Anybody got any insight on what is going on at USM?
- Thread starter dawgatUSM
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; color: black;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Edit to add: This is in retrospect not unusual for USM presidents to return to the faculty after serving as President. Thames and I believe Lucas & McCain have done this in the past.
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This was all about our President wanting to name General Jeff Hammond as our new Athletic Director. Our former AD, who was forced to resign, ran our athletic department into the ground. He left it in a huge debt situation. General Hammond was named interim AD and he discovered wanton waste and people who were not doing their jobs. He started to clean house. He also looked at contracts the University had. Contracts that should have been bid out, like the Coca-Cola contracts were not being bid out. There are numerous examples of this. Well, those influential people holding those contracts started a smear campaign to get rid of Hammond.
It didn't work with our President. Two weeks ago she was going to announce General Hammond as AD, but was told by the IHL board to NOT do that. She was being told who she could hire and who she couldn't. Well, she refused to take part in this lynching of General Hammond and chose to resign instead. A shame our country doesn't have leaders of this quality.
General Hammond didn't face this kind of enemies when he was a three star General leading his troops in war in Iraq. He turned down seven figure salaries with some defense contractors to return to USM, where he qb'ed the football team under Bobby Collins. He is a person of impeccable character that was being attacked by some wealthy USM supporters that want to control the University and their contracts.
It is a sad day and very well could be the end of USM athletics. I know all of you will not be upset at that news, but for someone that has always supported my university, it is truly a bad day.
It didn't work with our President. Two weeks ago she was going to announce General Hammond as AD, but was told by the IHL board to NOT do that. She was being told who she could hire and who she couldn't. Well, she refused to take part in this lynching of General Hammond and chose to resign instead. A shame our country doesn't have leaders of this quality.
General Hammond didn't face this kind of enemies when he was a three star General leading his troops in war in Iraq. He turned down seven figure salaries with some defense contractors to return to USM, where he qb'ed the football team under Bobby Collins. He is a person of impeccable character that was being attacked by some wealthy USM supporters that want to control the University and their contracts.
It is a sad day and very well could be the end of USM athletics. I know all of you will not be upset at that news, but for someone that has always supported my university, it is truly a bad day.
MSU has a really bad problem with "good ole boys" but I always got the impression that USM was small enough where a lot of their business was like giving your relatives contracts even though they don't deserve it just to put cash in their pockets. Not "good ole boys" but something similar. Like "dysfunctional unreasonable family". It sounds ridiculous that people would get their panties in a wad over vending machines but USM is working with one of the bottom 10 athletic budgets in division 1. At first I was surprised someone cared enough about athletics at USM to go after the prez but then I figured that the 2 or 3 guys this affects live in Oak Grove with their socialite wife and spoiled children and have nothing better to do than stir the pot.
Screw that. Hire the General as the President, trim the fat, clean house, piss off the faculty good, give the IHL the finger on the way out the door after 2 yrs and call it a day. "My job here is done....."
Wasn't USM paying attention?
Wasn't USM paying attention?
Thanks. This is not going to just go away. General Hammond is as strong as they come. Here was his comment today about two b.s. lawsuits that two athletic department employees he terminated filed against him at the urging of our former AD, Giannini...coach66 said:
Q: Nobody questions your integrity, but there are two employees
within the department who have filed complaints against you. How do you
respond to that?
JH: "My response is this - I served 32 years
in the military. I buried 94 kids my last time in combat. They lost
their lives for the values of this nation, and one of those most central
values is freedom of speech, and I believe in that. Its worth dying for
in my eye. So I support and value that. I don't like it when someone
abuses that, but I believe in the process. I believe through due
diligence and patience you let the process work itself out. At the end
of the day, I believe you'll be able to say that I am a man of integrity
and courage. In fact, I can assure you that will be the case."
As far as I know, your General/AD has never appeared on a national ESPN game walking the sidelines wearing khaki shorts, one maroon tube sock, one white tube sock, with a paw print painted on his cheek talking about how he ruptured his Achilles running wind sprints with the football team... So, I say keep the old General around until he does something like that.
That was almost as embarrassing as the famous Jerry Clower halftime tribute that looked like an episode of Hee Haw with coon dogs, live racoons and people running around barefoot in overalls...
That was almost as embarrassing as the famous Jerry Clower halftime tribute that looked like an episode of Hee Haw with coon dogs, live racoons and people running around barefoot in overalls...