For the benefit of the university, President Gary Ransdell and football coach David Elson threw themselves out of a plane Tuesday.

They weren’t the only ones jumping that day over Fort Knox.

At 5:30 in the morning, Ransdell, Elson, Director of Development Amanda Lich and three representatives of Western’s ROTC program departed from Diddle Arena and headed to Godman Airfield in Fort Knox.

There, they met the U.S. Army Parachute Team, formally known as the Golden Knights.

“The Knights perform in demonstrations as well as competitions, but our overall goal is to be a center of influence,” Staff Sgt. Daniel Metzdorf said. “Our job is to reach out and connect the public to the Army.”

According to Ransdell, while the trip had much to do with strengthening relations with the Army, who is playing a significant role in Western’s football program’s transition to Division I-A, the jump was significant on several levels.

Athletics Director Wood Selig announced Friday that Western will play the U.S. Military Academy (Army) in a four-year home series beginning in 2013.

“There is value in being in a situation where you have to make a decision, and being able to stay focused in those situations,” Ransdell said. “(Making the jump) is an important analogy for those in leadership positions.”

The trip also was a homage to Western’s ROTC.

“Our ROTC program is an important experience, and we try to do the most we can to support everything they do and stand for,” he said.

The participants viewed a 20-minute informational video and a brief demonstration of the $18,000 parachutes the tandems, or two-person teams of connected skydivers, would be using.

Then, each participant donned a bright yellow jumpsuit, a leather helmet, gloves and goggles and strapped on the harness that would connect them to their respective Golden Knight tandem partner.

Elson said the trip was not as much about initiating relationships with the Army as it was about continuing and strengthening them.

“We’ve had a good relationship in the years I’ve been at Western, and doing things like this helps to strengthen it even more,” Elson said. “Students are all searching for their way in this world, and having this relationship exposes our players to this option.”

In a field a little more than a mile from where they took off, the tandems touched back down to earth.

Ransdell, Elson and Lich all had similar reactions to the more than 10,000-foot descent, which included about 30 seconds of free fall before the deployment of the parachute.

Each called the experience an adrenaline rush and said it was something they wouldn’t forget.

Ransdell, who said he had jumped nearly seven years before with Western’s Skydiving Club, left the scene with a promise.

“I thought of this on the way down,” he said. “In our first home game against Army, I’ll skydive into the stadium.”

Reach Ed Lukins at sports@wkuherald.com.