It was the worst kept secret in town: Jim Carty and the Ann Arbor News were investigating the academic practices and policies within the athletic department. What we didn’t know was when or if it would be released. It’s out and it’ll be released in four pieces starting this morning. To get to this point the News spoke “to athletes and former athletic department employees as part of a seven-month investigation that included interviewing 87 people and reviewing more than 3,500 pages of internal documents”. Here’s the full story. The News even produced a little video piece talking about today’s article. It’s pretty funny because they ran it as a Q&A but it is an Ann Arbor News guy “interviewing” another Ann Arbor News guy. It’s like me asking my wife this morning, ‘So what did we have for dinner last night?’. Mrs MVictors: ‘Umm, you were there, numbnuts.’ Early this morning a few Michigan bloggers were even notified by MLive that this went to the presses, welcoming the reaction from the nerdosphere. No major reaction from here yet other than, “Thanks for nothing Rodriguez!”. Here’s a summary of the findings presented in Part I: – Michigan athletes described being steered to [Psychology professor John] Hagen’s courses by their athletic department academic counselors and, in some cases, earning three or…
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Stadium area Residents Fed up with site Noise
The lead story in today’s Ann Arbor News [see Battle brews over Big House noise] it looks like the Stadium renovation project is starting to wear on the local residents. Here’s a few key items raised in the piece: – As a university project, the renovation isn’t governed by local laws. Typically construction can take place Monday-Saturday 7am to 9pm. The stadium construction runs seven days a week from 6am to 10pm in order to meet the goal of completion before the 2010 season. – The city administrator is arguing that noise that carries beyond the bounds of the stadium should be governed by city law. – The Ann Arbor City council will take up the matter on April 7th. Takes: – Ann Arbor is a liberal town, people are vocal and I guess I’d like the process to run out a little bit so we don’t find out that a couple residents are the only ones complaining. – Many if not most homeowners live near some type of noise, be it a highway or major road, train tracks, airport, whatever, and most of us have to deal with some form of construction noise from time to time. I can understand folks getting a little concerned about three years straight of construction. All this said, I’m guessing it’ll be tough…
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Taking Five with Dennis Fithian
October 7, 2006 marked the annual renewal of the Michigan vs. Michigan State football rivalry. Typically this would have been one of the busiest days of the year for former WTKA radio host Dennis Fithian, but he was not in Ann Arbor that Saturday. He was instead about 40 miles down the road at Comerica Park for his new employer WXYT ‘The Ticket’ radio. Somewhere during the second half of the 31-13 victory over MSU, the Detroit Tigers were finishing off the favored Yankees 8-3 for a trip to the World Series. Fithian was there to cover it all for his new station. In the brutal world of sports radio, things have worked out well for Fithian. Each one of the Detroit-area stations in that market have seen significant turnover in the last couple years, WTKA in particular. The very popular former Ann Arbor drive time host was kind enough to speak with MVictors about radio, Lloyd Carr, Drew Sharp and even about reheating pizza. Here you go: MVictors: Let’s get right into it. Do you have any ill will toward WTKA for the way your departure was handled? Fithian: There’s no ill will whatsoever. A lot of people thought I was let go because of comments about the basketball program, especially when they didn’t make the NCAA tournament that…
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Searching for Jim Carty
I mentioned in a previous post that there’s a lot of speculation on what Ann Arbor News columnist Jim Carty’s been up to these days. Rumors were circulating that he was let go from the News or moved on are not true. Carty reappeared in the form of a blog post this afternoon but that hasn’t stopped folks from speculating on what he’s been up to. The word on the street is that he’s working on a piece related to the academic record and practices here at the University with respect to student-athletes, perhaps triggered by Jim Harbaugh’s comments last year. Looks like we’ll find out soon. I emailed JC and here’s what he had to say regarding his whereabouts: We’re all bound by the rules of our respective games. I’ve never worked at a paper that allows reporters or columnists to comment on work until it runs, so I can’t really get into anything we may (or may not) be working on. If I could, I would. What I can confirm is that I spent the last month or so on assignment for the paper, which is why I haven’t written. First time in about 15 years that I spent four straight weeks out of the paper and I missed the work, and the readers, very much.
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News Investigating Athletic Department and Academics?
There’s some scuttlebutt around town that the Ann Arbor News is working on a big story related to the UM athletic program, specifically around academics. Sam Webb indicated this morning on WTKA 1050am that he’s heard such a story is in the works. Lead sports columnist Jim Carty hasn’t published anything recently and stopped blogging a while ago. It’s been so quiet that some folks in the nerdosphere suggested Carty was fired from the News. Not so according to Webb. Carty took some heat around town for asking a few questions in the wake of Jim Harbaugh’s comments last year regarding lower academic standards for athletes at Michigan. We’ll see if that’s where this is headed
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University right for honoring Jalen
Glad to here that former Fab Fiver and current NBA analyst Jalen Rose will be honored later this month during the Illinois game. I’d love to make it out there on February 23 to see the ceremony, which is focusing on celebrating Rose’s charity work through his Jalen Rose Foundation which has given over $1M to Detroit area children. Major props to Jalen for all of this. He’s true role model for the kids and maybe more importantly, for the Detroit area athletes. Although his astranged father played in the NBA Jalen grew up in humble surroundings in the city. My buddy Rosey tells a great story from a class he had at Michigan with Jalen. When the class was asked to give their TV show, Jalen offered his was “Good Times, because I lived it.” For the university to look past the Ed Martin crap to honor him is a good move. While Jalen was never directly included in the names of players to which Martin gave money I believe he’s made it clear that folks like Martin helped him out from time to time when he was growing up.
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1948 Rose Bowl and the National Championship debate
How about the 1948 Rose Bowl in Pasadena against USC? The 49-0 win capped off a national championship season where the Wolverines went 10-0 and outscored their opponents 394-53. You may have seen some clips of this version of Fritz Crisler's "Mad Magicians" featuring Bob Chappuis and Bump Elliott on Michigan Football Memories show from PBS. The combination of line shifts and ball movement is jaw-dropping:
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Tribute to Carr from Lasting Lessons author
John Bacon, author of Bo’s Lasting Lessons, submitted a piece on Coach Carr to the current Michigan Today alumni magazine. Non-dues paying alums and non-alums alike might not see this otherwise. Here’s the link. It’s pretty much fluff but I like the way Bacon wraps it up: I teach a class at Michigan on the history of college athletics, and invited Carr to speak. Last year, just three days after Bo passed away and two days after the Ohio State game, Carr asked, “Do you still need a guest lecturer?” When I introduced him, all 75 students cheered, and he regaled them for the entire hour with stories about Bo, his own career and the importance of doing what you love and giving back. Carr may have a lukewarm relationship with TV, but the podium loves him. Carr told the class that if he wasn’t a college football coach, he would have been a high school English teacher—and a very happy one. Carr was a teacher—one of the best this university has ever had. And over time, I’m convinced, that is exactly how Lloyd Carr will be remembered. You can also catch Bacon on Sunday on 1050AM WTKA’s Off The Field with co-host and M legend Jamie Morris.
