we walk more proudly. I know we’ve addressed these problems in the right way.”

So, how does he propose to turn around all this bad publicity?

“Sports Marketing 101 is W’s,” Hinrichs said. “That’s nothing new to any of us.”