The husband of the Shari Acho, the co-director of the Michigan Athletic Department’s “Academic Success Program”, unleashed on former QB Jimmy Harbaugh today via the Sports Review Magazine website. In the piece, James Acho takes shots at Harbaugh and does mention his wife’s key role in the athletic department. If Harbaugh’s statements about steering athletes down lighter academic paths are true, Shari Acho would have a key role (along with Sue Shand, the ex-wife of former WTKA morning host Dave Shand..I can’t shake the guy!) in fulfilling the process. The other part of Harbaugh’s shot at the AD’s office was how Michigan turned its back on players once they left the program. I don’t know the specifics of the Academic Success Program or of its role post-playing days but anyway you slice hit Harbaugh’s words hit folks on State Street pretty hard. Some of James Acho’s shots are below the belt. He features a couple images to make light of Harbaugh’s 2005 DUI arrest, and includes a photo of Harbaugh’s wallet that he apparently left behind at a bar a few months ago. To show that he isn’t purely bitter at Harbaugh, Acho does acknowledge that Jim is a world-class pretty boy: I’ve met Jim Harbaugh before, at a coaching clinic, and he is a nice guy. Handsome sonofagun, too.…
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Carr, Hart Fire Back at Harbaugh
Analysis of Mike Hart and Lloyd Carr reacting to Jim Harbaugh's comments about his experience at Michigan - shots fired!
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Assessing Shand vs. Martin
I’ve read the federal complaint filed by former WTKA morning host Dave Shand against Michigan AD Bill Martin. The MVictors legal team consulted on the matter over a few beers at Fraser’s Pub in Ann Arbor & here’s the assessment: One of the factors that makes this case difficult is that Shand’s employment relationship with WTKA presumably was at-will, meaning he could have quit, or WTKA could have fired him, at any time for no reason. There is somewhat of a split in Michigan over whether a former employee can sue another person for interfering with an at-will employment relationship, but recent case law suggests that the at-will nature alone does not invalidate a claim – that is, we have an expectation that our at-will employment relationship with our employer will not be wrongfully undermined by an outsider. More importantly, the at-will nature of the relationship makes it difficult to prove damages and this issue would likely be hotly contested by the parties just to determine whether the case should even go to a jury. Martin would argue that the damages are overly speculative so the case shouldn’t go to a jury, while Shand would have to argue that there is a reasonable basis to compute his damages. Another point that Martin’s side might argue is that he had a…
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Carr’s Wash Yields $ and Info
Saturday marked the latest edition of the “Carr’s Wash for Kids” as the Michigan football team assembled at Michigan stadium to clean the cars of the good people of Ann Arbor. All told the gang polished 536 automobiles and raised over $175,000. Added to the total from the Takeover of WTKA 1050AM, the team’s efforts on Thursday and Saturday raised around $300,000 for the new C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. Here’s more on the hospital and how you can still support this cause. The Ann Arbor News dispatched a few folks out there including Jim Carty who confirmed a few interesting items: Arrington’s Steps Back: Not a big surprise, but Carty caught up with talented receiver Adrian Arrington who was at the Wash and confirmed he’s back on the team. His penance? 60 Straight days of running the steps of Michigan stadium. The stink eye for Harbaugh: Don’t know the specifics, Carty reported that Coach Carr didn’t have any kind words for Jim Harbaugh given his recent comments reflecting negative on the program. Carty wrote “Carr had no comment [on Harbaugh]..but made it clear he’s not happy…”. Oh, to have seen the look on his face as he grumbled “no comment”. Mallett’s Misery: Cocky freshman QB Ryan Mallett was quite the center of attention on Thursday and Saturday, as folks from…
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Griese, Huge Propel Takeover
Props to Brian Griese and Bill ‘Huge’ Simonson who helped the Michigan football team and WTKA raise over $117,000 for the new Mott Children’s hospital. Here’s more from mgoblue.com. The former national champion QB called in the last hour of the telethon and offered to match dollar for dollar each pledge made in the final 52 minutes. Simonson broadcast his show from the Ann Arbor studio and helped expand the reach of the telethon to stations around the state. In those final minutes callers donated over $31,000 and with Griese’s match put the total way over the $80,000 goal. This site has been critical of WTKA in recent posts but this is certainly worthy of praise. The final hour also featured the conclusion of Lloyd Carr’s turn at the microphone (he went for about 2 hours) and Mike Hart. Hart was joined by Saline native and freshman tailback Vince Helmuth of whom Hart referred to as “my fullback”.
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Jim Harbaugh Turns up the Volume on Michigan
Ann Arbor News columnist Jim Carty sought out former Michigan QB and new Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh. Carty wanted to give Jimmy a chance to explain his comments that were critical of the Michigan athletic program, and in particular, some of the alleged practices of steering athletes into ‘lighter’ majors and of turning its back on players after they graduate. [Check out mgoblog or The M-Zone for more detail and reaction on Harbaugh’s initial comments.] I heard Carty this Sunday morning with John Bacon and former M star Jamie Morris on WTKA’s ‘Off the Field.’ Carty said he was half expecting Harbaugh to back away or at least explain that those comments as a weak moment. JC explained that not only did Harbaugh not back off; in fact, he stepped it up. Sunday morning’s AA News details the phone interview with Carty and it is pretty shocking stuff. Certainly, check out the entire article but here are a few excerpts: “I would use myself as an example,” Harbaugh said. “I came in there, wanted to be a history major, and I was told early on in my freshman year that I shouldn’t be. That it takes too much time. Too much reading. That I shouldn’t be a history major and play football.” And here’s the stinging analysis from Carty: …when…
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Shand’s Former co-host chimes in
For those following the Dave Shand story, there’s not much going on. No major media source has mentioned the story. Recently Shand’s former co-host on WTKA 1050 Mike Wickett offered a few words on the situation here on MVictors.com. For those not closely monitoring the message board I thought I’d call it out: Sounds like a lot has happened since I’ve been gone. Dave has never been one to pull punches, especially on the air. I also know Dave understood what good radio was, and how close you sometimes needed to come to “that line”. I have no “inside info” on the situation, but I can only hope Dave and WTKA lands on its feet. Cheers from Milwaukee!! – Wickett Wickett left WTKA a few months before Shand’s firing to join former program manager Ryan Maguire in Milwaukee at station WSSP. He currently co-hosts The Doug Russell Show weekday mornings in Brew-town. Wickett and Shand hold the distinction of having the interview with Bo Schembechler just minutes before his death. Here’s all the posts related to the Dave Shand firing on MVictors.com.
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Shand Quoted Again
Finally some more from Shand on the firing, since he gave his first statement on the matter to MVictors.com on Saturday. Dave reached out to daveshandfans.com yesterday and provided another quote, and a little more detail. daveshandfans.com also provided some commentary, but here’s Shand’s quote: “Thanks for all your support. It has been a fun ride. Apparently the Michigan athletic department and some older alum and ann arborites did not appreciate my brand of humor and threatened the station. Nothing I could do.” Nice work. We still have a bunch of questions.
