Last week, we received a copy of a letter sent by President James Ramsey to University of Louisville faculty members. Certainly, Ramsey’s got to keep his faculty on the U of L team, and no doubt some faculty are upset about the publicity surrounding the highest-paid staff member at U of L. So he needed to explain his decision-making when it came to his immediate reaction to the Rick Pitino news.
So now we know where the motivation to do the public apology came from.
We can guess the “wide range of options” included firing Pitino. But that didn’t happen, and Ramsey decided to support the coach. But take note of the line “promised not to have similar errors in judgment in the future.” Sounds like another way of saying “Another bimbo eruption and you’re gone.”
Here’s the President’s letter:
Dear Colleagues,
We were just beginning to recover from the historic flooding on campus when I received a media inquiry late Tuesday night. A reporter had received a copy of a police report which contained information about our basketball coach’s actions six years ago. I was unaware of some of that information. I spent Wednesday morning gathering facts and discussing possible responses to these new developments with Provost Shirley Willihnganz and other administration officials.
I considered a wide range of options in dealing with Coach Pitino’s errors in judgment and their impact on our university. I discussed these options with Athletics Director Tom Jurich Wednesday afternoon. In the end, I told Coach Pitino that he needed to publicly apologize to the university community for his actions. He has done that.
He has admitted his mistakes and promised not to have similar errors in judgment in the future. Throughout his life, he has had a tremendous positive impact on thousands of young people’s lives, our community and our state. He deserves a second chance and I have given my support to him.
It is time for our university family to move on to the challenges ahead, and there are several. Many of you are still working in cramped office space after being displaced by the flood. Fall classes begin in eleven days and our quests for cures and groundbreaking research must continue.
I appreciate your hard work and ask for your continued support toward making the University of Louisville a great university.
Jim
6 responses so far ↓
1 Bill // Aug 17, 2009 at 11:32 am
You can bet what it is really about is the money. It’s not about anything else because if they had an scruples about them, they would have fired him after this incident.
If Pitino leaves, they will have a marginal season at best, maybe poorer attendance, and losing money. The University and Athletic Department does not want that. They know that the fate of the New Louisville Arena is based on the Cardinals selling out 15-20 games a year, a few concerts, and other events. Otherwise, the arena will not economically viable and will be like a millstone around the neck of the city.
I would almost bet that higher powers that be are also pulling the strings on this deal. Because they can’t afford to have an arena with no one attending. Or at least a few thousand seats empty. Louisville basketball has a great following but the last few years of Crums dynasty things were not so good so they had to push him out the door and bring in Pitino. Now if they lose Pitino who are they going to bring in? Sure, someone will take the job but would you rather have Kragthorpe or Bobby Petrino. No matter how much you hated Petrino at least Louisville won something.
They aren’t interested in any sort of moral values here or showing the young people any sort of role model issue. He already blew his credibility with anyone that has a shred of ethical or moral sense. Would you want your son to go play for him? They figure that he can hold things together until the new arena and then ride off into the sunset.
If this all had just been the affair and he admitted it, yeah, well maybe. People make stupid decisions. In this case, it was more than a decision but he was interested in getting what he could get. Sypher was willing to provide it. It takes two people to tango as they say. So Ricky isn’t innocent in this by any means and Sypher isn’t either. I think that all of them including her ex husband need to have counseling at best and in some cases mental help.
Imagine this picture that someone is eating at a famous restaurant and has a tryst after closing in which the woman has a pregnancy. After which, someone paid for the abortion as was stated in the police report. Of which there was an abortion and then you married the woman you laid pipe with off to your faithful assistant. Now if she was totally crazy, then why the affair in the first place and why did the Syphers end up getting married. Quite interesting,
However, there are no good guys in this case. All three of them obviously have issues. Its just a shame that we don’t have better leaders in this community as a whole including at the university, business community, and Metro Hall.
2 Cantinflas // Aug 17, 2009 at 2:42 pm
U of L = U of Lust
3 Rick James // Aug 17, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Bill, random guess here, I mean real stab in the dark, you MUST be a fan of Lexington A&M down the road.
Guess what? LOUISVILLE DOESN’T WANT YOU. GO LIVE IN SOME OTHER CITY IN KENTUCKY.
4 JTT // Aug 17, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I’m truly not convinced that she WAS pregnant by him – who gets an ultrasound a bare two weeks after getting pregnant? I have to wonder if she was pregnant by someone else and just got “lucky” with RP and figured, why not blame it on him instead? The woman is a goofball of the highest order.
And he’s not much better – but then, I don’t have these high expectations of coaches and such, either.
5 Charlie // Aug 17, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Nothing going on here that savvy people didn’t already know was happening. The primary difference is that a loony is involved, playing the entrapment game.
6 Bill // Aug 18, 2009 at 7:16 am
What’s Wrong Rick James? Did I hit a little to close to home. Or are you just like the other Rick trying to hide up you affairs. At least one good thing about Lexington is that they have enough class to get rid of their coach when he was a party boy. They didn’t hide behind some lame ass excuse like he’s a role model and done such a great job.
The Lexington A and M people must be at Transylvania or somewhere like that. Obviously you don’t have enough education to tell the difference. If a scandal like this got in the news in Lexington it would have been like church and Pitino would have been ran out of town.
Even as basketball crazy as Lexingtonians and most Kentuckians are for that matter they would never have stood for this sort of thing especially the whole scandal. I was downstate near BG the other day and it was all over the area down there and I had a UK shirt and people asked me what I thought. Which he should resign.
Louisville isn’t the end all be all of the world unlike many of the people here seem to think. There are other cities in the region with better job growth, better jobs, better colleges, and a better city administration. Take cities such as Indianapolis, Nashville, and Cincinnati. After that try Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago further away.
Parts of Louisville increasingly remind one of a dumpy trailer park full of toothless hillbillies that need remedial English. Sad but true. At least even the East Enders and Highlands people have enough education and class to care. I grew up in a small country town (not in this state) and frankly I saw less white trash and rednecks by percentage there than what exists in the so called 16th largest city.
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