Not until the Big 12 Track and Field Championships were right around the corner did Bill Harris begin to realize what kind of response his invitations would generate.

Harris is director of Colorado's Alumni C-Club. Several months before the Big 12 meet, he began contacting former Buff track and field athletes, inviting them to Boulder for the weekend.

For weeks, almost nothing. Then ...

"All of a sudden, right before the meet, people started responding," Harris said. "It was amazing. The response we got was great."

Nearly 150 former Buffs ended up attending last weekend, a number Harris couldn't have imagined when he started the process. They came from as far away as Canada, Connecticut and California; and they covered seven decades of competitors, with at least one letterman from the 1940s attending.

"It was terrific," Harris said. "They had a great time. It was neat just to see them all get together."

The athletes obviously enjoyed the weekend reunion.

"I don't know how many of them came up to me and thanked us for inviting them," Harris said. "They had a great time, and you could tell they enjoyed connecting with everyone again."

The track and field "reunion" is just the latest example of a renewed effort to bring CU's alumni back into the fold. It was an endeavor that fell by the wayside for a variety of reasons in recent years, but it's become a focal point for the current administration.

"There's a lot of energy and effort being put into this," Harris said. "You see Mike (Bohn, athletic director) and everyone up here realizing theimportance of tradition and keeping our former athletes involved."

It's something that's been needed. For too many years, CU's athletic department too often paid only lip service to maintaining ties to its alums.

But improving those connections is important. It helps in fundraising, it helps in recruiting, and it helps in maintaining a national presence for the university in general and the athletic department in particular.

Over the last year, CU held reunions for almost every sport. Jeff Bzdelik hosted a "homecoming" weekend for men's basketball. Kathy McConnell-Miller had a similar function for women's hoops.

And, at CU's spring football game, approximately 250 former players showed up for a weekend of festivities.

"That was incredible," Harris said. "We've never had problems getting the older guys involved, but this year, we had lots of guys from the 1990s and 2000s. It was exciting to see that kind of involvement."

Harris credits CU's coaches for helping make the difference.

"The lines of communication have always been there with the athletes," Harris said. "But you have guys like Hawk (Dan Hawkins) who are really getting involved. Jeff and Kathy -- all the coaches -- are really putting their full efforts into it.

"You can just feel the energy flow through the entire program."

That kind of involvement and energy has to continue if CU is going to build a strong alumni base, the kind of base that will take an active part in helping build the department for the long term.

At many other schools, a strong alumni base is a given. At CU, it's still a work in progress.

"That tradition is so important," Harris said. "It's like last weekend -- a guy walked up to me at the track meet. I'd never met him, but knew his name. He came up and said thanks for putting the weekend together, and then he handed me a check for the C-club.

"These are the kind of things we have to continue to build on."