Here’s Dan Kane’s final installment of his series on the UNC scandal. Taken together, it’s all pretty riveting.
There are a number of really interesting things in this column, from UNC system president Tim Ross’s one-word description of Mary Willingham which revealed a somewhat paranoid mindset (Provost James W. Dean’s reaction paralleled his to an extent) to the reaction of board of governors member Brent Barring when the full scope of the scandal was clear to then-chairwoman of the board of governors Hannah Gage’s come to Jesus moment at the end of the piece.
Kane has done remarkable work on this scandal, not least of all in light of UNC’s astounding arrogance. It’s remarkable.
Finally, we thought we’d check in on Willingham’s blog. She doesn’t update it very often so we don’t check that often but she has some new stuff posted. You can browse through the blog but here are some specific allegations she uses to illustrate how she thinks the athletic tail wags the university dog. Check her list and pay special attention to the final bullet.
- A prominent basketball player was pulled over for a DUI in 2008 and was still eligible on game day – a regular student sits out of school for at least one semester after a DUI
- The Men’s Lacrosse team, resentful that men’s basketball parked in the Rams Deck for free, held up the gate to allow teammates in for free. This was caught on camera but no one was punished.
- During 2nd summer session, two entering first year football players got into a fight where one player suffered a broken jaw and filed a report which was ignored.
- A woman’s basketball player broke the car windows of a teammate in the Dean Smith Center parking lot. No report was filed.
- A football player parked illegally on campus to take his final and had a gun on a rack in his truck. No disciplinary action was taken.
- A now famous tutor was involved in a fist fight with a football player’s girlfriend in a dorm room and DPS was called. No further action was taken.
Presumably that would be Jennifer Wiley Thompson, the only “famous” UNC tutor we’re aware of. If that’s correct and true, it’s an intriguing tidbit.
Thompson, as you’ll recall, was charged with four counts of violating a state law about contact with a sports agent. All were felonies; all were dropped when she cooperated with the district attorney.
She was said to have given former UNC star Greg Little two round trip tickets to Florida with the goal of getting him to sign with an agent. Little alleged that she was a go-between and that he ultimately got around $20,000.
She was also found to have provided “impermissible help” to several athletes in the form of free tutoring despite being told not to.
She was also hired by former coach Butch Davis to tutor his son.
Finally, she also was accused of “providing extra benefits” by paying for travel and parking, academic fraud and not coming clean with the university and the NCAA.
Assume again that she’s the only tutor Willingham could legitimately call famous and ask yourself what could that fight possibly have been about?
We have our theories and you may share them or have your own, but whatever might have been behind that likely opens at least a minor new chapter in America’s longest-running athletic scandal.
And we might add that we’re not aware of anyone demanding that Willingham make a retraction.