If You Can't Fire The Band - Fire The Coach

Dianne Murphy

Former University of Denver Athletic Director Dianne Murphy has been in the national spotlight for the past week. After she unsuccessful tried to ban the university's band from the final home game of the season on Saturday, she turned her attention to the school's football coach.

From: NY Daily News
by Andy Clayton [a DU grad BTW]

Norries Wilson didn't get much time to celebrate his first win of the season on Saturday. Less than 24 hours after Columbia earned a double-overtime win over Brown, the Ivy League school fired its head football coach.

Columbia announced the move on its website Sunday morning.

"Making a decision of this nature is always difficult," Columbia athletic director M. Dianne Murphy said. "That said, in order to achieve the goals that we have set for the Columbia football program, we believe that it is necessary and appropriate to make a change in leadership at this time."

Wilson, the first African-American head coach in Ivy League history, ends his tenure with a 17-43 overall record (10-32 in Ivy League play) [read entire article].

Columbia's AD Forced To Reverse Course

(above) DU's former AD Dianne Murphy learned a valuable lesson about free speech this week

From: ESPN.com

by Mike Mazzeo

NEW YORK -- The Columbia University marching band will be able to participate in Saturday's home finale against Brown, the athletic department announced Thursday night.

The marching band had been banned from performing Saturday after poking fun at the winless football team following a 62-41 defeat last weekend at Cornell.  Columbia is 0-9 this season, 0-6 in the Ivy League. 

Columbia athletic director Dr. M. Dianne Murphy explained Thursday night why the athletic department decided to change its mind.

"We are proud of our talented and dedicated student-athletes -- but as we have discussed this issue over the past day, we come to the conclusion that the core free speech values of the University are best served by providing a forum both for speech that might sometimes offend -- as well as for the kind of open discussion that ultimately leads to greater understanding and collegiality among all members of our community," she said.

Columbia senior José Delgado, the band's manager, had emailed a statement to ESPNNewYork.com after learning of the team's ban:

"The Columbia University Marching Band would like to apologize to the members of our community, in particular to our fellow classmates and coaches, who were offended by the incident that occurred on November 12 at the Columbia vs. Cornell football game. We accept the consequences and look forward to continue to be a part of our school spirit for future athletic events."