HOYA Column on Esherick

[hoyaLS05]

D. Pierce Nixon weighs in on everybody's favorite former coach.
www.thehoya.com/node/15526

And yet, one thing stands in the way of Georgetown Basketball’s proper return to glory — a spot of tarnish on the program’s gleaming history. Maybe it was an inadvertent mistake, and it may be unpopular to bring up, but it’s about time that Georgetown apologizes to former Head Coach Craig Esherick (B ’78, L ’82) for the way we treated him.

Have at it...

[SirSaxa]

It seems the writer neglected a few key items when he wrote his article.
Not a single mention of the arrrogant and delusional Esh tirade that led to his departure? How he would be here another 30 years and we were lucky to have him? Nothing about the starting back court transferring out of school? Nothing about the disastrous Big East record or losing to the walk-ons at SJU?

If anything, the intervening years have shown with remarkable clarity, just how poor a job Esh was doing as head coach. Billy Packer called us irrelevant. But it's true Esh did have a couple of fans. Both named Jim in fact. Boeheim and Calhoun sure loved him.

The writer is a senior? So he came after Esh departed. He's known nothing but success as a Hoya Fan. Easy to minimize the prior days. Maybe Nixon should talk to some alumni whose entire time at GU took place while Esh was coach. Let's hear what they have to say. Georgetown's current seniors are among the luckiest bunch in the past 35 years. Maybe second only to the Classes of '85 - '87.

As a long time member of the GU community, there is no way that I see that anyone associated with GU should be apologizing to Esh. I could see welcoming him back if/when he chooses to return. He was a solid contributor for many years.

But no, I don't think he was mistreated on the way out. He brought it on himself.

And hey, I am going to guess this post will be one of the more mild mannered -- unless Dan, DFW, and Wilson lock this thread. Come to think of it, might be a good idea.

Let's get back to THIS YEAR's team.

[CAHoya07]

Haha, yeah, another Esherick thread that has the "explosion" potential.

I harbor no ill will towards Esherick, and I believe the University made the right decision to fire him the way they did. As SirSaxa put it, Esh brought a lot of it upon himself - the horrible losses, his defiant nature, the transfers, etc. I wish it could have been a little less messy, but it was absolutely the right decision. JT III proves it every day he's on the sidelines, and GU in no way needs to apologize to Esh. I don't see the vote of confience that DeGoia gave him a few weeks before he was fired as a "lie;" nowhere did DeGoia say that Esh's job was guaranteed, he just issued his confidence which ultimately ran out. I also think it's a lot of speculation without evidence to say that it was the rich alumni who bullied the administration into forcing Esherick out.

I recognize Esherick's many years of service to the University, and hope that one day he can come back to Georgetown and be acknowledged for it (probably way too much to ask for at this point). But I don't think he was mistreated at all.

[SFHoya99]

Esherick failed in a high profile job. His job performance warranted his dismissal. D. Pierce Nixon (seriously? How bad can the D be if you're going by Pierce?) doesn't know what went on between Jack and Craig at all, but if there is an apology needed, it would be Jack's.

I'm a big fan of loyalty. But loyalty means getting him a job he can perform well, not continually supporting someone after they've proven they can't succeed. 99.9% of people couldn't do the job well; it's no shame.

[1227]

Terrible column. The man was fired because he was arrogant in the face of consistent losing and also because he was - wait for it - a terrible basketball coach. I don't really understand the claim that he was treated terribly. He didn't perform and he was relieved of his duties. That is how things work. Perform poorly at your job, get fired. Also, why is this column being written now? I thought we had all gotten over it (at least those who lived through it have - unlike the author of the column, who was presumably in high school at the time). Why would Hoya editors allow this to make the paper?

[sbgorms]

This is pretty mind-boggling. I don't even know where to begin. The fact that the writer probably never met him is a start. Beyond that, the fact that he likely never attended a game that Esh coached. SirSaxa hit most of the key factual points at the top of the thread, but this really Editedes me off.

I'm glad Nixon's sorry, but I don't know what he wants. Does he think we should have kept Esh on in a coach emeritus position and kept paying him for doing nothing? That's a great use of Georgetown's limited resources. Or we should have just not fired him? Or perhaps "promoted" him to AD? And evidently we're supposed to name a building after him. Or at the very least have the Craig Esherick Urinal at McDonough Arena.

The sequence of support to firing was odd, and should have been handled better, but it is about number 17,000 on the list of things that have been mishandled at Georgetown.

Esherick failed. I was an Esherick apologist for too long, but started to waver during 2002, my senior year. Instead of building, which Esherick did to some degree during his first 3 years, things regressed to ugly very quickly.

In the end, he did not succeed in his job, and was fired for it. I don't think anyone called him a dirtbag on the way out the door, tried to humiliate him (at least no one in the administration), or anything else. Yes, he spent 25+ years of his life as a Hoya, but in the end he couldn't do the job he was paid to do.

Nixon's attitude is the kind of thinking that scares me about Georgetown. Yes, I value the Georgetown family and I value it greatly, but that doesn't mean you should turn a blind eye to incompetence and failure. If you are paid to do a job at Georgetown and you miserably fail to accomplish your goals (or is it your expectations?), you should be fired, I don't care how many times over you are a Hoya. Rewarding incompetence is a dangerous game.

I just can't wrap my mind around the reasoning for this column.

And we won't even get wrapped up in how alumni are 'bitter,' Esh was 'venerable,' Alums 'bullied' DeGioia, Esherick had 'modest success,' the administration 'seemingly lied,' Alums 'denounced and destroyed' Esh, whose 'innumberable contributions are obscured by a bizzare notion that he was some villanous athletic saboteur.'

And my favorite..."Esherick fell victim to the whims of an impassioned mob."

And there it goes...my brain just exploded.

[joey0403p]

i'm just happy we have JT III. I wish Esh had done better - but he could not do this job at this level. I think most people wish him all the best.

[strummer8526]

Feb 26, 2008 3:32:38 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

D. Pierce Nixon (seriously? How bad can the D be if you're going by Pierce?)

There's some good substance. Thanks for the contribution to the topic.

[nolahoya]

Has Esh been hired by anyone to coach D1 basketball? I rest my case. If he was "good" someone, somewhere would have given him a shot after G'Town.

[Jack]

Personally, I would like to see the apology come directly from YB- he is the one who really got Esh fired.

My favorite line from the column is this:

After all, Esherick did a lot more work for Georgetown than many of the rest of us will, and many students and alumni are comfortable with the way he was treated.

As if he was some kind of selfless volunteer, devoting countless hours on behalf of his ungrateful alma mater at the expense of his other career.

This column reflects a broader problem with college newspapers, and is certainly not unique to this particular staff at The Hoya, or even The Hoya in general: lack of perspective. By its very nature as a student newspaper, your most senior writers have only been around for 4 years, and they are unlikely to have a true feel for what happened previously even if they go back and read the archives. A certain type of myopia results, and we see not only columns like this, but we also see similar stories repeated every few years with no recognition of their connection to previous events. We also see that those with institutional knowledge are able to shape the reporting of historical events in their favor, with vanquished opponents now no longer available for comment. That is more often the result in news stories than in columns like this, which, as far as I can tell, did not rely on speaking to anyone involved in Esherick's departure.

[I Bleed Hoya Gray]

I don't think the article is arguing that he shouldn't have been fired or that he was a good coach. Just saying the way it was handled was poor. And I think that's fair. If they were going to fire Esherick, why support him two days earlier?

[theexorcist]

Jack is right - this is really a lack of perspective issue. Escherick's rant destroyed my obligation to give him the benefit of the doubt.

With that said, the university really didn't handle his firing well. Going from a universal declaration of support to a quick defenestration creates some bad blood.

There should be something at some point in the future welcoming Escherick back into the Georgetown fold that essentially buries the hatchet on both sides and recognizes Escherick for being the loyal assistant that he was. That time is not now, and is probably not five years into the future (the wounds from that era remain too painful).

[SDHoya]

I was on campus for the final year of the Esh Era and it truly was a sad state of affairs for both the basketball team and for school spirit and pride around campus. Firing Esh was the right thing to do, especially after we were all told that we should not expect to ever be a perrenial tourney quality team. JTIII came in and immediately changed that, starting with changing the attitude of the program.

However, I think the university did do a diservice by extending his contract, and then promptly firing him. I understand the administration was just trying to show their support for the guy, but that kind of building him up just to knock him down is pretty embarrassing. I agree with Nixon in that this was a guy who had given most of his life in service to the Hoyas, and we were hardly kind to him in his exit.

[DanMcQ]

First, I do not think it was all that bad a column - it expresses an opinion and the writer is welcome to it. As for quibbles about factual basis, who cares if Billy Packer said he thought the program was irrelevant?

I think the University made the right decision at the right time with regard to the coaching position. I do not think the University did Craig Esherick wrong in any way.

Perhaps what the writer is getting at is the vitriol and public vilification that Craig Esherick has been the object of both here on this board and in public. No, he was not doing the job. Yes, the coaching change made sense and yes, it has worked out better than most of us could have imagined. Should people apologize for the personal venom in some of their attacks against Craig Esherick? Apparently many think not since Hoya basketball's winning percentage is apparently such a vital figure that it causes many to lose sight of common decency and respect. That fact is sad.

[williambraskyiii]

Can D. Pierce (really D. Pierce, really?) write his next column thanking YB for holding the "Fire Esh" rally? I also think the Board needs to issue a collective mea culpa apologizing to YB for the way we treated "his kids" as well as the disdain directed toward his Motorola Q.


It is readily apparent that this clown: (a) doesn't have the foggiest idea about the game of basketball [channeling hoyafoeva]; (b) was barely a twinkle in his pappy's eye when I was SUFFERING through heartwrenching losses in 4OTs, six men on the court and Drew Hall 30 ft heaves with 4 seconds left; and (c) should shut his yapper until he can produce any evidence that he was personally involved in any of the negotiations or general circumstances surrounding Craig's extension, his 30-yr decree, or his subsequent demise.

I also agree with the lack of perspective point - that is clearly in play here.

And as some people alluded to, it isn't like we booted Craig onto the street and he is now living under the Whitehurst Freeway or anything...for the Edited-poor job that he did, he should have been paying the university.

His legacy will be three things: (1) THE FIST; (2) THE 'STACHE; (3) Blake Esherick's Temper. Thank you for those things Craig.

[strummer8526]

Feb 26, 2008 9:55:26 GMT -5 DanMcQ said:

First, I do not think it was all that bad a column - it expresses an opinion and the writer is welcome to it. As for quibbles about factual basis, who cares if Billy Packer said he thought the program was irrelevant?

I think the University made the right decision at the right time with regard to the coaching position. I do not think the University did Craig Esherick wrong in any way.

Perhaps what the writer is getting at is the vitriol and public vilification that Craig Esherick has been the object of both here on this board and in public. No, he was not doing the job. Yes, the coaching change made sense and yes, it has worked out better than most of us could have imagined. Should people apologize for the personal venom in some of their attacks against Craig Esherick? Apparently many think not since Hoya basketball's winning percentage is apparently such a vital figure that it causes many to lose sight of common decency and respect. That fact is sad.

Excellently said, and I totally agree. Before anything, the guy was an alum. He stayed at Georgetown. He clearly cared about Georgetown and our Hoyas. He was an awful coach, and it was right to make a change. But if I ever fail the University in a significant way, I would still hope to be a welcome part of the alumni community. I don't think Esherick will ever be accepted as more than a punchline or a source of anger. Being a bad coach doesn't make him a bad student, alum, or assistant coach during some of our years that were better than his tenure.

[strummer8526]

Feb 26, 2008 9:57:01 GMT -5 williambraskyiii said:

It is readily apparent that this clown: (a) doesn't have the foggiest idea about the game of basketball [channeling hoyafoeva]; (b) was barely a twinkle in his pappy's eye when I was SUFFERING through heartwrenching losses in 4OTs, six men on the court and Drew Hall 30 ft heaves with 4 seconds left; and (c) should shut his yapper until he can produce any evidence that he was personally involved in any of the negotiations or general circumstances surrounding Craig's extension, his 30-yr decree, or his subsequent demise.

I also agree with the lack of perspective point - that is clearly in play here.

I don't see any evidence that you were personally involved with this column, so can you shut your yapper?

[Channeling Foeva w/ sequential replies.]

[I Bleed Hoya Gray]

Feb 26, 2008 10:00:18 GMT -5 strummer8526 said:

Excellently said, and I totally agree. Before anything, the guy was an alum. He stayed at Georgetown. He clearly cared about Georgetown and our Hoyas. He was an awful coach, and it was right to make a change. But if I ever fail the University in a significant way, I would still hope to be a welcome part of the alumni community. I don't think Esherick will ever be accepted as more than a punchline or a source of anger. Being a bad coach doesn't make him a bad student, alum, or assistant coach during some of our years that were better than his tenure.

Wow. I didn't expect that from "Hatred Dude"

[BigMike]

I think too often people look at things in terms of what Georgetown owes them instead of what they owe Georgetown.

Georgetown gave Coach Esherick a free undergrad education and maybe even law school.

Georgetown gave Coach Esherick an unbelievably rewarding, exciting and fun job.

Georgetown made Coach Esherick a millionaire - he made more money in his two head coaching contracts than most people make in a lifetime.

His Georgetown connections gave Coach Esherick another career after coaching


In return Coach Esherick did the best that he could. I believe he gave everything he had to Georgetown, but Georgetown gave the same back. Nobody is to blame here. It didn't work out and he lost his job. It happens everyday to thousands of people who need their jobs much more than Coach Esherick did.

Please lets move on.

[Deleted]

Craig was invited to attend the 100th Anniversary Basketball gala last year, and declined to come. That's just one example, but there are others. To argue that he's not being welcomed back is incorrect.