MVictors obtained a copy of the complaint filed yesterday in federal court against Michigan athletic director Bill Martin. Here’s a full version of the complaint in .pdf format we requested and received from Shand’s legal team. MVictors.com exclusive legal correspondent from the firm of Charleys, Ricks and Frasers is reviewing the complaint right now and we’ll be posting a few comments soon. Here’s an excerpt from the complaint, where things get interesting: 19. This relationship [between WTKA and Michigan athletics] became threatened when defendant Martin became increasingly irritated with plaintiff’s occasional outspoken criticisms of the UM athletic program, and possibly other on-air comments. 20. On April 19, 2007, Martin communicated both indirectly and directly with Bolak and Cowen, and informed them that he would not allow WTKA to participate in a planned coverage of a UM charity golf event if they permitted plaintiff to broadcast it. 21. Martin further indicated that he wanted the station to fire the plaintiff, and stated that if they did not, he would no longer allow WTKA to carry University of Michigan football games. 22. Martin had no supervisory authority whatsoever over WTKA, Bolak, Cowen or plaintiff, and he and the UM Athletic Department were completely independent of the radio station except for the license to broadcast football games and related programming. 23. Martin’s interference…
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Shand Won’t Surrender: Files Suit on Bill Martin
MVictors.com just learned that recently fired WTKA morning show host Dave Shand has decided to take on Bill Martin. Shand emailed the MVictors: “We filed a federal suit this morning against Bill Martin. Just wanted to let you know.” I guess Dave doesn’t plan on renewing his football or hockey tickets anytime in the next century. Developing. We requested more info on the suit, we’ll post updates here as we get them. For all the history on the Shand dismissal, including MVictors exclusive quotes from Shand, click here. UPDATE 6pm: The Ann Arbor News is on the story, just posted on MLive.com, more to come in tomorrow’s paper: Fired radio host sues Michigan athletic director Posted by Sports reporter John Heuser July 24, 2007 17:39PM Categories: Breaking News Former Ann Arbor sports radio host Dave Shand has sued University of Michigan athletic director Bill Martin, claiming that Martin “essentially used economic blackmail” to force his firing. A lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in downtown Ann Arbor, alleged that Martin told Shand’s bosses at WTKA-AM (1050) that station would lose its rights to broadcast Michigan football unless it dismissed Shand. “Either way you slice it, it’s illegal for Bill Martin to interfere in Dave’s private employment contract,” said Nicholas Roumel, Shand’s attorney. When Shand was fired in April, the…
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Irish Schedules Neutral Site Games
From the Associated Press, looks like Notre Dame will be playing a to-be-named opponent at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando in 2011 and 2014. AD Kevin said this was another step in getting back to Notre Dame’s independent roots. It’s safe to say that the Irish football team won’t be joining your Big Ten anytime soon and that’s fine. My question: will the Irish play 8 home games and 1 ‘neutral’ game in these years? Leaving just 3 games on an opponent’s home field? Or does the neutral site game take away from one of the home games?
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Filling in for Rome
Jim Rome has been off the air the past 2 weeks on vacation and a variety of guests filled in for the pimp in the box. Among them were frequest fill-in John Feinstein, along with Cheap Seats hosts the Randy and Jason Sklar, and first time hosts Stoney and Wojo of WDFN 1130 in Detroit. A few takes: – The Sklar Brothers seem to have a love/hate relationship with sports fans, but I definitely chalk the 1994 Michigan graduates up in the righteous column. Their schtick is a blend of pop culture and sports (not unlike the regular host Rome), and I like the way they bring it on the radio. A classic moment this past week was when they recalled a friend describing the smell inside the Philly Fanatic’s mascot head as an odor of “Jagermeister, Doritos and broken dreams.” They also let everyone know that Shane Battier’s head, when shaved, resembles the Michigan football helmet.
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Maize, Blue and My Adidas
Update August 2008: Inside the new jersey We learned this week that Michigan will drop its long relationship with Nike and suit up with Adidas gear in 2008. The deal is worth about $7.5 million in cash and uniforms, and fans will be able to start buying Maize & Blue studded Adidas gear next summer. While Nike is certainly the king of athletic marketing and team sponsorship in the US if not the world, Adidas has managed to capture a few high-profile clients such as the NY Yankees, Notre Dame & Nebraska football. And while Nike can boast the top athletes on its side (T Woods, Jordan, LeBron), Adidas has established a cultural following starting with Run DMC and its previous stranglehold on soccer. On New Year’s Eve 1997 a group of friends went to a show at the Viper Room on Sunset in Los Angeles that featured none other than Run DMC. What we were doing in LA on New Year’s Eve in LA? Of course, we were there to watch Brian Griese, Charles Woodson and the crew win a national championship about 20 hours later. Yes, the Hollis trio performed ‘My Adidas’.
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Jim Carty to Blog on MLive
AA News sports columnist has started a blog on MLive. JC explained the purpose of the blog in an email, “My hope is to go deeper than the column on some subjects, feature other subjects that perhaps don’t merit a full column, as well as foster more reader interaction on the web. The blog will, from time to time, contain exclusive supplemental content, such as the interview with Michigan basketball coach John Beilein that’s presently featured.” You can find the Jim Carty blog here and I’ve added a link on MVictors.com.
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Oden the Explorer
Having spent time working in Indianapolis and Columbus, OH, I’ve heard many stories about how great of a kid Greg Oden is…how he’s well grounded, intelligent and charitable. All this aside for a moment, he’s still a Buckeye so I couldn’t let this beauty pass without a quick blast. The likely NBA #1 pick made this week’s Sports Illustrated “They Said It”. He was asked about the prospect of living in the Pacific Northwest given that Seattle and Portland have the top picks: “I know it rains a lot. I know it’s close to L.A., and I love that. I want to go to L.A. and go to the beach.” This from a dude that spent the last year in a town named after one of the world’s greatest explorers. To put things in perspective, the beach in Miami, Florida is just about the same distance from Columbus as Los Angeles is from Seattle (around 1150 miles).
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JDRF Outing a huge success!
MVictors.com along with many sponsors and participants helped raise over $130,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation this week, at the 2007 JDRF Golf Classic held at Franklin Hills CC. Kevin Jones of the Detroit Lions was at the outing all day and even golfed 18 holes with his agent and a team including the webmaster’s brother Ron. Keeping it in the family here’s the MVictors webmaster’s nephew and godson Jack getting his Honolulu Blue KJ 34 jersey signed by the man that wears it on Sundays:
