Alma Mater and Her Quest for a Coach

[TripleEagle]

I have been following the discourse surrounding the Boston College basketball coaching vacancy with a little interest and with mild amusement. Mr. DeFillipo's manner of conducting his search for a replacement for Mr. Skinner is reminiscent of a search that we conducted some years ago when the legislature created the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority.

The Daily Blade over on Morrissey Boulevard took issue with the fact that my neighbor, childhood friend, and personal secretary Francis X. Joyce was named the first Executive Director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority with lifetime tenure. They apparently believed that the appointment smacked of cronyism and that I was not only rewarding Joyce for his personal loyalty to me but that I was also ensuring that I would retain control over the new Authority and its opportunities for patronage.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. I made this abundantly clear at the press conference where I announced Frannie's appointment, when I apologized to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth for wasting money on an exhaustive worldwide search for an Executive Director when in fact the most qualified man available had been sitting in my outer office all along.

I might point out that I still retain an interest in the Convention Center, as the current Executive Director, Mr. James Rooney also happened to carry my attache case on occasion. Boston is not called The Hub of the Universe without reason. We have many of the most highly qualified persons for virtually any position residing less than a mile or two from my home. Mr. DeFillipo continues to impress.