Monday, July 17, 2006

It was early January 1998. Rick Byrd and his Belmont Bruins were in New York City. Rather then travel back to Nashville, TN, Byrd decided to keep the team in the Manhattan for a week before heading to Valparaiso.

A team from Nashville on an extended stay in the Big Apple? Talk about being out of your element.

It was nothing new for Byrd and company who had been advised by virtually everyone in the community not to make the move to Division I basketball. Why would an NAIA powerhouse make such a bold move? After all, there was no way they could succeed.

Could they?

“It was almost inevitable, to a degree, that we would fail,” says Byrd. “We were fortunate that we had an administration that understood that patience would be a key to our success. But there was still some question as to whether or not we could compete.”