Good morning. It's been an eventful year and we're not even to March. I wrote this piece last night on where facilities are, at least as best I can tell, and just finished an hour-long podcast with George Plaster that gives more background.
That said, key questions remain unanswered. The main ones I have at the moment are: How much money was raised under Turner? And were those pledges, or checks collected? What was always true? What was true four months ago, but not true now? And will my head ever quit spinning from all this?
Key background here: Last fall, I was told much of the money had been raised for the athletics capital campaign. I was given a specific number that I'll stay away from here, but it was north of $70 million. I circled back with the source on that this weekend to make sure I had understood that correctly, and the source stood by that original statement. That was also months ago, before the George Huber gift was announced.
On the other hand, Turner played all his cards close to the vest. Few actually knew what was going on. And from that spring a ton of thoughts that spring from one question: Why such secrecy?
It's hard to trust anyone or anything at this point. I think it's possible that the whole thing was exaggerated, and I don't rule anything out. My gut, based on where I got my info, that this isn't it the case and that there was something there.
First, consider the conditions on how athletics funds have to be raised.
I likened raising funds for athletics to a drug deal last week (I can't remember if that was on a podcast or a radio show) in that you almost have to have secrecy in order to pull it off due to the anti-athletics faction at Vanderbilt, which sees athletics as a threat not just to resources, but its power as a threat to the school itself. I think it's entirely plausible--again, not proof, but a theory worth considering--that Turner had what he had and just didn't want it out there.
Let's also look at some background here.
Turner was having some significant blowback from Susie Stalcup, who's the university's head development head. He was meeting spending resistance from his own school. And this comes at a place where baseball coach Tim Corbin, who has done more good PR for Vanderbilt than perhaps everyone working at the university put together, had to have David Williams' help with getting Vanderbilt to allow Corbin to raise money for his own facilities. (As an aside: I have a prominent former VU athlete who has an unbelievable story of trying to get Vanderbilt to take athletics donations. We're in the midst of setting a podcast date to discuss that.)
Again, none of this is proof, but I think they're important things to consider.
Second, the feeling I have is that Vanderbilt was trying to run Turner off almost from the minute Zeppos left. Again, there may be reasons for that, and as I've said many times, Turner can't be absolved.
There were rumors out there for weeks before Turner left that he was seeking other jobs. Based on the backdrop against which Turner operated, it's kind of hard to blame him.
So my questions are these: How engaged was Turner in the follow-up with securing the gifts? Was he close, but just didn't finish off? Or did he get to the finish line, and the school told him "no?"
Frankly, I have no idea the answer to any of that, and so don't take that as me reporting it. But I know enough about the school to know how Vanderbilt operates that I don't rule it out. And this is the angle of the story where I keep hitting a wall, because very few seem to know what actually happened.
The next question: If there's momentum with those gifts and a willingness to give, how eager is a post-Turner Vanderbilt to take those? Again, I have no idea.
Perry Wallace Way becomes official
Lost in the weekend hubbub was the fact that the portion of 25th Avenue near campus is now named "Perry Wallace Way." I can't think of a more appropriate means to honor a man who did so much for sports--not just at Vanderbilt, but for society, also--than what was done.
I often wonder how much longer it would have taken black athletes to start to play on a bigger stage if not for what Wallace did. I'd never thought about it like this until just now, but Wallace's efforts came 19 years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. It seems crazy that the simple act of playing basketball in the Southeastern Conference was still that big a deal that long after Robinson's ordeal, but the facts are what they are.
What makes Wallace special to me wasn't just what he did but how he went about his business.
I'd like to think that if I were in Wallace's shoes, I'd have the courage to do everything he did, but I have serious doubts about that. More importantly, maybe, was how Wallace was able to do it without a sense of bitterness in the aftermath, provides a backdrop against which makes his accomplishments have more staying power.
Whether it was intentional or not, "Perry Wallace Way" seems the perfect embodiment of the spirit that Wallace had more so than a statue, or whatever else could have been done to honor him. In today's divisive, politically-charged, yell-at-each-other world, Wallace showed a lot of folks the blueprint of how to handle such situations that we'd do well to follow.
That said, key questions remain unanswered. The main ones I have at the moment are: How much money was raised under Turner? And were those pledges, or checks collected? What was always true? What was true four months ago, but not true now? And will my head ever quit spinning from all this?
Key background here: Last fall, I was told much of the money had been raised for the athletics capital campaign. I was given a specific number that I'll stay away from here, but it was north of $70 million. I circled back with the source on that this weekend to make sure I had understood that correctly, and the source stood by that original statement. That was also months ago, before the George Huber gift was announced.
On the other hand, Turner played all his cards close to the vest. Few actually knew what was going on. And from that spring a ton of thoughts that spring from one question: Why such secrecy?
It's hard to trust anyone or anything at this point. I think it's possible that the whole thing was exaggerated, and I don't rule anything out. My gut, based on where I got my info, that this isn't it the case and that there was something there.
First, consider the conditions on how athletics funds have to be raised.
I likened raising funds for athletics to a drug deal last week (I can't remember if that was on a podcast or a radio show) in that you almost have to have secrecy in order to pull it off due to the anti-athletics faction at Vanderbilt, which sees athletics as a threat not just to resources, but its power as a threat to the school itself. I think it's entirely plausible--again, not proof, but a theory worth considering--that Turner had what he had and just didn't want it out there.
Let's also look at some background here.
Turner was having some significant blowback from Susie Stalcup, who's the university's head development head. He was meeting spending resistance from his own school. And this comes at a place where baseball coach Tim Corbin, who has done more good PR for Vanderbilt than perhaps everyone working at the university put together, had to have David Williams' help with getting Vanderbilt to allow Corbin to raise money for his own facilities. (As an aside: I have a prominent former VU athlete who has an unbelievable story of trying to get Vanderbilt to take athletics donations. We're in the midst of setting a podcast date to discuss that.)
Again, none of this is proof, but I think they're important things to consider.
Second, the feeling I have is that Vanderbilt was trying to run Turner off almost from the minute Zeppos left. Again, there may be reasons for that, and as I've said many times, Turner can't be absolved.
There were rumors out there for weeks before Turner left that he was seeking other jobs. Based on the backdrop against which Turner operated, it's kind of hard to blame him.
So my questions are these: How engaged was Turner in the follow-up with securing the gifts? Was he close, but just didn't finish off? Or did he get to the finish line, and the school told him "no?"
Frankly, I have no idea the answer to any of that, and so don't take that as me reporting it. But I know enough about the school to know how Vanderbilt operates that I don't rule it out. And this is the angle of the story where I keep hitting a wall, because very few seem to know what actually happened.
The next question: If there's momentum with those gifts and a willingness to give, how eager is a post-Turner Vanderbilt to take those? Again, I have no idea.
Perry Wallace Way becomes official
Lost in the weekend hubbub was the fact that the portion of 25th Avenue near campus is now named "Perry Wallace Way." I can't think of a more appropriate means to honor a man who did so much for sports--not just at Vanderbilt, but for society, also--than what was done.
I often wonder how much longer it would have taken black athletes to start to play on a bigger stage if not for what Wallace did. I'd never thought about it like this until just now, but Wallace's efforts came 19 years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. It seems crazy that the simple act of playing basketball in the Southeastern Conference was still that big a deal that long after Robinson's ordeal, but the facts are what they are.
What makes Wallace special to me wasn't just what he did but how he went about his business.
I'd like to think that if I were in Wallace's shoes, I'd have the courage to do everything he did, but I have serious doubts about that. More importantly, maybe, was how Wallace was able to do it without a sense of bitterness in the aftermath, provides a backdrop against which makes his accomplishments have more staying power.
Whether it was intentional or not, "Perry Wallace Way" seems the perfect embodiment of the spirit that Wallace had more so than a statue, or whatever else could have been done to honor him. In today's divisive, politically-charged, yell-at-each-other world, Wallace showed a lot of folks the blueprint of how to handle such situations that we'd do well to follow.
