Nothing about that decision or the process that led up to it was satisfactory to the dozens of former Harvard football players who have written impassioned letters to the university administration and threatened to withhold future donations to the team. First, they tried to block the hire after the student newspaper reported that Aurich had been tabbed to succeed Murphy. Now that the university has made things official, alumni are demanding greater transparency into a search they say was bungled.“It smells of some kind of sham process,” said Joe Mattson, who played for the Crimson in the 1990s. “There is no other explanation for hiring an unsuccessful tight end coach from a really crappy program.”
And this from the Boston Globe (LINK):
“It wasn’t about looking for an external candidate, it was having an open national search and seeing where that would unfold and let the process unfold as it does,” (Harvard Athletic Director Erin) McDermott said. “You’re going to have, maybe some internal, and certainly some external, people who are interested, and then it’s really just making the best decision for the program, and I’m excited about Andy.
“This stuff is emotional. It’s about people, it’s about relationships, and I think this guy’s going to show what he can do. I totally understand, when people have relationships and have a connection, it’s totally understandable that there’s strong feelings there.”
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EXTRA POINT
Over the holiday weekend I have a guest pass to access the Newspapers.com archive and with a little digging I found a story I wrote after I traveled south to cover the Dartmouth men's basketball game at North Carolina. Here's the lede:
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - If you thought legendary North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith was relieved when Saturday's postgame press conference wound down and he hadn't yet been asked about last spring's curious on-again, off-again, on-again plans to play a game at Dartmouth, think again.
The man they named the building after had made inquiries earlier to find out if a certain Valley News writer made the trip to the Dean E. Smith Center, and was lying in wait when the subject finally came up.
"You are the one that wrote that we were playing Dartmouth," Smith said, jumping in before the last question of the press conference was even finished."
Jeff Pearlman, the former Sports Illustrated writer-turned author, has a podcast about writing in which he always asks his guests for the most challenging confrontations the guests have had in their careers. I'll never be on Pearlman's podcast but having Dean Smith glare and point at me while raising his voice would be my contribution. The story finished this way:
Told that (Dick) Baddour – who handled the entire negotiation with (Dartmouth coach Dave) Faucher – had been called several times last spring for a clarification but wouldn't comment, Smith's voice grew louder.
"Dick Baddour is our associate athletic director," he said. "Nobody ever called me. I'd have been happy to answer."
And now he has.
Loud and clear, from behind the microphone in a building they named after him.
For the record all these years later: I did try to call him and was told I should talk to Dick Baddour.
