I got an e-mail inviting me to come to the PC for the new coach.
And I thought "are you kidding me?"
I responded politely, because the message came from someone I like very much who had absolutely nothing to do with this backstabbing horrorshow. But in my response I made it very clear that after all the years, all the donations, all the volunteer professional committee work I had done at the request of the Athletics administration, all the games and events I had attended, all the times I had traveled to watch the team, I was withdrawing my support.
This is extremely painful for me. I have been going to games since Charlie Parsley was roaming the Baker Fieldhouse sidelines. I was writing about it almost a decade before Lavall Jordan was born. I have been as reliable a booster and promoter of this program as I could be, in every way I could. As much as I hated the ridiculous decision to abandon the brilliant HLT on-campus format, I even went to Detroit last month! I doubt there's a person who knows me who doesn't know how committed a Milwaukee fan I have been. And I have done all this despite having to endure, as we all have, the constant chaos and low comedy behind the scenes in the department and at the University when it came to athletics support.
But there comes a point where you have to say "enough!" This was it. I simply cannot abide rewarding or accepting what has occurred. Especially when the architect of this debacle has roots so shallow in this University and this program that she probably doesn't even know where Baker Fieldhouse was.
And here's the really sad part. I don't believe there's a single fan, donor or sponsor who has pulled out -- myself included -- who wouldn't return and get behind LaVall Jordan in a heartbeat if only it wouldn't associate us with the bad behavior and untrustworthiness to which the program we love was subjected. The biggest lie I have seen repeated and urged is that those of us who have pulled our support did so only because we were "friends" with Coach Jeter. As if we don't understand that coaches come and go. Of course, that was not what enraged us at all, and those who claim not to understand that are being truly and powerfully disingenuous.
The bitter truth is that right now the program does not deserve our support. And until things change, won't have it.
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