Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Wright State athletic director Bob Grant never allowed himself to get his hopes up over winning the McCafferty Trophy, which is awarded to the Horizon League school with the most across-the-board success in sports each year.
The Raiders have only 14 teams, the Division-I minimum, and are in the bottom half of the conference in athletics spending.
But after having won league titles in men’s soccer and men’s and women’s basketball, and seeing how well some spring squads were faring, Grant started believing the program’s first McCafferty crown was within reach — at least until talking a few weeks ago with soon-to-be-retired media relations director Bob Noss.
“I said, ‘Bob, could we win it?’ Bob has been around forever, and he said, ‘Aw, BG, we’ll do well, but I don’t think so,’” Grant said. “We just never think we can. There’s been years when we thought we did pretty well and finished fifth or sixth.”
But athletic department employees have been sharing high-fives while getting over a mild case of shock this week after learning the school finished at the top of the 10-member conference. The men’s teams were first in the all-sports standings, while the women were tied for fourth.
“I don’t think we’re wired or funded to do this. It’s very gratifying,” Grant said. “The credit all goes to our student-athletes and our coaches. They’re the ones doing it.”
