Myles Brand dies

Well, since we're getting off the topic of Brand, what the hell do you want us to use in place of "Rest in Peace"? If I write "I will say a prayer for his family", will that become overkill? I guess saying "I hated his policies, but I feel bad that's he dead" would make you feel better.

It doesn't fucking matter if we didn't know the person. It's the family that needs the prayers and the thoughts, not a pissing match about how to bid adieu to a well-known personality.

I understand that this is something we can discuss, but damnmit, create a separate thread on "manners and appropriate sayings" and then we'll talk.

Other than that, keep it on the subject or lock it.

 

RIP BYH's ability to mourn strangers.

 

Condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Brand.

 

Someone said "Separate the personal life from the professional."

I dealt with Brand on a personal level while doing professional stories. So did some of my friends. He acted like a pompous prick when dealing with the students, student media in particular. His M.O. was to make sure that everyone knew he was the smartest guy in the room, the building, the campus, the hemisphere. So as a "personal"ity, he was your typical major-college careerist. No time for anything except bureaucracy.

As for his professional credentials: as NCAA president, he did a lot to push the importance of academics. While the formula they came up with for measuring academic progress has some flaws, the idea is a great one. Punish schools for failing academically. Excellent. No complaints.

But as a university president, both at Oregon and at Indiana . . . let's just say that those who don't get the vitriol are likely not alums of Indiana, circa 1995-2002, or Oregon, circa 1990-1994.

I am not glad he's dead, though I am glad he's no longer president of my alma mater. And I can assure you the same about Highway 101. No one here wishes any manner of death on anyone (though if nature were to take its course with Al Davis, that would help the Oakland Raiders greatly). I have no ill will toward Myles Brand. I just thought he was a bad university president.

 

SInce you asked, to me the thread title sets the tone. RIP is a bit more respectful (and if you noticed, there aren't a lot of those pissed on my, you know, dialogue on that person's life.)
"Slappy4428 dies" is open to a bit more .. ummm. interaction.
If you want a thread that promotes a positive point of view everytime someone dies -- no matter how obscure -- start posting on www.pollyanna.com . You want to post an thread on someone dying, respect the fact that this is an open exchange of ideas and not everyone shares your view of that person, their life or your view of how thoughts and prayers affect their afterlife.

 

My lasting memory of Brand is the Knight firing.

Myles Brand did the right thing to fire Knight, which is ironic in itself, because a man who so wrapped himself up in what he thought was right (Knight) was fired for something that so obviously wrong. And the man who did the right and fired him was demonized more than the man who did the wrong was.

I hope Brand gets the peace in death too many people never gave him in life because they couldn't escape the cult of personality of a guy who won some basketball games and fell for his bullshit sanctimony.

 

Well said

 

Yup. Post of the thread, for sure.

 

As I have said, my distaste for Myles Brand has nothing to do with the firing of a basketball coach.

I know that it's tough for a lot of sports honks to fathom, but it is possible to feel that the man was a poor university president regardless of how he handled the firing of a coach. As has been said, sports mean little in the grand scheme of things. The overall quality of my university means much more. I agree that there are man, many hardcore Knight acolytes who even now cannot accept the fact their hero blew a second chance he likely should not have had. Brand did what he felt was right, and I have no argument with that.

But please don't make the mistake of thinking those in this thread lament Brand's tenure because of the Knight firing. Both Highway and I know people who worked in IU's PR department at the time, and his treatment of employees, the way he deflected negative publicity away from himself, give the image of a man who as more interested in saving his own skin and jumping to another job ASAP than in someone who wanted to stand for the courage of his convictions. I understand that his position was untenable, but let's just say that he's the only IU bigwig who came out smelling like a rose when all was said and done.

His main contribution to the school academically was the School of Informatics. Some say it's an idea that was ahead of its time. And again, his ideas at the NCAA and attempts to move that bureaucracy forward were quite respectable.

I agree with what Bubbler wrote. It does not apply to the posters here.

 

tommy craggs' obit of him:

http://deadspin.com/5361698/the-ncaas-last-true-believer

 

I got the impression that Brand was always looking for a way to improve his own professional career at the expense of what was around him. The Knight firing, which was about as poorly handled as possible (I didn't disagree with firing Knight, but it was horribly done), was used as a springboard to make him a star in academic circles and, eventually, the NCAA job. I could tell from responses he gave when he did visit the student newspaper that he was going to the the guy to let Knight go.

According to Knight (yeah, I know, great source), Brand was also the man behind the firing of football coach Bill Mallory, which at the time, a lot of alums were calling for (even though he was the program's most consistently successful coach since the 1940s). Mallory's firing created a tremendous rift in the football program that took years to patch up, and they followed it up with two consecutive bad hires that have essentially created 15 years of futility.

Indiana dropped significantly in many academic rankings under Brand, and he did tend to deflect criticism. The president before him (Tom Ehrlich) stood up to Knight, but did a decent job as a university president. Brand was never very well thought-of by Indiana or Oregon alums, not because of his work with the NCAA, but because of what he did to those schools.