College Sports

    You know what frosts me? When a head coach leaves a university for another (usually better paying) coaching position, and suddenly, in the eyes of the alumni, he has become disloyal to the school.

This has happened recently at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.Perhaps you remember the surprise run the Hilltoppers made to the Sweet 16 in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Their coach, Darrin Horn, is a 35 year old graduate of WKU. But as all sports fans know, when a team makes a run in the tourney, the coach becomes a hot property. Within days of Western’s Sweet 16 loss to top-seeded UCLA, Horn was being introduced as the new head coach at South Carolina.

That’s when many in the WKU family began to cry “foul.” Suddenly, the coach who days earlier was being lauded for returning Western to national prominence was being decried as a turncoat, a money-grubber with no regard for loyalty.

My question is, to whom was he supposed to be showing loyalty? A university that would have no problem firing him if he didn’t produce?

OK, if I stretch my mind I can see where the anger and disappointment come from. Horn had been hired when the previous coach, Dennis Felton, had left WKU to coach at the University of Georgia. But Horn is a WKU grad, surely he wouldn’t fall prey to the carpetbagging athletic directors of bigger, wealthier universities!

But there is more to coaching than loyalty, even to one’s own alma mater. There is reality. The reality that this year’s hot coach is next year’s front man in the unemployment line. And loyalty is a two-way street; frankly, most fans and schools don’t practice what they preach. Prior to the start of the season, the word on the street was that if Horn didn’t produce an NCAA tourney bid this year, he was gone… this despite averaging more than 20 wins a season. Yeah, loyalty… right.

And here’s another angle on loyalty. If you had a job, and were offered five times more money with a larger, more visible company, what would you do? Would your loyalty to the company outweigh your loyalty and responsibility to your family… and yourself?

College athletics is a business, plain and simple. And the coaches are employees who have the right to seek other employment… that’s right, they aren’t well-paid, indentured servants.

And one thing for WKU fans to keep in mind. In 2003, Roy Williams left Kansas for his alma mater, North Carolina. The Jayhawk fans were angry, heartbroken, and disbelieving. They demonized Williams.  But just last month, Bill Self, who replaced Williams at KU, led the Jayhawks to the NCAA title, while Williams (who has done very well at UNC), was reduced to sitting in the stands and cheering on his former employer. Who do you think is smiling all the way to the trophy case now?

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