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Post by Commissioner on Apr 13, 2023 20:11:47 GMT -5
Given the amount of discussion he gets on this board, and the extent to which he is still the dominant figure in public perception of the Titans nationally, it's hard to believe it was 50 years ago this month that the Titans hired Dick Vitale. If I weren't too cheap, I'd subscribe to the newspaper database to review what was said about the hire in the Detroit papers at the time. They were actually quite negative. Meanwhile, here are a couple pieces from the Varsity News. Somewhat surprisingly, the VN never really ran a simple story about Vitale being hired. This one is interesting--it ran on page 1 in the VN on Friday, March 30, and cites a story in the Detroit News on March 29. Vitale was hired the next week. (You'll probably need to zoom in on your screen to read.)
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Post by Commissioner on Apr 13, 2023 20:20:48 GMT -5
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Post by Commissioner on Apr 13, 2023 20:29:00 GMT -5
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Post by Commissioner on Apr 13, 2023 20:29:45 GMT -5
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Post by Commissioner on Apr 13, 2023 20:30:21 GMT -5
Conclusion of Vitale Interview:
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Post by Rogobob77 on Apr 13, 2023 22:25:48 GMT -5
I remember local TV sportscaster Al Ackerman was publicly critical of the hire. At the time, there were not many black head coaches in D-1 college basketball, and he was critical (as were others) that U-D hired an outsider for the job without seriously considering a minority candidate. I recall seeing a Varsity News column expressing concerns about the hire for essentially the same reasons.
The 50th anniversary of Vitale’s arrival was on my radar, I enrolled at U-D in 1973 and the first Titan basketball game I ever went to was Vitale’s first game at the helm. I sent the Athletic Department an email a few weeks ago suggesting that perhaps they might want to commemorate the anniversary in some manner during the upcoming season. Vitale is not getting any younger and I think it would be nice to see him at Calihan again reunited with some of the Titan players from that era.
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Post by Rogobob77 on Apr 13, 2023 22:39:07 GMT -5
Souvenir program from Vitale’s first game as Titan coach.
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Post by Commissioner on Apr 14, 2023 7:04:33 GMT -5
I remember local TV sportscaster Al Ackerman was publicly critical of the hire. At the time, there were not many black head coaches in D-1 college basketball, and he was critical (as were others) that U-D hired an outsider for the job without seriously considering a minority candidate. I recall seeing a Varsity News column expressing concerns about the hire for essentially the same reasons. Seems they definitely considered Bluitt. Interesting though, that the News was reporting it was Villemure or Bluitt, and within about 4 days it ended up being Vitale. Was Vitale that much a late charger, or was Tony Paul already working for the News?
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Post by Commissioner on Apr 14, 2023 7:13:29 GMT -5
I remember local TV sportscaster Al Ackerman was publicly critical of the hire. At the time, there were not many black head coaches in D-1 college basketball, and he was critical (as were others) that U-D hired an outsider for the job without seriously considering a minority candidate. I recall seeing a Varsity News column expressing concerns about the hire for essentially the same reasons. The 50th anniversary of Vitale’s arrival was on my radar, I enrolled at U-D in 1973 and the first Titan basketball game I ever went to was Vitale’s first game at the helm. I sent the Athletic Department an email a few weeks ago suggesting that perhaps they might want to commemorate the anniversary in some manner during the upcoming season. Vitale is not getting any younger and I think it would be nice to see him at Calihan again reunited with some of the Titan players from that era. The VN ran this editorial on April 17, 1973, under the headline "Coach Vitale Deserves a Chance."
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Post by Commissioner on Apr 14, 2023 7:21:05 GMT -5
I remember local TV sportscaster Al Ackerman was publicly critical of the hire. At the time, there were not many black head coaches in D-1 college basketball, and he was critical (as were others) that U-D hired an outsider for the job without seriously considering a minority candidate. I recall seeing a Varsity News column expressing concerns about the hire for essentially the same reasons. Ackerman thought the Titans should have hired Fred Snowden, who had just completed his first year at Arizona, going 16-10. Snowden, former HC at Detroit Northwestern and assistant at UM, would have been an excellent hire, to be sure, and he was still in his thirties at the time. What's interesting is that Ackerman seemed to presume that the Titan job would have lured Snowden back to Detroit. Maybe. The mere idea that that could have been the case shows how far we have fallen (and Arizona has risen). I believe that in the spring of 1973 the only black D-1 coaches were Will Robinson (Illinois State), whom Detroit famously passed over in 1969, losing Spencer Haywood and a chance to make some history, and a chance to strike a blow for equality by hiring the first black D1 HC in the process, and Snowden.
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Post by motorcitysam on Apr 14, 2023 8:42:30 GMT -5
Snowden would have been an interesting pick. He did a very good job at Arizona and probably would have done well at U-D.
I got a kick out of reading those interviews and articles, especially the mentions of people like Ackerman and O'Hara.
Vitale always did give a good interview.
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