Roosevelt to get back into athletics

Twenty years after shutting down its athletic department, Roosevelt University will unveil plans today to get back in the game. Actually, 12 sports' worth of games.

Roosevelt, which has campuses in downtown Chicago and Schaumburg, expects to re-enter the intercollegiate scene in 2010-11 with baseball, men's and women's tennis and men's and women's cross country.

According to recently hired athletic director Mike Cassidy - currently the only member of the athletic department - the Lakers will begin competing as an NAIA school with plans to be recognized as a full-fledged NCAA Division III program within a decade.

Cassidy intends for men's and women's basketball to resume in 2011-12, with softball, women's volleyball, men's golf and men's and women's soccer to round out the school's offerings by 2013. All sports will be non-scholarship.

"We're going to build slowly and do things the right way," said the 34-year-old Cassidy, a Wheaton resident who spent the last 11 years at UIC. "There's talk of building an on-campus fieldhouse ... outdoor facilities are going to be a challenge."

Another challenge? Merging Roosevelt's Schaumburg students with the ones in Chicago to form one team. While Cassidy expects all of the sports to be based in Chicago, some events will be held in Schaumburg.

For example, Roosevelt's current club baseball team has a history with Alexian Field - the Schaumburg Flyers' home - that could continue.

According to Cassidy, Roosevelt launched its return to the athletics arena after President Charles Middleton conducted surveys that indicated undergraduate students held an overwhelming interest in having intercollegiate sports.

"(Middleton) sees the face of the Roosevelt student changing," said Cassidy, referring to the school's sharp increase in four-year students relative to graduate enrollees.