Joe Mavretic, the former Speaker of the NC House, recently had this blunt assessment of the problems in the Athletic Department at UNC, and his view is the polar opposite of what UNC System President Erskine Bowles stated earlier today:
” There is no need for internal investigations, or for assistant coaches to resign, to determine who is responsible for the damage to the flagship’s reputation. There are three university employees whose job is to ensure that calamities like this NEVER happen. Those three employees are the head football coach, the athletic director and the chancellor. These three persons have the authority, and the responsibility, to prevent athletic scandals and they failed.
“It does not matter how they failed, why they failed or who caused them to fail-THEY FAILED! If the Board of Governors and the Trustees want to send an unmistakable message to the university system of North Carolina and set a national precedent for the way these embarrassments should be handled, then the head football coach, the athletic director and the chancellor must be replaced FOR CAUSE.
“If this flagship university actually has a national reputation for academic integrity, any less severe action in this matter sets the precedent for how much damage these three can do for sport’s money.”
Mavretic, from New Bern, graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He later earned his Masters at George Washington and was a distinguished graduate of the Naval War College. Mavretic then served as a Marine fighter pilot, retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Joe returned to North Carolina and was elected to the North Carolina General Assembly in 1980. Serving a total of 15 years after first being elected in 1980, Mavretic became nationally known when he led a bi-partisan effort to oust long-time House Speaker Liston Ramsey – a member of his own party. Mavretic then served as Speaker from 1989-90, and later retired from public office to private life. Today, he is still active politically as a frequent guest on the television show NC Spin, and also as a writer. As outspoken as ever, Mavretic has a long history of calling things exactly like he sees them, something he is well respected for across all of NC.
