Insights and Observations
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Read Henry Hinton's
feature story on veteran Hollywood actress and ECU alum
Beth Grant in
Bonesville Magazine. |
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Henry's Highlights
Thursday, September 30, 2004
By Henry Hinton |
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Why no Dye?
©2004 Bonesville.net
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• PAT DYE: Short on Tenure, Long on Impact
• INSIDE PIRATE FOOTBALL
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• Tracking the Classes
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• NCHSAA & ECU: Smooth Sailing Again
• HIGH HOPES FOR HOOPS
• STEVE BALLARD:
New Leader Takes Charge
• SCOTT COWEN: Busting Down the Door
• KEITH LECLAIR on ECU's Field of Dreams
• BETH GRANT: Actress Still a Pirate
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Another East Carolina Hall of Fame weekend has come and
gone. It was great to see Robert Jones and Gary Overton get inducted but
when will Pat Dye make it?
Some folks around Greenville, particularly many of
Dye’s former players, get fighting mad when the subject comes up. [Editor's
note: Read the thoughts of one of Dye's star running backs at ECU,
Eddie Hicks, in Ron Cherubini's most
recent Pirate Time Machine feature.]
There has been speculation for many years about why the
former Pirate football coach (1974-79) has been ‘unwelcome’ in the hall.
For years there were rumors that former administrators
in the athletics department kept Dye from making the cut. Former ECU
Director of Athletics Mike Hamrick repeatedly said to close acquaintances
that he had nothing against Dye’s admission into the hall of fame.
There were also rumors that circulated for years that
Henry VanSant, a former Pirate player, coach and administrator, had a
problem with Dye’s induction. Both Hamrick and VanSant are long gone from
ECU and still no Dye on Hall of Fame Weekend.
Why? This man is a college football legend that
compiled the highest winning percentage of any Pirate coach of the modern
era, putting together a record of 48-18-1.
One of Dye’s staunchest supporters has been former ECU
quarterback Mike Weaver, who has made his coach’s induction to the hall
somewhat of a public crusade in recent years.
For those of us who were around for the Dye years,
there are some great memories. After all, this was Leo Jenkins’ and Clarence
Stasavich's choice to take ECU into the football bigtime. Arguably, Dye
accomplished just that.
While ECU was still competing in the Southern
Conference in those days, the Pat Dye teams dominated that league. There
were also some huge out of conference victories as well.
The rub does not seem to be the way Dye conducted
himself or the program while he was coaching here. Although Dye’s demeanor
could be quite pointed and seemingly dictatorial, it was the way he exited
Greenville that seems to have sealed his fate with those who keep a watchful
eye on the Hall of Fame.
Near the end of his tenure, Dye made it clear that he
felt ECU had not done enough to keep him happy.
There was a behind the scenes effort to overthrow then
Athletics Director Bill Cain by many of Dye’s closest friends.
It was believed that Dye would stay in Greenville with
a hefty raise and the top job in the department. To this day, supporters of
Cain still believe Dye was behind that attempted coup.
When it became clear that Dye would not become the AD
at ECU, there was an effort for him to be hired at N.C. State. The East
Carolina Board of Trustees protested the Wolfpack 'recruiting' foray and
soon UNC System President Bill Friday issued a decree that said one school
inside the state university system could not recruit away the coach of a
sister institution.
With all the hard feelings created by that succession
of activity, Dye soon found himself in a bit of a bind.
In the current edition of
Bonesville Magazine, Dye tells feature
writer Ron Cherubini that the final straw was a decision before the 1979
season by then-chancellor Thomas Brewer to overrule Dye and allow a reserve
quarterback indoctrinated in the Pirates' offense to transfer to Duke, which
happened to be among ECU's September opponents that season.
Dye figured the transfer ran the Blue Devils' scout
team that fall. Duke won the game 28-14 and for Dye — who said he had
concluded that Brewer was no Leo Jenkins — the insult was too much to take.
Having taken his shot in Greenville and missed and
having been barred from Raleigh, he was relegated to the head coaching job
at Wyoming for a year before moving on to become an SEC icon as head coach
at Auburn.
All of that is ancient history and there is little
argument that Dye did more to move the Pirate program forward than many
already in the Hall of Fame.
So who is keeping him out?
It is a question no one seems to be able to answer
these days, but the fact remains that one of the top names in ECU football
history is still being shunned.
It is time to let bygones be bygones and put Pat Dye
into the Hall of Fame at ECU. What may have been a quite controversial
decision years ago now seems like a fitting tribute to one of the biggest
stars in the Pirate universe.
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02/23/2007 10:14:01 AM |