I wanted to attempt to let explain why so many of us are upset about Nancy Zimpher's treatment of Huggins. I could talk about her complete lack of understanding of the history of UC and its athletic programs, and her complete lack of understanding of the current Huggins situation, but I'd rather just give an analogy.

Huggins is everyone's friend, the life of the party. As a matter of fact, almost every year, folks think he throws the best parties and everyone wants to come. Huggins' friends Bob, Jeff, Ted and many others have a ball almost every year. Some folks out east hear about his parties and start to consider him attending their bigger and better parties instead. So he invites a friend, Bob, to go talk to them, but Huggins has the only car that can drive there. Once there, the friend is able to use his powers of persuasion to convince the folks out east that Huggins should become the life of their party, and there is also a lot more to offer to their party then they realize as the friend explains.

So they get invited to the party and Bob and his friend call up Nancy and Jeff and invite them to join. They bring their buddy Phil and when they show up she gets loud, demanding, and decides she will run the party even though she has little to no understanding of the party. Phil decides he will help Nancy run the party, but shows even less understanding of it than Nancy. Jeff decides he wants to be at the party no matter what and starts hanging out with Nancy. The friend of Huggins who negotiated the "party move" to the east has decided he does not want to deal with this and other issues in his older age and, already planning to leave after many years of service to UC and other institutions, he reluctantly decides to step out of the way, making it easier to push Huggins aside. So now Huggins and all of us partygoers are not having as much fun anymore and we want the fun to return.

I find it sad and a travesty that today during the first party, Nancy has pushed aside the reason we are at the party and has put herself, not the university or the man who got us there on center stage. Be clear, for someone who is strongly trying to de-emphasize athletics, and is hypocritical in dealing with those who support her, she should not be there today. I strongly support her efforts in regards to UC|21 and the attempt to boost UC's academics and academic reputation, but she is showing large kinks in her armor by her inability to effectively and appropriately deal with this situation. She has underestimated and mismanaged it and my concern is: Is she the right person to move her academic vision forward or will she mis-manage that also? She wants a coach who will bring in good people and graduate them. Well, Huggins definitely graduates them regardless of what the inept media say, I will believe the diplomas hanging on the former player's walls. And while there is an occasional Whaley or Bright, there are many more Logan's and Maxiell's and Martin's.

I do not believe Nancy should be booed today, but rather a better and classier approach would be to just support Huggins in the way that many have suggested. Wear your "I Support Coach Huggins" t-shirts, hang your banners high, and cheer loudly every time Huggins name is mentioned. Occasionally, you should even start a Huggins chant. I still do not think Nancy fully appreciates what he means to UC and Cincinnati and needs to leave HER personal agenda behind or the university as a whole will suffer. We have already heard about how upset many big donors are. I give at a gold bearcat level and renewed for this year, but if Huggins does not get an extension for next year, I am done. I know many others who are also done. I want to support UC, but if Nancy's goal is to tear down the athletic program, my goal is to get rid of Nancy. If the athletic program takes a hit do to lack of funds in the short term, it will be easier to rebuild than if Nancy has 5-10 years to destroy it.

UC Spokesperson Greg Hand said, "We're exploring some ways to introduce the University of Cincinnati to potential students in those (new) markets." Do people go to Northwestern because of their lousy basketball team? Hey, how about that Vanderbilt football team this year? Buy your tickets early! Seriously, today is a huge day of celebration, but while Nancy wants us to forget who drove the car that got us there, we must never forget.

Finally, as for the inappropriateness of the party analogy, I used it on purpose. People looking for reasons to be PC or to talk bad about UC will. They will find a reason anywhere, so consider the analogy above a taunt of them:

"Go and boil your bottom, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you. Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!"