I am not even remotely disappointed

[Dick Rosenthal]

Anyone who is disappointed by this hire is an ignorant fuck face and probably half a fag. How can you conceivably be disappointed when all of the available data pointed to BC fucking this up beyond all belief? Your bewilderment and disappointment is akin to the short of ghetto shitbag who starts crying when they don't win the Powerball.

Here's the thing, Leahy is an absolute piece of shit. Like Monk Malloy, only he didn't have the same historically important level of program to drive into the ground. This fucking imbecile did everything in his power at Marquette to de-emphasize basketball. Take a look at the moves that were made during that period, Marquette found itself in the Great Midwestern Conference and Conference USA. O'Neill ran away from the program screaming to anyone that the school was not committed to winning. To the extent BC has had success in football and basketball since Leahy's arrival it has been by accident (the Jags hire) or Coach Lazy/Handsome getting an extraordinary run of picking up diamonds in the rough who greatly overperformed expectations.

Greasy Gene was an awful human being and a largely incompetent AD. With that said, he was just a symptom of what ails us. The tumor at the center of our athletic woes is sitting in the President's Office. Brad Bates is a small time hire as AD. Is it a shock that the football coach is a similarly small time hire? Just wait till we replace Donahue in a couple of years with someone in the Jim Baron mold. You will all be disappointed while I will simply smile. While I will be dying inside, I will be satisfied that the universe is acting exactly as I expect it to act.

[mod6A]

[BCdee]

I posted this in another thread...anyone know the answer?...

How much longer will Leahy-hoo be at BC?

I want someone in charge who really cares about sports and understands its importance.

[mod6A]

monan

we are all whalepants now

[Dick Rosenthal]

No whalepants here my friend. If I were whalepants I would say things like "we are what we are" and be pining for the days we played a schedule consisting of Villanova, Fordham, Holy Cross, etc. I am not. I am merely saying that given the disaster of a President currently presiding over our alma mater, I cannot believe that anyone thought, for even one second, that we would make a good hire.

[mod6A]

we are all whalepants now.


i would like to have the campion alias and observer college alias please weigh in with their thoughts.

[Dick Rosenthal]

I would appreciate OC's take on this as well. But I will reiterate, this isn't a whalepantsian move. A whalepantsian move would be to withdraw from the ACC, enter the Patriot League and be done with big time athletics. This is simply a feckless, stupid and cheap move by a terrible university president. On the one hand they are addicted to the money and visibility provided by participating in big time sports, but on the other hand he doesn't want to make the necessary investments to maximize the opportunities presented by big time athletics. It is sheer fucktarded incompetence.

I do hope that when Leahy is eventually shown the door, the next President will be a lay person who understands the business of higher education and the role of sports in promoting the brand. I doubt there is a Jebbie under 85 with that sort of insight.

[hansen]

I would appreciate OC's take on this as well. But I will reiterate, this isn't a whalepantsian move. A whalepantsian move would be to withdraw from the ACC, enter the Patriot League and be done with big time athletics. This is simply a feckless, stupid and cheap move by a terrible university president. On the one hand they are addicted to the money and visibility provided by participating in big time sports, but on the other hand he doesn't want to make the necessary investments to maximize the opportunities presented by big time athletics. It is sheer fucktarded incompetence.

I do hope that when Leahy is eventually shown the door, the next President will be a lay person who understands the business of higher education and the role of sports in promoting the brand. I doubt there is a Jebbie under 85 with that sort of insight.

Agree 100%.

Leahy-hoo has to go before the value of my diploma is negligible.

[twballgame9]

I would appreciate OC's take on this as well. But I will reiterate, this isn't a whalepantsian move. A whalepantsian move would be to withdraw from the ACC, enter the Patriot League and be done with big time athletics. This is simply a feckless, stupid and cheap move by a terrible university president. On the one hand they are addicted to the money and visibility provided by participating in big time sports, but on the other hand he doesn't want to make the necessary investments to maximize the opportunities presented by big time athletics. It is sheer fucktarded incompetence.

I do hope that when Leahy is eventually shown the door, the next President will be a lay person who understands the business of higher education and the role of sports in promoting the brand. I doubt there is a Jebbie under 85 with that sort of insight.

Agree 100%.

Leahy-hoo has to go before the value of my diploma is negligible.

Leahy has made your diploma more valuable, he has just ruined your sports programs. Perhaps there is a long term connection between the two, but it hasn't happened yet, which is why I don't think he give a shit.

[DavidGordonsFoot]

How much longer will Leahy-hoo be at BC?

3-5 more years. It will take a couple years to settle on a replacement and they haven't even started looking, yet.

[jrlbc06]

What did Leahy do to Marquette basketball? Not familiar with that story.

I thought his instrumental role in getting us into the ACC and out of the BE spoke highly of him but apparently not.

[Dick Rosenthal]

He pushed to de-emphasize basketball. When he took over the #2 slot, Marquette basketball was recovering from the A-bomb Rick Majerus dropped on the place when he abruptly left (or was told to go because he was a big homo) at the end of the 86 season. Kevin O'Neill had come on board in 89 and had built the program back to a national power. They went to back to back NCAA tournaments Leahy's first two years--including the Sweet 16 the second year, but Leahy was apparently instrumental in restricting some of the admission leeway the program had in recruiting and was cutting money to the program. O'Neill quit because of it--taking what was considered at the time a coach-killer job at Tennessee to get away (as it turned out, it was a huge career setback for O'Neill who washed out in 3 years and ended up at Northwestern before becoming an NBA assistant and later the unsuccessful interim coach at Arizona). Thereafter, Marquette made a very small timey hire of Mike Deane from Sienna--whose claim to fame was that he rode Doremus Betterman to an NIT semi-final. Deane made an NCAA with O'Neill's holdovers and then the program imploded (as Leahy was exiting for BC). All in all, Leahy is despised at Marquette.

[jrlbc06]

Thanks for that.

[MilitantEagle]

He pushed to de-emphasize basketball. When he took over the #2 slot, Marquette basketball was recovering from the A-bomb Rick Majerus dropped on the place when he abruptly left (or was told to go because he was a big homo) at the end of the 86 season. Kevin O'Neill had come on board in 89 and had built the program back to a national power. They went to back to back NCAA tournaments Leahy's first two years--including the Sweet 16 the second year, but Leahy was apparently instrumental in restricting some of the admission leeway the program had in recruiting and was cutting money to the program. O'Neill quit because of it--taking what was considered at the time a coach-killer job at Tennessee to get away (as it turned out, it was a huge career setback for O'Neill who washed out in 3 years and ended up at Northwestern before becoming an NBA assistant and later the unsuccessful interim coach at Arizona). Thereafter, Marquette made a very small timey hire of Mike Deane from Sienna--whose claim to fame was that he rode Doremus Betterman to an NIT semi-final. Deane made an NCAA with O'Neill's holdovers and then the program imploded (as Leahy was exiting for BC). All in all, Leahy is despised at Marquette.

AngryDick - Serious question, how do you attain so much knowledge about so many different subjects? I imagine you are meeting new people all the time over dinners, etc? What do you read on a daily basis?

[QuailMan]

AngryDick - Serious question, how do you attain so much knowledge about so many different subjects? I imagine you are meeting new people all the time over dinners, etc? What do you read on a daily basis?

I’ve read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media. All of 'em, any of 'em that, um, have, have been in front of me over all these years. I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news too.

[Dick Rosenthal]

My various business enterprises require me to travel and network a great deal. A lot of dinners, a lot of lunches, etc. You meet a lot of people and if you like talking with them you'll learn a lot if you listen. Also, when you travel as much as I do you end up reading a lot (or you will develop a lot of bad habits that will ultimately kill you, reading is easier).

Other than that, dunno. I have always been intellectually curious and have been fortunate to have the sort of life where I can feed that curiosity. I also like to collect worthless data--I was a history and classics major after all.

[eagle216]

A history and classics major is EXACTLY what I would have been had I done it all again. Being a law talking guy, my so called productive major is useless, so I would have been better off feeding my natural curiosity in history. Not to mention the fact that the reading and writing that come with such a major would have been good training for law school.

I took some elective history classes junior and senior year and said "fuck, why didn't I do this all along".

[Dick Rosenthal]

Yep. Because I knew I was going to go to law school when I started school, I was perfectly happy not to be a business or math major and indulge in a steady intellectual diet of history and the writings of dead white guys. And it did make me a better writer.

And militant, I realize I did not fully answer your question. My go to everyday "reads" are the WSJ, the blogs of The New Republic, National Review, Weekly Standard, Times of London, The Economist and The Atlantic, a couple of sports websites and few individual writers--Jim Pethokoukis, Ralph Peters, Ross Douhat, Ezra Klein, Mark Helprin, Jonah Goldberg. I also think you should always be working on a new book--I just finished Eisenhower in War and Peace and am now starting Niall Ferguson's Civilization. In addition, I also think you should re-read something you enjoyed--as the occassional break from the new stuff--right now I am reading through a couple of chapters of Ben Graham's Security Analysis and later this week want to re-read Victor Davis Hanson's The Father of Us All.

[twballgame9]

A history and classics major is EXACTLY what I would have been had I done it all again. Being a law talking guy, my so called productive major is useless, so I would have been better off feeding my natural curiosity in history. Not to mention the fact that the reading and writing that come with such a major would have been good training for law school.

I took some elective history classes junior and senior year and said "fuck, why didn't I do this all along".

I did the same thing and ended up like 3 credits short of a minor in history. Also had a ton of credits towards classics but refused to take Greek or Latin so I couldn't qualify for the upper level courses. In retrospect, though, I would have majored in history instead of political science.

[twballgame9]

A history and classics major is EXACTLY what I would have been had I done it all again. Being a law talking guy, my so called productive major is useless, so I would have been better off feeding my natural curiosity in history. Not to mention the fact that the reading and writing that come with such a major would have been good training for law school.

I took some elective history classes junior and senior year and said "fuck, why didn't I do this all along".

I did the same thing and ended up like 3 credits short of a minor in history. Also had a ton of credits towards classics but refused to take Greek or Latin so I couldn't qualify for the upper level courses. In retrospect, though, I would have majored in history instead of political science.

[eaglesmith]

Yep. Because I knew I was going to go to law school when I started school, I was perfectly happy not to be a business or math major and indulge in a steady intellectual diet of history and the writings of dead white guys. And it did make me a better writer.

And militant, I realize I did not fully answer your question. My go to everyday "reads" are the WSJ, the blogs of The New Republic, National Review, Weekly Standard, Times of London, The Economist and The Atlantic, a couple of sports websites and few individual writers--Jim Pethokoukis, Ralph Peters, Ross Douhat, Ezra Klein, Mark Helprin, Jonah Goldberg. I also think you should always be working on a new book--I just finished Eisenhower in War and Peace and am now starting Niall Ferguson's Civilization. In addition, I also think you should re-read something you enjoyed--as the occassional break from the new stuff--right now I am reading through a couple of chapters of Ben Graham's Security Analysis and later this week want to re-read Victor Davis Hanson's The Father of Us All.

This Q&A with Dick reads like the Media Diet section of the Atlantic Wire, which I love. I almost always find a new journalist or website to follow or at least occasionally check from reading those "what important people are reading" pieces.

[eaglesmith]

I also knew I was headed to law school and doubled with political science and history. I've often felt I should have taken economics and political science while just throwing in some history electives, but so many of the history classes were among the best classes I took at BC.

Anyone else here every have Heileman for Hitler and the Third Reich or other WWII-related classes? Those were excellent.

[Brooklyneagle]

I too should have majored in History at BC -- instead of English lit., at which I kinda stank. (But my recently-graduated Fulbrighter son had History as one of his two majors there.)

Hats off to Rosenthal for his incisive, if often too edgy commentary here. And, for the breadth of his knowledge. (Read The Father of Us All in recent weeks. Maybe because I already shared many of the author's conclusions, I was less impressed/interested than expected. Somewhat repetitive since it's a collection of re-edited articles, lectures.)

Rosenthal always reminds me, among other things, of the character of that name in La Grande Illusion.

Like many here, I have to hope for the best from Addazio, but really disappointed in Bates. I admit I tend too easily to think well of folks, hoping for the best.

[2001Eagle]

I also knew I was headed to law school and doubled with political science and history. I've often felt I should have taken economics and political science while just throwing in some history electives, but so many of the history classes were among the best classes I took at BC.

Anyone else here every have Heileman for Hitler and the Third Reich or other WWII-related classes? Those were excellent.

Yes, he was very good. I was english and history. Did anyone take Northrup's African Colonial History classes? Pretty good stuff as he meshed together native and european histories. I too am a law talking guy, so yeah, reading books, skipping class and writing papers half in the bag, was great training.

[claver2010]

Anyone else here every have Heileman for Hitler and the Third Reich or other WWII-related classes? Those were excellent.

While neither a history major/minor nor a law talking guy, I took Hitler, the Church & the Holocaust and I'm blanking on the professor's name but it was awesome

[Dick Rosenthal]

A Heileman class should have been required for every BC student. He is/was a master (don't know if he is still alive and kicking). One of the best professors I had at BC was a non-tenured guy who was only there for two years. Dr. John Rossi taught History of US Foreign Policy I and II and The History of the British Raj, which was pure awesomeness because we were assigned to read the fictional Flashman series by George McDonald Frazier because it captured the period so well (Frazier was one of the great British journalists of the 2nd half of the 20th Century and the author of the best WWII memoir I have ever read Quartered Safe Out Here, about his experience as a young infantryman fighting in the Burma theatre). I think Rossi left BC for a tenured position at Ped State. I suspect he could not get tenure at BC because he adhered to a decidedly non-politically correct view of the world--sort of the anti-Breines, although he did serve alcohol in class on a couple of occassions.

As for the Classics, Father Gurtler and Father Madigan were great for the philosphy courses. I had four different linguistics professors, all of whom were not tenure-track and all of whom departed and I ended up having to take the advanced Greek at Harvard because the associate professor who taught that left without any warning to go teach at St. Johns in Annapolis. The history and literature portions of Classics were similalrly covered by visiting or associate professors, although Alan Reinerman, who was an awesome history professor, taught some of the courses on Byzantine and Roman history. All in all, I wasn't too satisfied with the way Classics were taught and organized at BC. It was sort of half-assed and I always assumed that the only reason they offered it as a major was because of the Jesuit roots of the University, but otherwise they would have been happy not to have it.

[HJS]

Like many here, I have to hope for the best from Addazio, but really disappointed in Bates. I admit I tend too easily to think well of folks, hoping for the best... but, am often disappointed.

This (as edited).

[eaglesmith]

A Heileman class should have been required for every BC student. He is/was a master (don't know if he is still alive and kicking). One of the best professors I had at BC was a non-tenured guy who was only there for two years. Dr. John Rossi taught History of US Foreign Policy I and II and The History of the British Raj, which was pure awesomeness because we were assigned to read the fictional Flashman series by George McDonald Frazier because it captured the period so well (Frazier was one of the great British journalists of the 2nd half of the 20th Century and the author of the best WWII memoir I have ever read Quartered Safe Out Here, about his experience as a young infantryman fighting in the Burma theatre). I think Rossi left BC for a tenured position at Ped State. I suspect he could not get tenure at BC because he adhered to a decidedly non-politically correct view of the world--sort of the anti-Breines, although he did serve alcohol in class on a couple of occassions.

As for the Classics, Father Gurtler and Father Madigan were great for the philosphy courses. I had four different linguistics professors, all of whom were not tenure-track and all of whom departed and I ended up having to take the advanced Greek at Harvard because the associate professor who taught that left without any warning to go teach at St. Johns in Annapolis. The history and literature portions of Classics were similalrly covered by visiting or associate professors, although Alan Reinerman, who was an awesome history professor, taught some of the courses on Byzantine and Roman history. All in all, I wasn't too satisfied with the way Classics were taught and organized at BC. It was sort of half-assed and I always assumed that the only reason they offered it as a major was because of the Jesuit roots of the University, but otherwise they would have been happy not to have it.

Heileman retired my sophomore year, I think (2002-03). His "World War II: The Last Just War" was the final class he taught at BC that spring, and he taught the final class in academic robes. It was more of a personal reminiscence of his career, and it was quite moving. He got pretty choked up at the end when he talked about being a child hearing the news that we had dropped the bombs on Japan and his mother made the entire family pray for forgiveness.

I had Reinerman for a couple classes, one on European Diplomatic History and one on the lead up to World War I (1871-1914). He was a very entertaining lecturer, and he always had the option of doing "book reports" off the massive bibliography he gave us with the syllabus in lieu of exams.

[Laughing.Jackal]

I pulled the history and philosophy major figuring that I'd head to law school or graduate school upon graduation. My favorite history professors were Heinneman, Northrup and Breines. Admittedly, Breines is an interesting choice, but i include him only because his perspective on the post modern period challenged a lot of the paradigms that I typically accept and he always pushed me--and not in a Sandusky like way. I cannot recall the name of the professor who taught Heidegger's Being and Time, but he was excellent. If memory serves he also taught a class relative HL Hart's theories on punishment. Looking back, I'm glad that I chose to study the humanities.

I laugh at the millennials who get all fired up about taking courses that will "prepare them for a career." I'd submit that if your goal at college is just to come out with a job, you might be better served by attending a trade school or learning how to code Django or Python online. I know what we pay our software engineers at my start up and I can confirm that code monkeys pull in very nice salaries for kids just out of school.

Thankfully, I'm the scion of two left wing academics so the marching orders that I got when I left for BC were, "[T]ake courses that interest you and teach you to think and challenge yourself. Don't worry about what will happen after college." Over time, I've come to view that as some of the best advice my parents offered me during my lifetime.

[EagleNYC]

I too enjoyed Fr. Madigan (I think it was Ancient Greek Philosophy)- he was brilliant but accessible, and he loved the material. It was the worst grade of my BC career, but also one of the most enriching.

As a Poli. Sci. guy, Hafner was my favorite. He had this insane syllabus that he handed out on the first day, including the rubric he used for giving out grades. The characteristics of an "A" paper were the most daunting articulation I've ever seen.