Santa makes an "Oakland is still in play" reference

Submitted by Dyslexic96 on January 16th, 2023 at 5:23 PM

I love this guy so much 

 

massblue

January 16th, 2023 at 6:43 PM ^

Yes and no. He should not undermine his AD publicly, but outside of that he should be involved. A president’s primary job is to raise money and connect with state legislators. Athletics is a big driver of money raised. At my institution, alumni donations and applications see a good jump when we have a successful year in athletics.  We get a big scholarly recognition system such as Nobel prize or Field medal and it is crickets. 

Joined: 08/15/2009

MGoPoints: 10449

Dwarrior

January 16th, 2023 at 5:39 PM ^

This guy might be the best University of Michigan president in my lifetime. And I’m over a half century old. I love this guy! PS, Ward blows and can go. 

Joined: 01/27/2013

MGoPoints: 6871

umfan83

January 16th, 2023 at 5:39 PM ^

Santa gets it.  Right from the start he got it.  It's great to know that he understands the importance of athletics to the university and its image.   Great hire.

Joined: 03/10/2012

MGoPoints: 8466

Romeo50

January 16th, 2023 at 5:40 PM ^

You mean the Central Park Rangers? Santa will ride off and Buddy will return the hero with lessons learned about faith. Who was Buddy's boss at that storied institution?

Joined: 03/09/2013

MGoPoints: 17249

michgoblue

January 16th, 2023 at 5:51 PM ^

The guy totally gets it. I am part of a group that recently purchased a European soccer club (formerly top division, relegated years ago down to 3rd division, but the plan is to hopefully achieve promotion to second in the next few years, and then hopefully first eventually). First thing we did was to spend a ton of time familiarizing ourselves with the local fan base to make sure that we didn’t do to alienate the most fervent fans. We studied where transitions to new leaders or owners failed and it was often because the new people didn’t understand the culture of the team (to some extent, see RichRod). If Ono is actually reading the major fan blog of our teams (or speaking to people who are) and sending those signals, it’s truly a master stroke. 

Joined: 11/16/2009

MGoPoints: 32201

Qmatic

January 16th, 2023 at 6:03 PM ^

I’m pretty sure in conversation with Warde one, two, or both questions were asked:

1. What exactly do you do here?

and/or

2. What exactly am I paying you for?

Joined: 01/09/2013

MGoPoints: 33124

HollywoodHokeHogan

January 16th, 2023 at 7:25 PM ^

Finally, someone in charge of things who actually cares about how things look.  I hate Twitter as much as anyone, but thank god Ono decided to get out in public and try to make the university look good.   Seriously, the publicity around this was a mass of damaging rumors and nothing to counter a narrative built to hurt he football program until Ono stepped in.  I’m sure he stepped in first behind the scenes,  but the had to do in public too and he did.

Joined: 02/12/2011

MGoPoints: 20519