In today’s Post, columnist Mike Wise has his Roy Firestone moment. And it’s a big one, too. He got Debbie Yow to cry.
In a nutshell, the column celebrates Yow’s many accomplishments at Maryland. Twenty national titles in six sports during her tenure. Great coaching hires including Ralph Friedgen and Sasho Cirovski. Getting Comcast Center and the Byrd Stadium expansion built. Longer time in the position than five predecessors. And oh yeah, she was the first female AD in the ACC. He hints, in fact, that the “Machiavellian survival tactics” she “resorted” to wouldn’t have been such a big thing if she had a cockandballs. He calls her “a pioneer, a woman playing a man’s game.” Well…true enough.
The article is fair, and he opines that her departure was probably inevitable, given that she essentially organized shadow campaigns to buy out Gary Williams and Ralph Friedgen during their times of struggle. Obviously, those campaigns were not successful. To further my Usual Suspects motif from yesterday — “How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?” Well, she missed. Bye, Debbie.
Still, the article paints her in sharp contrast to full-on eviscerations like John Feinstein’s. But maybe that illustrates a larger theme here.
Debbie Yow’s departure came as a pretty big surprise. Of course, there are always a few blog commenters and discussion board know-it-alls who have to roll their eyes and claim this was in the works for some time. (Oh, really, blog commenter? Debbie’s inner circle must have sworn you to secrecy then…only reason to explain why you didn’t mention anything BEFORE the fact.) Yeah, her bad relationship with Gary Williams was no secret, but still, her depature evidently was.
And that’s the thing. Debbie Yow’s entire tenure at Maryland seemed to happen behind the proverbial curtain. Fans and media — the eyes, ears, and voice of the fan — were necessary evils, not something to be embraced but to be leveraged, or dealt with. When you insist on operating in the dark, you relinquish to others the job of shaping your legacy. That’s what is happening to her, for good and bad, right now.
This move was surely hastened by the new, yet-to-be-named university president coming in late summer. Given that timeline, a new permanent AD selection could be many months away. Speculation on Yow’s replacement is already afoot, but right now it’s just names on a wall. Whenever the search committee gets serious, here’s hoping they pick someone who is a fan of the Terps, and operates with those fans in mind, in the full light of day. After all, sunshine is the best disinfectant. And there’s a serious funk right now coming out of the athletic department.
