Summer 2005
Pueblo: Still a Sports Town?
By Adam Combs
Pueblo has been known for many things throughout its history, mainly for being blue collar and being Democratic in a mostly Republican state. However, Pueblo is also known for being a sports town.
There have been many great teams, some semi-professional, but mostly high school. In the old days, some would say, fans used to come out in droves to support the local teams. Looking through the archive of old photos from the 1950s and before at the Robert H. Rawlings Public Library, Runyon Field can be seen packed to the gills just to watch a city league game between two companies and their employees. Of course, Pueblo’s minor league franchise, the Pueblo Dodgers, was also a big hit during that period.
1955 Pueblo Dodgers photo courtesy of Pueblo City-County Library
Things have changed. Teams have collapsed and fallen into the financial abyss and disappeared from memory. More recently, in the past 20 years, there have been several semi-pro teams that have come and gone, some not even lasting for a whole season. Even the fan support for the local university, Colorado State University-Pueblo, has seemed to dwindle. With these failures, people begin to wonder: Is Pueblo a great sports town, or isn’t it?
CSU-Pueblo gets more support than people think
Former CSU-Pueblo Sports Information Director Matt Hildner, who now works for the Montrose Daily Press, made it clear that CSU-Pueblo wasn’t the only university that suffered from low attendance. CSU-Pueblo actually had good attendance compared to other similar colleges, he said.
“Athletic departments always wish they had more fans in the seats,” Hildner said. “But when you compare the CSU-Pueblo attendance to the schools up and down the Front Range, it is pretty good. When you look at the rest of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference attendance, CSU-Pueblo attendance still stacks up pretty well.”
Support for high-school athletics is strong
Hildner was born and raised in Pueblo, and said people in Pueblo will always support the high school teams more because of the connection they have with the schools and having family members on the teams.
“That connection has remained strong and there isn’t as much of that connection with the university, especially in sports like football and basketball,” Hildner said.
One thing which benefits the high schools is being run by a state organization known as the Colorado High School Activities Association. While teams need fund-raising to help pay for road games, dinners and uniforms, not having to worry about electric bills, rent and other financial matters that normal sports organizations fret over is a big plus.
For college sports, football and basketball have always proven to be popular. While basketball is alive and well at CSU-Pueblo, other popular programs like football and wrestling were cut because of many reasons, including financial. Whether these cuts to the athletic department have hurt the support from the local patrons is up for debate, but Hildner remembers from his youth that college football was a very popular event to attend.
“It’s tough to say (whether those cuts had an effect) because I didn’t work there when it had football or wrestling,” Hildner said. “I know as a kid growing up, university football was well attended and I think football enhances the stature of the athletic department. I wouldn’t say the city of Pueblo doesn’t support the athletic department now, but I would say the high schools draw better attendance.”
Next:
Semi-pro teams need money
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