Just for the record, Dambrot was guilty of poor judgment only. He was not attempting to make a racial slur. At halftime of a game in which CMU was playing tight and uninspired ball, Dambrot apparently began an impassioned speech, in which he was trying to get the team to loosen up and play with more fire.
Dambrot tried to integrate a term his players frequently used into his speech. The players were heard to refer to "street-ball" as "n---a - ball." This was the context in which his words were uttered. Afterword, there was no immediate backlash, as nearly all his players -- at least those who were still members of the team at season's end -- said they understood what he meant and were not offended. As most of the players in question were African-American, and they weren't offended, what happened?
Simply put, a couple disgruntled players who left the team in midseason -- it was said to be mutually agreed-upon departure, due to lack of playing time and other factors -- later complained to
CMLife and brought up the coach's speech. Up to that point, the CMU administration had been taking its time investigating the incident, and I doubt much beyond a slap on the wrist and an admonishment to think before speaking (white coach on a campus in PC times, after all) would have happened. After the story went to press, everything changed. CMU suspended Dambrot for three days. As the heat continued to build in the press, provided mostly by a few small-but-vocal groups, Dambrot was dismissed.
It should be noted that the representatives from the NAACP chapter in Ypsilanti (MI) wrote in to defend the coach. So did every player still on the team (all but two). CMU, IMHO, simply bent under PC pressure. Dambrot filed a lawsuit and did manage to win on one point, though only one. CMU's definition in its code of conduct of what constitutes unacceptable speech or actions. The judge, in scolding tones, found that portion of the Code of Conduct was too broad and vague, leaving the school able to define nearly anything as offensive. Unfortunately, Dambrot's claim that he was essentially punished twice for the same unfortunate choice of phrase did not hold up in court. Neither did his wrongful firing suit based on free speech. He did, at the least, help reshape a bad piece of University policy.
In the aftermath of the Dambrot incident, CMU's Deshanti Foreman and other quality players transferred out, and the program slid from its level of modest improvement to poor performance under Leonard Drake, who would later be fired after leading the MAC in technical fouls assessed to a coach. :censored: Jay Smith, who may or may not be retained much longer, has at least provided two MAC Championship teams, including one MAC Tournament winner, which advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament. That's been about it since the late 80s. I still think Dambrot could have done something positive at CMU (ditto Charlie Coles, but I'm not going there just now
).
It's your long awaited day in the sun. Get over us, already.
