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Fish Wrapper Chronicles
From 'One-Eyed Jack'
It's time for One-Eyed Jack to start putting a wrap on a torturous
football season during which the Pirates sorely missed the battle-earned
scars of the likes of graduated linchpins David Garrard, Leonard Henry and Pernell
Griffin. The new campaign's more youthful band of buccaneers tentatively navigated
stormy seas on the field while fending off nagging distractions from the
home front.
One-Eye has it on good authority that the old political correctness
virus still afflicts a couple of mid-level bureaucrats in the ECU
athletic department, who were recently rankled at the sight of the
Flying Bones circling the skies around Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. On the
other hand, maybe it's not the P.C. virus after all, but the busy-body
bug. But there's more... With his one and only eye, One-Eye has been
snooping and peering around for a glimpse of a home-grown ECU mark which
is said to be in the works on campus and which may drive those who
prefer kinder, gentler logos into therapy.
Remember our old friend Tom Yeager? He wears two hats these days,
serving as chairman of the NCAA infractions committee while continuing
in his long-time role as commissioner of the Colonial Athletic
Association. It's in his NCAA
persona that he may have indirectly influenced Alabama coach Dennis Franchione to jump ship for luxurious refuge in College Station.
Yeager's bloodhounds, it seems, may be on the trail of evidence that
more shenanigans occurred in Tuscaloosa before Coach Fran's arrival than
than the ones administrators owned up to. The admitted
malfeasances, involving sleazy dealings with Memphis high school
coaches, resulted in severe penalties, which the former Texas Christian
coach seemed prepared to live with after taking over the program that
Bear built. The prospect of the 'death penalty', however, was not
factored into Franchione's loyalty to 'Bama and that could be the
sanction the school faces if new revelations are serious or indicate a
cover-up. After all, Yeager has been quoted as saying the NCAA seriously
pondered that ultimate punishment for the previous infractions.
Irony of ironies. Two days after WNCT-TV 9 sports anchor and
Bonesville columnist Brian Bailey
speculated on the good will that
could have been nurtured by an East Carolina-ESPN effort to cast a live
spotlight on area high school playoff games during the ECU-Cincinnati
telecast, The News & Observer reports that the Mickey Mouse
sports network (or, in the interest of diplomacy, "the sports
network of Mickey Mouse") makes a last-minute overture to the NCHSAA to
do precisely something along those lines. Might the high schools'
angry reply of 'Nyet' been different had the proposal been broached
in an open and forward-thinking manner by ECU and ESPN officials last
summer while the game was being contemplated? We'll never know.
The Pirate Club always needs more members and, from what we
understand, it recently got one worth noting in the Fish Wrapper Chronicles. Jeff Connors, ECU's strength coach for a decade before
taking over the muscle-building chores in Chapel Hill, contributed $500
to help fund scholarships for Pirate athletes.
It's the time of year when schools around the country evaluate their
field generals and make personnel decisions. At ECU, in the wake of his
team's first losing season since 1997, Cap'n Logan's rock-solid security
isn't what it once was. As has been reported, Logan's multi-year
contract was not rolled over last December. It's not a stretch, however,
to figure that he'll be given the opportunity to steer the flagship
program he has nurtured back onto the
course boosters have come to expect albeit with an adjusted lineup of lieutenants
and a well-defined set of objectives.
What has not been reported, to the best we can determine, is that
Logan's contract wasn't the only one not rolled over last go-round. It
turns out that Pirate A.D. Mike Hamrick's pact was not extended when it came up for renewal last spring.