Baddour retirement announcement deserved better treatment
Jul 29, 2011
Initially intended to be about the firing of head football coach Butch Davis, North Carolina ended up with a bizarre two-for-one press conference that included the announcement of Dick Baddour stepping down as athletics director.
Chancellor Holden Thorp "reluctantly" accepted Baddour's offer to retire before his current contract ended in 2012, saying the hiring of the next football coach would be dependent on a new athletics director being in place. Thorp also touched on Baddour's continued role in the NCAA investigation.
“There is nobody in the world I would rather have next to me when we go before the NCAA in October, than Dick Baddour,” Thorp said. “He is a true, true Tar Heel.”
This is where press gathering became cringeworthy, with Thorp awkwardly turning to Baddour and leading the room to applause. At this point, I fully expected Thorp to deliver of stirring rendition of "Simply The Best" on his Casio keyboard. It was surreal.
Having spent 45 years working in Chapel Hill, Baddour began his career in 1967 as assistant dean of men and worked his way to athletics director in 1997. Regardless of how you feel about Baddour's tenure, the Tar Heels certainly had their share of hiring fumbles in that time and he was most certainly headed out the door, Baddour deserved better than that hot mess at the Friday Center.
Baddour has always been a person with class. Yesterday's handling of the situation was anything but that.
Most Recent Comments
Posted Jul 29, 3:38 p.m.
Rank: Sports Legend Posts: 22624
Joined: Dec, 2007
Location: Southern Pines, NC
RE: Baddour retirement announcement deserved better treatment
Maybe without Austin's tweet they could possibly have won the largest Thropy of all. A National Championship talented team before some cheaters were caught up with. Thorp and Baddour praised Butch during the NCAA investigation. Then the cell phone. Still much information someone is trying to hide.The silence after thorp said he is a true true tarheel followed by about 4 claps before anyone else jumped in said it all. They blundered that about as well as their attempt to bring big time college football to chapel hill.- Posted by markedectomy - 903
RE: Baddour retirement announcement deserved better treatment
+1, ewcanes. I've supported Baddour through thick and thin and this press conference didn't bother me.anchormanaustin, ANY attempts to bring "big time college football" to Chapel Hill or Raleigh, for that matter, are futile as long as there isn't a playoff and there is a preseason poll. We've been playing football in the Triangle for about 350 years now, and the number of nationally relevant seasons turned in by all 3 schools doesn't exceed 15. If any of us went undefeated, yes, there is a chance that we'd get to play in the BCS Title game, however those chances are still very small as long as there are two big-name programs out there that had good seasons.
Posted Jul 29, 9:41 a.m.
Rank: Sports Legend Posts: 5055
Joined: Aug, 2008
Location: Lawrence, KS
