Friday Cardinal Couple -- UofL to celebrate ACC membership on July 1st

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Mascots, Swafford headed to town to welcome UofL

My memory, for what good it is these days, doesn't recall a gala affair when we joined the AAC. Probably just as good...we were the party crashers for a year, took a lot of titles and trophies and walked out the front door with a prom queen wave.

Joining the BIG EAST was a big deal back then in 2005-2006. Imagine playing Notre Dame and UConn in WBB each year. It was enough (probably) to send Tom Collen running for the SEC after two years. He did compile a 20-12 Conference slate in those two years, though...but who in their right mind leaves juniors Angel McCoughtry and Candyce Bingham?

Conference USA came calling in 1995-96. No parades, mascots or drink specials on 4th Street Live accompanied that move. In fact, it drove Howard Schnellenberger off campus and to Oklahoma. The WBB competition was about the same as the Metro Conference. Bud Childers stuck around for two years before realizing he'd never get the Cards past the first round of the "Big Dance"

And, now....the ACC. A bright new beginning for Cardinal Athletics. We know a few of the existing members...BIG EAST foes like Syracuse, Pitt, Notre Dame. We were teamed up with Fla. State, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech in the Metro. The rest, we'll figure out.

Eat your heart out, West Virginia. This is the conference that fit your needs perfectly but you jumped ship to the BIG 12 before waiting out the changes.

Here's the events lined up for July 1st on 4th Street Live, courtesy of the UofL SID department:

The free event will begin with live entertainment and video presentations at 5 p.m. with Louisville's in-stadium DJ, K-Dogg, followed by a program at 6 p.m. The program will include special messages from Louisville coaches and student-athletes, fan giveaways, and plenty of surprises. A concert featuring the Louisville Crashers will cap the celebration on the main stage following the program. There will be food and beverage specials at participating establishments in Fourth Street Live! surrounding the celebration.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford, UofL President Dr. James Ramsey, and Vice President/Director of Athletics Tom Jurich will be among those participating in the celebration. An 11 a.m. press conference that day will be streamed live by the ACC Digital Network on theACC.com.
Mascots from each of the 15 ACC institutions will make a special appearance at the event and interact with fans at Fourth Street Live!. The mascots also will visit with children at the U of L Autism Center that afternoon.


It's a Tuesday, by the way...so attendance might be a bit tepid...but it sounds like a lot of fun and a 5 p.m. start time should allow a lot of people to get there after work and picking up the kids.

From MVC to Metro to CUSA and BIG EAST to AAC and ACC. Somewhere, I've probably got t-shirts or sweatshirts that have the conference logo of each of the Louisville incarnations in each conference.

Final destination for awhile. Looks like a good place to hang
out. Rivalries renewed, rivalries ahead. Anytime that Louisville has moved to a conference in the past 40 years, they have quickly become the most dominant athletic program in that conference.

That domination may be slow in coming in the ACC. As the new kids on the block, the Cards will take a few thumpings. Maybe not as bad as the Spurs put on the Heat last night...but don't expect a dominance in conference championship titles right away. Challenges. Failures and successes. Good times.

And no Geno to beat Walz up two or three times a year. Gotta love that.. and it's as good as reason as any to celebrate on July 1st...

paulie