One down and, Jeff Bigger hopes, many more to come.

Bigger is the Tulsa man who helped organize and direct the first annual Native American All-Star football game played Saturday night at Haskell Stadium.

“I think in the first year it’s all about credibility,” Bigger said on Sunday.

“I feel we got 110 percent credibility. We’re already excited about next year.”

In the inaugural game, the West disposed of the East, 27-10, in front of about 1,500 fans.

“I won’t know the exact count until tomorrow,” Bigger said, “but I’m very happy with the crowd. I think the people of Lawrence supported us. What the future holds I don’t know, but I know we need to market the game.”

Bigger, who runs Okscouting Inc. out of Tulsa, did no advertising and generated no publicity until a little more than a week before the game’s scheduled date.

“We’ll review everything we’ve done when the committee sits down,” Bigger said. “I already know some things we need to do next year. We’ll even review the date of the game.”

Earlier, Bigger said he needed a crowd of around 2,000 in order to avoid red ink. Saturday’s attendance was at least 500 shy of that total, but Bigger didn’t seem concerned.

“I think we’re going to be OK,” he said. “Our goal was to break even and I think we’re close to that.”

Bigger also said he has heard from other cities that would like to play host to the contest.

However, Bigger stressed he wants to keep it in Lawrence because of the city’s central location and because of the facilities at Haskell Indian Nations University.

Will the game return to Lawrence and HINU in 2003?

“We will not make that decision until mid-July,” Bigger said.

All in all, the first Native American All-Star football game was a ground-floor success.

“We were very pleased with the game,” Bigger said. “We thought it was very competitive. We’re overexcited. We established something that needs to be played every year.”

Again, it was all about credibility.

“The first year we wanted to prove ourselves,” he said, “and I think we accomplished that.”