“Redneck NC State” perpetuated by Lee Fowler’s embarrassing radio appearance

Q: What are the important items that require time and effort of men that run $50 million businesses in 2008?

A: Calling into radio stations to discuss “cougars” in mock drafts, of course!!

As you will see and hear by clicking to 850TheBuzz’s blog entry, the esteemed leader of NC State’s Athletics Department took the time and the initiative to call 850TheBuzz this morning to share his thoughts on attractive older women – also known as “cougars”.

Did any of you really think that Loose Lips Lee would forego any ‘open line’ to dial into a radio show?

Come on!?!? That’s like teasing Elton John with some private time with Liberace.

How could west Raleigh’s tallest insecure man pass up a free chance to be on the radio? Surely you can’t expect Fowler to exercise one ounce of common-sense disrection regarding the prudence of approaching such a childish and politically incorrect topic in a public forum like regional radio!

Could you imagine Ron Wellman, Kevin White, Joe Alleva, Terry Holland or Dick Baddour making the undignified move of initiating a call to a local radio station for the sole purpose to discuss “cougars”? (I know, Fowler readily admits that under his watch NC State will not try to compete with our local rivals. I guess that translates into decorum and class as well.) I’m sure that after a few beers all of these red-blooded, American males would have some great insight into Cougars. But, we’ll never know whom these ADs find hot because none of them are f*ing stupid enough to go to such lengths as to embarrass themselves nor the institutions that they represent.

As loose as we are here, we understand that there is a time and a place for everything; taking the initiative to call into a radio program to discuss Cougars is NOT the right time or place. As an alum who works very hard to elevate the status and stature of NC State degrees in the real world, I couldn’t be a more embarrassing that the lead professional administrator of the highest profile department of the largest University in the state is so undignified and ignorant as to the perception of his comments and actions. I know that nothing from this Tennessee hayseed should surprise me; but it doesn’t make it any easier.

I’m sure that this kind of behavior will go a LONG way to establishing credibility for NC State with the parents of recruits. Who would send their kid to a department run by Ron Wellman or Dick Baddour when you could go mature under such immature leadership at NC State?

Jim statusquOblinger must be a proud, proud man right now after “Coach Fowler” did such a great job of promoting the NC State redneck stereotype for everyone.

Heck…it is not like Fowler hasn’t had a chance to speak with the media recently. Just yesterday Fowler released an annual report with a whopping four full pages of information (including pictures, tables and graphs that took up at least two full pages). In addition to his regular column in the Wolfpacker magazine and the current tour of the entire State of North Carolina with the Wolfpack Club Caravan, Fowler has made appearances and given thorough interviews to GoPack.com, PackPride.com, the News & Observer and WRAL-TV5.com, 850TheBuzz and 99.9FM in just the last 60 days!!!

All of that media interaction is obviously not enough for old Lee! Never enough.

With NC State’s Athletics Department current standing as easily one of the absolute worst in the entire Atlantic Coast Conference, how does this guy not have more to do than spend the last two months giving interviews? Have you seen the quality of the “Annual Athletics Department Reports” of other schools? That piece of sh*t that was released yesterday by NC State could have been done by a 7th grader with 10 year old piece of software.

I know there are a lot of you who like to criticize StateFansNation for our criticisms of Lee Fowler and NC State. But, JESUS people!! We don’t make this stuff up. We only react to the behaviors and actions of Fowler and others. Don’t get mad at us for simply reacting to him. If he didn’t give us so much ammunition then we wouldn’t have any reactions!

Note the way that Adam Gold had no interest in actually talking with Fowler at the end of the conversation. Lee volunteered to tell us all about his plans with his wife to head down to Atlantic Beach without being asked or prompted. Then he tried to start saying something else and Gold basically said, ‘bye bye’.

Parting Shot –
For your irony file – you have to love that Adam Gold brought up the old story of how Athletics Directors keep lists of potential coaches in their pockets…but NC State’s AD keeps lists of Cougars in his pocket. There was nothing Fowler could say in light of his failure during ‘his’ search for a basketball coach and his lack of involvement in the University’s hiring of Tom O’Brien.

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AD & Department General

34 Responses to “Redneck NC State” perpetuated by Lee Fowler’s embarrassing radio appearance

  1. StateFans 06/26/2008 at 1:57 PM #

    A friend just emailed me the following:

    The line about Gold saying Fowler keeps a list of cougars in his pocket instead of potential coaches:

    To be honest, there probably isnt a better, succinct and more accurate description of Lee Fowler as an AD than that comment.

  2. BillyTheKid 06/26/2008 at 2:22 PM #

    A Elton John / Liberace joke?!? Talk about promoting the Redneck sterotype of NC State!! I think a lot of you people need some work in that department. Thanks a lot SFN!!

    SFN: Thank you for picking up on THE POINT. There is a time and a place for everything. An informal BLOG and the internet is that time and place. That is THE POINT.

  3. primacyone 06/26/2008 at 2:26 PM #

    I agree with everything you said. There is a time and place. This was not the time and place for the AD of NCSU.

    Really is a let down. I expect much better character from the leader of NCSU athletics.

    What a disapointment. Very sad.

    What does that say about the leadership above/around him?

    No child of mine will be going to NCSU anytime soon. Unless he is capable of playing football for TOB. If so, NCSU is the only place he will be going.

  4. wufpup76 06/26/2008 at 2:30 PM #

    “Come on!?!? That’s like teasing Elton John with some private time with Liberace.”

    I did, in fact, lol …

    When stuff like this this happens, it makes me think that the pressure is starting to build and get to the person who does and says kind of off-the-wall things … we’ll see though

    If things happened to be going well at NC State I would probably think this sort of thing was different and funny, b/c I certainly have an “inappropriate” sense of humor at times, but, this is indeed strange timing like SFN says …

    It’s no secret that there’s some tension in Raleigh, at least between a high number of fans and the athletics department – so I’m not sure what one hopes to accomplish w/ this sort of behaivor … This would’ve been a lot better for Coach if this had been a private, off-the-air confab between himself and Gold … time will tell I suppose

  5. Pack92 06/26/2008 at 2:30 PM #

    Everytime I hear Foulup has opened his mouth I get the mental picture of Jim Carey talking with his butt cheeks in Pet Detective. At least that was funny. The rams club would roast ramses at the old well before they let bad-doer get away with something this stupid.

  6. wufpup76 06/26/2008 at 2:35 PM #

    “Everytime I hear Foulup has opened his mouth I get the mental picture of Jim Carey talking with his butt cheeks in Pet Detective.”

    ‘Pardon me, do you have a breath mint? Perhaps some Binaca??’ – Lee Fowler

  7. old13 06/26/2008 at 2:40 PM #

    And what else is new! It’s become embarrassing to tell anyone that I graduated from NCSU thanks to our resident DA . . . AD!

  8. StateFans 06/26/2008 at 2:43 PM #

    ^ You mean that they are not impresed by our great ‘fuhcilities’ and fan support?

  9. timswar 06/26/2008 at 2:45 PM #

    See, I take this interview as hope that he’s really issuing some kind of secret code to his friends to let them know he’s taking a job at the University of Houston (or BYU, whichever).

    I can dream, can’t I?

  10. Redblogger 06/26/2008 at 2:53 PM #

    Delete if you need to, but I thought share this. Don’t know how you feel about stuff from other blogs.

    JoeOvies Jun 26th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

    Lee Fowler bashing over that? (SFN) It seems everyone can have a good time…except Mr. Fowler. Get a grip people.

  11. StateFans 06/26/2008 at 3:28 PM #

    “Everyone can have a good time…except Mr. Fowler”

    “Everyone”?!

    Look…I didn’t listen to this morning’s show so I don’t know whom else “EVERYONE” is that dialed in.

    So, I guess the likes of Ron Wellman, Tom O’Brien, Roy Williams, Coach K, Jim Grobe, Dick Baddour, Terry Holland, Skip Holtz, David Cutcliffe, Butch Davis, Sidney Lowe, Kay Yow, Sylvia Hatchell, Kevin White, Charlie Cobb, Jerry Moore and EVERYONE else in a leadership role at all of our local institutions were on the radio talking about Cougars?

    I would be legitimately curious to know about “EVERYONE” that dialed into the show this morning and we can easily compare how Lee Fowler’s decision to dial in compares to EVERYONE who holds similar responsibilities as him.

    If the guys from 850 aren’t smart enough to distinguish between an administrator and athletes then I can’t help them.

    What’s interesting is that the very fact that they chose to link Lee Fowler’s call indicates that it was unique enough to merit attention. I don’t know whom else called in on the topic…but why aren’t there more than two audio files?

    Whether they explicitly recognized it or now…they thought it was so unique for him to call that they put it on their website.

  12. WolftownVA81 06/26/2008 at 4:19 PM #

    I take issue with Joe’s smart guy comment. Our AD is a goober who has no sense of appropriateness. I’m embarrassed for the University. This kind of crap can be construed as creating a hostil work environment and can lead to some ugly situations when employees start to sue. Come on Oblinger, is this the kind of behavior and lack of judgement that is acceptable at NCSU? In addition to the legal ramifications, our AD just seems to find endless ways to lower our stock.

  13. burnbarn 06/26/2008 at 4:45 PM #

    I agree it is inappropriate. Lee has a number of women working for him..I wonder how they feel about his comments? It would be one thing if they were doing an interview with him and he named a cougar. (BTW, who did he say? Donna Douglas?..I know, that is a low blow!)
    But to call in? I wonder if Lee is listening to 850 most days? He sure does looked well tanned on his tv show of late.

    I’m not sure redneck is the best way to describe his call in.

  14. El Scrotcho 06/26/2008 at 6:04 PM #

    ..just wow…thanks for making me proud of the ole alma mater Fowler!

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v317/m00t/ec247047.jpg

  15. vtpackfan 06/26/2008 at 6:27 PM #

    Ovies has a self depreciating bit of humor that goes as follows:

    I hate it that my father dragged me out of South Florida and dropped me into Cardinal Gibbons. He’ll go on to say that he was a punk so that is why he HAD (against wishes) to attend NCSU.

    Yesterday, his “everbody can have fun” bit turned even prettier when he hammered CHASS and agreed that it is a complete irony that State evens tries to teach English.

    He looks down on everyone who wasn’t in Sendeks jock and I hope Tony Riggsby thanks himself everytime Ovies rails against his alma mater that there wern’t any punks from South Florida around when it was his time at State.

  16. Primewolf 06/26/2008 at 6:50 PM #

    Another on a long list of lows for Lee. Goodness, that man is a total idiot with absolutely no sense of purpose. He has no fundamental connection with the reality of being an AD for a large university and what that means.

    Oblinger and BOT are you out there?? Hello.

  17. Octavian 06/26/2008 at 7:35 PM #

    Shameful. Unbelievable. Lee does in fact feed that stereotype — and we do have a bunch of feckless pinheads and pigfarmers running this accursed asylum

  18. highstick 06/26/2008 at 9:38 PM #

    Wish the SOB would be at Atlantic Beach next week and I’d drown the SOB personally! What a piece of trailer trash! Bet he sings Rocky Top in the shower!

  19. turfpack 06/26/2008 at 9:54 PM #

    Lee- Ya’ll youngin’s got to learn to loosen up-Us good ol boy’s got every thang under control- it’s the summmmmmer time man!have a drank Every thang’s goin to be all rite.

    What a f*&%$#^ idot!
    PLEASE SOMEBODY FIRE HIS ASS!!!
    As a gradute of NCSU I will not send a dime to the university until this dumbass is gone.Bite on that O-Blinger-I hope your bling dries up.
    I think I will tell people I graduted from WAKE TECH.

  20. Astral Rain 06/26/2008 at 10:18 PM #

    Is there any way we can get this to go public as some horrible sexual harassment and try to get him fired?

    I’ll take a black eye to get rid of Fowler

  21. WolftownVA81 06/27/2008 at 6:50 AM #

    ^AR, we’re taking the black eye daily it seems. However, I like your idea. If anything can get rid of LF, it will be the politically correct police.

    ^^ Now I can’t listen to Rockey Top. Someone stop the pain.

  22. highstick 06/27/2008 at 7:29 AM #

    I’ve had the Alumni Association renewal on my desk for about a month pondering over what to do. Lee’s made my mind up for me!

  23. PackHooligan 06/27/2008 at 8:13 AM #

    This at least gives me hope that Lee will eventually say something dumb enough on air to get himself fired.

  24. Par Shooter 06/27/2008 at 8:50 AM #

    I would characterize this a little differently than you guys do. I have always felt that “Coach” is basically a politician. The first tip off was that he was head of the NCAA selection committee which is entirely a political job. Having talked to him and heard many of his statements over the years only backs up this belief. I also think that “Coach” has that self-preservation instinct that many politicians do. It’s not really about how well you perform your job but rather about perception and who is in your corner.

    I do not believe that “Coach” does things like calling this show out of stupidity or naivete. Rather, I think that all of his blathering to the media is a thinly veiled attempt to have them firmly in his corner when questions about job performance arise. The guys at 850 could care less about our athletics program as a whole or his (alleged) leadership of said program. They care about ratings and entertainment. And they love having a guy like Fowler who will call in and talk about stuff like this. I’m sure they were laughing their asses off as soon as he hung up and were eagerly rubbing their hands together thinking of replaying the interview, hits on the blog, etc. And make no mistake that as the debate (hopefully) heats up regarding his job performance then 850 will be strongly in his corner. Not because he is a good AD or a good fit for NCSU but simply because he is good for a laugh and entertaining to them. Other media outlets who “have his cell phone number” and can get a comment on any subject under ths sun will all be lined up squarely in his corner. This will make getting rid of him harder and that is the whole point.

    I think this incident is properly characterized as “Coach” once again putting his own self interest above the interests of our athletic program and university. He has a history of doing this exact thing when he frequently bends over for Terry Holland thinking that Holland can help him somewhere down the road. Personally I think these types of conniving, selfish acts by “Coach” are worse than him merely exercising poor judgement or making a gafe every now and again.

    The real irony is that the best thing for the long-term preservation and advancement of “Coach” would be to build a program here that wins championships. However he has shown little interest and/or aptitude in this area and seems to spend most of his time pursuing ways to mask these deficiencies and rally allies to defend his poor performance.

  25. Astral Rain 06/27/2008 at 9:17 AM #

    That’s why this would have to go national.

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