Great Article on Coach Stowell's double firing from BU

[Beninator]

You OK Benni We agree on all the above Is there a chance we have the same Mama What do you look like Are you about 5'11, brown eyes, 190 lbs, white on top and have bowled legs If not, it really does not mean we are not bothers, just that we may have different Daddy's JK, Man, JK

It sounds like we may be brothers from a different mother! I got the height genes though... I'm between 6'4-6'5!

[Buesch N Chips]

There are some on here who do not believe that. In fact they will tell you that TRUE FANS agree with every move the University makes.

No one would say that. I think the differences are more how we react when we disagree with a move they make.

[tornado]

I'm not seeing any consistency here.

First -- I did not ask for Joe Stowell to be left off a committee or whatever -- This isn't my plan, but it's done - and we move on...
It does not and will not affect his livelihood and it was going to happen sooner or later --

But to you consistency is making the decision you'd make each time?
That's a pretty odd definition --
I think through each decision I make and that way I can be sure I have it right regardless of the knee-jerk criticism that always shows up with whatever decision anyone makes.
I didn't want to see Molinari fired (I have said that many times before) and there have been many personnel changes I was not in favor of....
(although I have never turned on the university as some have and withdrawn my support or loyalty)
If my decisions can be defined in any way -- they don't toe the line of what you or anyone else think I should decide -- they are based on the facts as they exist at the time....I reason it out and decide, I don't jump to conclusions based on someone's predetermined bias.

Had Ken Kavanagh been 84 years old and had he been left off the broadcast team by the station (not by BU) after decades of opportunity to do it, and had he simply rotated off the committee to let new blood on, while still fully allowed to keep doing everything he was doing at BU -- then I guess I'd have had no problem with it at all.........but KK was treated in a vastly different way and his story is simply nowhere near comparable...
He was one of the best in his business (he was not in a declining phase as proven by the fact that he immediately applied for and beat out 75 other candidates for a top job elsewhere) and was 100% loyal to BU.
Based on what I know and knew then, I make my decisions, and if you don't see "consistency" in your eyes, then that's your right.

I will discuss more privately but for now this is done and we move on...I haven't brought up the KK thing in a year -- so in the same manner, we move on and support the Bradley Braves!

[toddgak]

Question....did ANYONE on here that was asking for change in the BU athletic dept. ever consider Coach Stowell as part of that change you wanted ?

I THINK I recall OOB saying...."go BIG and fire Stowell from the radio team and kick him off the HOF committee"....of something to that effect.

Best point yet...wanting change in the dept. and getting rid of Coach Stowell on the radio aren't the same thing. Now, I was never one advocating all kinds of change. Im just agreeing with your point DRU.

Its like major league sports franchises trying to save money by cutting back three marketing interns yet still paying the players ridiculous amounts.

[BradleyBrave]

gak...love the screen name. Great episode!

[BradleyJD]

No one would say that. I think the differences are more how we react when we disagree with a move they make.

I have been told that in posts and by private message on this board.

[srw]

Boy I hate to weigh in here...
Because I havent read all 30 pages of this thread

This is a complex issue obviously that doesnt fit into the cookie cutter of where all of us come down..

I just hope that it works out.

CB and Coach Stowell provided very astute basketball analysis

DA has a lot to do to catch up to that. Lets hope he gets excited about it, and excells at it.

[Dallas Brave]

There was an earlier comment from one of the posters about the civility of the thread. I think the conversation has been civil, but there have been a lot of wildly speculative rants going on beginning with the title of the thread “double firing from BU” which is very inaccurate.

There were two events:

• WMBD fired Coach Stowell.
• BU did not renew Coach Stowell ‘s HOF committee membership after it expired. A move the school also did with two other members.

I’m all for Coach Stowell getting his proper respect as he is a Bradley legend. That said, I don’t think he gets a lifetime license to be broadcasting games or on the HOF committee. In fact, one of the hallmarks of great institutions is stewardship and at the age of 84, someone like Coach Stowell should proactively steward in a new generation. I would like to know more hard facts about both incidents which may, or may not, be related. Just because KW lumped them together in the article doesn’t mean that they weren’t two separate decisions that happened around the same time. Do you think WMBD was waiting for Coach’s HOF Committee term to expire before firing him? KW’s article was interesting but left out so many details that it is impossible to draw a conclusion on whether Coach was mistreated or not. I hope KW researches the situation and writes a balanced article presenting all of the facts leading up to these two decisions. Personally, I find it somewhat comical to read all of the rants, but maybe I’m the na??ve one and am failing to discern the “Braves in the Woodpile” that others see.

[squirrelgotdead]

I’m all for Coach Stowell getting his proper respect as he is a Bradley legend. That said, I don’t think he gets a lifetime license to be broadcasting games or on the HOF committee. In fact, one of the hallmarks of great institutions is stewardship and at the age of 84, someone like Coach Stowell should proactively steward in a new generation.

Interesting point, DB. . .

I think one issue that Bradley has always sort of had to deal with RE: Stowell is the fact he's provided a lifetime of service to BU. During that lifetime of service, he has probably never been paid adequately. When he was a coach, in some respects he was provided limited resources and in a sense set up to fail. However, time and again, Bradley has offered him other opportunities to serve and enhance Bradley University. And he has done so.

I also think it is with a sense of appreciation and obligation that Bradley has continued to allow Stowell to serve. And as SRW points out. . .the intricacies and sensitivities of the Stowell situation are incredibly complicated.

Does anyone know if anybody in athletics was granted Emeriti Status when the Phys Ed program was eliminated?

[tornado]

nope -- even KW concedes they were two separate events that happened unrelated about a month and a half apart....

BTW -- Coach Stowell still is doing the women's games, and let me help some of you out here...
Coach Joe Stowell has been honored and loved by BU like virtually no other person...

--Bradley has BESTOWED Hall of Fame status to Joe Stowell since (get this) March 7, 1959!!
That's right, he's been a HOF'er at BU for 51 years -- he has BOTH a plaque and a permanent photo induction honor...
There are very FEW BU athletes or coaches who were inducted LONGER ago than Coach Stowell.

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=3666568

--Bradley has also helped assure that Coach Stowell has been prominently inducted into the Greater Peoria Hall of Fame as well......within the first few years inductions were made back in the 80's

http://www.gpshof.org/Inductees/stowell.html

--They have even further HONORED Joe Stowell and his name by recently PLACING his name on one of the TOP AWARDS in the entire Athletic Department and naming it the
.... Coach Joe Stowell Award

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&KEY=&ATCLID=883026

...and they've even given him other awards also -- and writeups in the Hilltopics, making him the "Honored Guest" and various luncheons and other events,
and other things named after him...and BU has set up the.........
Coach Joe Stowell Scholarship Fund at Bradley ...and use the funds donated to it for various things like helping to send kids from the community to the Mitchell JJ Anderson basketball camps, the Carevr Center, and BU scholarships...

On August 13, 2008, at one event...
"Former Bradley player Bobby Humbles (presented) Coach Stowell with a lifetime achievement award"
...and made "..a donation to the Coach Joe Stowell Scholarship Fund at Bradley"...


and on and on it goes......anyone who says Bradley has NOT honored Coach Stowell is absolutely wrong and uninformed (or lying)..
he's perhaps the most honored and multiply awarded person in BU history!! Congratulations Coach Stowell -- you deserved ALL these awards!!

[Buesch N Chips]

I have been told that in posts and by private message on this board.

I disagree. I think with this board, at its core, we have pro-JL people and anti-JL people, and the frustration over that sentiment (on both sides) tends to bleed into all other issues. But I do not believe that we have any people that hate BU. AT WORST, we may have people that tend to thrive when the current regime does poorly, so they can push their anti-JL stance. My opinion.

[BradleyJD]

I disagree. I think with this board, at its core, we have pro-JL people and anti-JL people, and the frustration over that sentiment (on both sides) tends to bleed into all other issues. But I do not believe that we have any people that hate BU. AT WORST, we may have people that tend to thrive when the current regime does poorly, so they can push their anti-JL stance. My opinion.

I think everyone here IS a BU fan. I also think some on here think you cannot be Pro-BU and still question decisions.

[toddgak]

I think everyone here IS a BU fan. I also think some on here think you cannot be Pro-BU and still question decisions.

Its funny that there is even this continued discussion. I don't see why everyone feels its so important to try to investigate and then label another person a good fan, bad fan, BU fan, BU hater, etc.

I mean--why would anyone who hated Bradley, or wanted to see the University fail, or hated Jim Les personally spend their time on this, Bradley specific, message board? It makes no sense.

I take people at their word. If they say they are a Bradley fan and that they buy tickets, are an alum, etc. then that's what they are. I don't expect them to believe exactly as I believe. There are a lot of St. Louis Cardinal fans who I don't agree with all the time. They aren't any less a fan than I am, or vice versa.

Why is this such a difficult concept to grasp? Why is there so much emphasis put on trying to "figure out" everyone's exact loyalties? Seems like a lot of wasted time and stiffles intelligent, intriguing, and fun discussion.

[BradleyJD]

Its funny that there is even this continued discussion. I don't see why everyone feels its so important to try to investigate and then label another person a good fan, bad fan, BU fan, BU hater, etc.

I mean--why would anyone who hated Bradley, or wanted to see the University fail, or hated Jim Les personally spend their time on this, Bradley specific, message board? It makes no sense.

I take people at their word. If they say they are a Bradley fan and that they buy tickets, are an alum, etc. then that's what they are. I don't expect them to believe exactly as I believe. There are a lot of St. Louis Cardinal fans who I don't agree with all the time. They aren't any less a fan than I am, or vice versa.

Why is this such a difficult concept to grasp? Why is there so much emphasis put on trying to "figure out" everyone's exact loyalties? Seems like a lot of wasted time and stiffles intelligent, intriguing, and fun discussion.

I agree completely.

[Da Coach]

So you don't believe there has been any posters here who are anti-Jim Les?
Gimme a break.