Louisville boosters are upset that Tom Jurich was not brought back

Thanks to the surprising retirement of athletic director Vince Tyra in December, the University of Louisville found itself in a job hunt. A few short weeks later, that turned into two big openings after the university, and head men’s basketball coach Chris Mack decided to part ways. Oh, there was also the fact that president Neeli Bendapudi seemingly bolted overnight to Penn State around the same time Tyra decided to call it quits.

Louisville is never boring. Deputy athletic director Josh Heird was named the interim athletic director in December and guided Louisville through the hiring of Kenny Payne. That move appears to be very well received from those supporters in and around Derby City. Meanwhile, Heird went to bat for football coach Scott Satterfield after the season and recognized that the university needs to add more support to assist the program’s recruiting operation. That is also going very well.

Thanks to the important checkpoints hit as the interim athletic director, it would seem to make perfect sense to give the full-time job to Heird. The university decided that would be the move this week and formally introduced their new boss on Friday. However, not all folks are happy.

Throughout the process, many prominent boosters wanted to bring back the man who saw their basketball team get into big-time NCAA trouble twice and to go along with the re-hiring of Bobby Petrino that went down in flames leaving a tough rebuilding job for Satterfield just at the time Kentucky started to get it rolling on the gridiron under Mark Stoops.

But that didn’t really matter. Some big-time supporters wanted to bring Tom Jurich home, regardless.

For those interested, here's the full letter from Mark Lynn, Jim Patterson and Lonnie Ali that we just discussed on the show: pic.twitter.com/q6zOP1mWLg

— Mike Rutherford (@CardChronicle) June 2, 2022

Wisely, UofL did not grant former athletic director Tom Jurich a formal interview due to the mess he caused on his way out. Instead, these boosters and the anonymous people they represent think that Louisville “took the easy route” in the hire of Heird. Instead of looking toward the future, some wanted to go to the past to find answers.

It is worth noting that Jurich and Louisville have Lynn Family Stadium (soccer) and Jim Patterson Field (baseball) as facilities on campus thanks to the generations these boosters provided to help build up Cardinal Park which houses numerous athletic facilities on the campus of Louisville. The duo has also reportedly contributed $10 million to the university. Meanwhile, Lonnie Ali is the spouse of Muhammad Ali. The Champ, who had a late connection with the university, has seen the football team use an alternate jersey dedicated in his honor, is often associated with UofL and was brought out as a celebrity for the coin toss at the Orange Bowl to culminate the 2006 season.

Prominent people around UofL wanted to bring home an individual that they all had a close association with. However, you cannot ignore what happened with Jurich after former president Greg Postel accused him of “ineffective management, divisive leadership and unprofessional conduct” before ultimately firing the famous athletic director in 2017.

Instead, the university made the smart move and hired a candidate with pedigree and experience with the current landscape that Louisville finds itself in. Josh Heird has over a decade of work experience in athletics administration serving both Villanova and Louisville. It seems that UofL made a sensible hire this time as opposed to the last when Tyra was invited into a suite at Cardinal Stadium while attending a football game as a fan to be made an ACC athletic director with zero experience in college athletics outside of time spent as a baseball player at Kentucky.

The Jurich era is officially over — we think — and maybe Louisville can finally move forward after spending seven seasons surrounded by nothing but scandal. Sometimes the easy move is often the best move.