Alum pledges 200K if Willingham and Turner are fired

[heyabbott]

By Lisa Albers

University of Washington athletic boosters and regular fans have inundated President Mark Emmert, Athletic Director Todd Turner, and football Coach Ty Willingham with hate e-mail over the Huskies' abysmal performance. So found the Seattle Times from a public records request.

Of the 1,000 or so e-mail messages was Ed Hansen's pledge of $100,000 to fund a law school scholarship if Willingham was terminated and another $100,000 to also fund a law school scholarship if Turner was terminated.

Time to take note of Ed Hansen's other tie to UW. He's a UW alum, of course, and a lawyer himself (hence the law school windfall) and former mayor of Everett. He's also a key player behind Everett's bid for the next UW campus. He could be for Everett what a George Russell, Bill Philip, or James Milgard was for Tacoma. Where there's $200,000 to save Huskies football, there may be more for a future UW-Everett

 

[IU90]

That guy sounds like an asshole to me.

 

[slappy4428]

Hell, if I had $20,000, I would have done the same thing for my old high school. Not because the coach couldn't win, but because he'd have to improve to be an asshole.

 

[JackyJackBN]

The best of college football.

I can't imagine a more boring individual than Ty Willingham, but he came to UW with precious little left to work with. Who are they going to replace him with, Charlie Weiss?

(I know, Jim Mora is the leader in the clubhouse, but that selection is beginning to smell like a Nha Be nuoc mam barrel.)

 

[Ace]

Pretty empty threat/promise. I'm sure it would cost a lot more than $200,000 to dump the two.

 

[Blitz]

$200,000 ain't a lot of money.
I agree with the first reply to this thread
This guy sounds like a major asshole.
Egotistical asshole.

 

[Mr. Homer]

Another season without a bowl and Mr. Hansen's money will be taken. Count on it.

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

The money would be going to the good of the school. Plus, wouldn't $100,000 equal about one semester of tuition at UW? I keed, I keed, but that would be able to help a few people.

 

[Kaylee]

Wow. I thought this sort of garbage happened only at places like Arkansas. Sheesh.

You know, I'm not one to advise people on what to do with their money. Go out and buy one of those French ass-fountains then rig it to shoot bourbon up your keister rather than water for all I care. Free market, etc.

But Tyrone Willingham is a football coach, which on the "impact on mankind" meter ranks somewhere between paint salesman and zipper manufacturer (probably lower...we need paint and zippers.)

If you have $200,000 burning a hole in your pocket so bad that you're thinking of wasting it on something as cosmically pointless as football, perhaps a look around should be in order. There's charities. Medical research. Presidential candidates. Many more productive areas upon which to flush 200K.

I really am starting to believe that college boosters are the dingleberries on society's ass.

 

[JackyJackBN]

Wow. I thought this sort of garbage happened only at places like Arkansas. Sheesh.

You know, I'm not one to advise people on what to do with their money. Go out and buy one of those French ass-fountains then rig it to shoot bourbon up your keister rather than water for all I care. Free market, etc.

But Tyrone Willingham is a football coach, which on the "impact on mankind" meter ranks somewhere between paint salesman and zipper manufacturer (probably lower...we need paint and zippers.)

If you have $200,000 burning a hole in your pocket so bad that you're thinking of wasting it on something as cosmically pointless as football, perhaps a look around should be in order. There's charities. Medical research. Presidential candidates. Many more productive areas upon which to flush 200K.

I really am starting to believe that college boosters are the dingleberries on society's ass.

I'm no fan of Ed Hansen and his approach to donating--quite the opposite, in fact--but he wasn't earmarking his proposed donations for the football program. Just trying to control it through them.

Also, Todd Turner is down the road.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

$200,000 is a nice chunk of change, but it's far from an athletic program-changing sum at a place like Washington.

Pac-10 schools laugh when someone puts conditions on a donation of that size.

Hell, just about any major BCS school would laugh at a dude who says that. Pony up a million, bozo; then call the university and start making demands.

 

[MacDaddy]

That guy sounds like an asshole to me.

Well, he is a U-Dub booster.

 

[Alma]

This sort of garbage happens everywhere.

 

[Kaylee]

Wow. I thought this sort of garbage happened only at places like Arkansas. Sheesh.

You know, I'm not one to advise people on what to do with their money. Go out and buy one of those French ass-fountains then rig it to shoot bourbon up your keister rather than water for all I care. Free market, etc.

But Tyrone Willingham is a football coach, which on the "impact on mankind" meter ranks somewhere between paint salesman and zipper manufacturer (probably lower...we need paint and zippers.)

If you have $200,000 burning a hole in your pocket so bad that you're thinking of wasting it on something as cosmically pointless as football, perhaps a look around should be in order. There's charities. Medical research. Presidential candidates. Many more productive areas upon which to flush 200K.

I really am starting to believe that college boosters are the dingleberries on society's ass.

I'm no fan of Ed Hansen and his approach to donating--quite the opposite, in fact--but he wasn't earmarking his proposed donations for the football program. Just trying to control it through them.

Also, Todd Turner is down the road.

Well, and I know the $200,000 isn't necessarily earmarked for athletics.

But if you've got that kind of jing to drop on your school, why not just donate it without tying it in to someone losing their job? What sort of person cares about his school only if it means there will be blood on the floor?

Granted, it's not as if Division I football coaches shouldn't have sizable nest eggs considering the salaries they're being paid. But working to get someone fired when you're essentially an outside party has got to be some of the worst kind of karma.

Don't like your ball coach? Go on a message board and whine. Call in to the drivetime sports zoo. Pen a letter to the editor.

But when you enter the fray and try to help force him out, you're also forcing out a spouse that has to plan a move yet AGAIN. You're also forcing out kids to whom the coach is simply "dad", and who will have to relocate and socially fit in to another school someplace else yet AGAIN.

I would possibly remove my own pancreas with a spork to see Mrs. Tyrone Willingham march into the office of this balding, lipidy busybody (all the over-the-top boosters I've ever seen are balding and lipidy) and ask him what gives him the right to inject himself into her family's pursuit of livlihood.

 

[Lester Bangs]

Tyees have no idea how truly irrelevant they are in the greater college sports picture. They mock Arkansas, but actually aspire to be like those guys whether they know it or not. $200k? That doesn't even get you into the door at the cocktail parties at most SEC schools. Tyees are a bunch of sad, pathetic old men whose greatest dream is to wash Don James' car.

 

[DanOregon]

I enjoyed the report quoting Hansen when he refers to himself in the third person.
Ed Hansen, you are no Phil Knight or T. Boone Pickens. Jim Mora Jr. is standing by for the UW gig if the Huskies don't get eight wins and beat a ranked team.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

1) This is a non-story.
2) Todd Turner already resigned. Boo-hoo ... Seattle can do a lot better.
3) This guy is really an egotistical SOB.
4) If you really think you can financially bribe an athletic department, at least approach something resembling what T. Boone Pickens is doing at Stillwater.
5) If you approach what Pickens is doing at Stillwater, and think that an athletic department arms race is more important than putting money toward more educational purposes, go away. Life perspective FUBAR.

 

[JackyJackBN]

Nonetheless, I'm betting Bill Gates has the athletic department at Lakeside well in hand.

Not to mention the music department, the science department, the shop...

Oops. Lakeside doesn't offer shop.