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OSCAR L. COMBS
CATS' PAUSE EDITOR/PUBLISHER
Dr. Roselles resignation produces no tears here
? Last Thursday. UK president David Roselle blamed the Kentucky basketball program as a major factor in his decision to leave Kentucky.
You'll have to forgive me if, like some folks, I'm not caught up in a sea of tears over his departure.
Throughout his press conference, Roselle talked of how he had cleaned up UK athletics, that he had even raided the department's money coffers a few times along the way, much to the delight of some sports bashers.
Don't get me wrong, until six months ago I was one of Dr. Rosellc's strongest supporters.
That's when I received a letter from UK Public Relations inviting me, along with other members of the involved media, to a "party" with the president to celebrate the conclusion of the "basketball investigation story" and trade jokes about those involved.
1 thought then and still feel that such an event was totally inappropriate, and I conveyed those feelings at the time to Bernie Vonderheide. UK public relations director whose department originated the letter.
Why would anyone who loves UK want to celebrate one of the darkest moments in the school's history? Today, we know the reason. Roselle had no intention of staying around to bear the cross of 55-point losses. He left that to those kids who chose to stay. I'm sorry to say I badly misjudged the man.
Roselle came to UK as a diamond in the rough, enjoyed a two-year love affair with the local newspaper, shined his personal star at the expense of a great university and then left town. Ashes remain.
All those great promises were just that, promises.
While I voiced my objections last summer by refusing to attend a party toasting the crucifixion of UK basketball, today seems very appropriate for another kind of party.
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?DR. ROSELLE'S EXIT from UK to the presidency of the University of Delaware is alarming in that he arrived in Lexington a little more than two years ago with such a positive attitude toward building Kentucky into a great university.
He also assured Wildcat boosters that he really enjoyed the games and that athletics and academics can go hand-in-hand. That set at ease the minds of many followers of UK sports who had heard just the opposite about the academician whose main expertise was said to be in computers.
Unfortunately, all his moves and decisions after his first year seem to have contradicted his early views.
Even as he departs UK, many Kentuckians still believe Roselle has not given a full accounting of the Eric Manuel case,
which involved alleged cheating on an ACT test that the former Wildcat took at nearby Lafayette High School.
More than once during his press conference, Roselle pointed to his "clean-up" of the athletics program as a major accomplishment. He might also add that he leaves the once well-endowed program financially strapped and headed into a storm of fiscal uncertainity the next couple of years.
He told our commonwealth he did the right thing by airing all the dirty laundry in front of the NCAA and that the NCAA was compassionate as a result of the university's cooperation. The NCAA even echoed those words. Some would argue that the organization did so only because it owed Roselle a favor for doing what no other college president had ever done beforeoffer a school's head on a silver platter.
Fact is, the NCAA was anything but light on Kentucky. The NCAA said it gave serious consideration to issuing UK the death penalty. C'mon!
After the UK mess, the NCAA didn't give Memphis State the death penalty and it had been convicted of major violations within the past five years. Kentucky hadn't.
And then we saw the recent mess at North Carolina State, where the NCAA uncovered more than 600 cases of players' tickets being sold.
During the UK investigation, NCAA and UK officials said academic fraud is one of the, if not the, major no-no's in the business, which it should be.
Although N.C. State was accused of changing grades, along with the other violations, the only penalty assessed is to miss this season's postseason play. Of course, N.C. State positioned itself for the ruling by removing the athletics director's title from coach Jim Valvano's file and voluntarily limiting recruiting this past season.
Kentucky's athletics director was forced to resign under pressure, its head coach and his entire coaching staff got sacked, and the university received sanctions that included a two-year ban on preseason and postseason competition, a limit of three scholarships for each of two seasons, no television for one season and three years probation.
If that wasn't insult enough, NCAA executive director Dick Shultz paraded into Lexington and seemed to gloat in telling the Lexington Rotary Club that the NCAA is cracking down like never before. He even insinuated that Kentucky is a prime example that no one is untouchable.
Schultz even praised David Roselle. Heck, he should have. Had it not been for the UK president, the NCAA probably wouldn't have been able to test out its gas chamber.
However, let's not send the wrong message. Kentucky was guilty. The punishment fit the crime, no doubt about it, but where is fairness as it relates to
other schools and other situations?
Dr. Roselle promised to rebuild the program, even better than before. That's sorta like a big bully tearing down someone's beautiful sandcastle on the beach, then building another one and proclaiming, "Mine is better than yours anyway."
However, Roselle left before fulfilling his second promise. Yes, he hired new people, and yes, he benefited from some great on-the-job training as a university president, but the University of Kentucky has paid a very, very dear price.
I really believed he was doing what was right for UK, that he truly wanted to run a clean program and that he would remain and fight through the bad times.
Give the man credit. He did a tremendous job of improving morale among the university's academic community right at the outset. Almost as soon as he moved into the president's home at Maxwell Place, he reached into the athletic funds and withdrew $4 million for improved professors" salaries.
That decision eventually led to Cliff Hagan's ouster as athletics director because Cliff objected to the move. Hagan believed the money should have stayed in athletics because the department is self-supporting and receives no money from the general fund.
After Hagan refused to make the withdraw as a voluntary move, Roselle then ordered the transfer and it was just a matter of time before the president would find reason to dismiss Hagan.
Regardless of what you read or hear. Cliff Hagan was not fired because of the NCAA mess. He was fired because he wanted to protect his department's funds.
Taking $4 million from athletics was the first signal that there would be tough days ahead for UK's intercollegiate sports program. No one dreamed what would happen within the next two years.
After the NCAA basketball mess, the sagging football program became a problem for Roselle. He liked Jerry Claiborne's way of running a program more than he liked Jerry Claiborne himself.
Don't get me wrong, he likes Claiborne, but Roselle really, / think, believed a big-time football program could be run cleanly and honestly with a high graduation rate and still produce winning teams.
The last two seasons proved otherwise and empty seats popped up with increasing frequency. An exclamation mark was stamped on the program with several academic awards, the last being one announced by the Southeastern Conference just a couple weeks ago.
Kentucky again led the league, but the names of the three schools at the bottom of the league's academic race drew more attention than the winner.
Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee tied for the league football championship. Each will be going to postseason bowls
during the holidays. Guess where they finished in the academic race? Yep, No. 8, No. 9 and No. 10.
There was no way Roselle could ask Claiborne to step down after Jerry did everything asked of him. Claiborne, being the UK loyalist he is, solved a very sticky situation for Roselle by retiring.
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?IN THE END, Roselle chose to switch rather than stay and fight. This tells me a lot about a man who obviously never felt part of the University of Kentucky family, regardless of what he may say.
Perhaps this time, the UK Board of Trustees won't have to go out-of-state to hire someone to head its university.
Perhaps this time, someone who really loves the university, someone who understands the problems of this state and someone who has a genuine love for the commonwealth and its people can be selected.
Perhaps it will be someone who can go to Frankfort and enjoy an afternoon with state officials and persuade them to allocate the necessary money to run this school without delivering "either-or" demands to the governor.
Perhaps a person will be selected to lead UK who won't have to rely on a love-affair with big-city newspapers to shine his/her star.
Perhaps a true-and-tested, loyal UK administrator will be selected. Someone, say, like Charles Wethington.
Lordy, I hope so.
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?AS OF THIS writing, the football coaching situation at UK was still up in the air although all roads still pointed toward Denver Broncos assistant Mike Shanahan.
Rumors were running wild late last week that Shanahan would be announced as the coach at a Friday press conference, but that failed to materialize.
By the time you read this edition of TCP he could well have been named the coach. Again, the job still may be open.
The hiring has already taken more time than athletics director CM. Newton would have preferred, considering that the all-important recruiting season is in full swing.
Another unknown is what effect, if any. Dr. Roselle's leaving will have on the hiring of a new coach.
Both Newton and UK basketball coach Rick Pitino said a major factor in their decisions to come to Lexington hinged on their fondness of Dr. Roselle.
Shanahan met with Dr. Roselle last week, but it is not known if he had any knowledge of Roselle's impending departure before last Friday's decision by Roselle to leave for Delaware.