OT - You Can't Keep a Good Man Down - Gee hired at West Virginia
December 6th, 2013 at 7:28 AM ^
It was Tressel who hired him at WVU. Gee just hopes Tressel doesn't fire him.
December 6th, 2013 at 8:12 AM ^
and you had me rolling... Well done, sir.
December 6th, 2013 at 7:29 AM ^
Gee will have one of the best ADs in the country to work with there in Oliver Luck (Andrew's father).
December 6th, 2013 at 9:07 AM ^
Why is Oliver Luck considered one of the best AD's in the country? How do you quantify AD performance other than profitability? Not looking to flame just curious.
December 6th, 2013 at 11:02 AM ^
Well, I was basing it in part because he was one of two finalists for the Texas AD job.
December 11th, 2013 at 5:41 PM ^
I suppose that would mean he is well respected. I'm just curious as to how can we compare Athletic Directors in a non-subjective manner.
December 6th, 2013 at 7:31 AM ^
We'll wait until they hire a permanent president then offer more money to hire him/her away to replace MSC.
December 11th, 2013 at 5:42 PM ^
Theresea Sullivan will replace MSC. I'm predicting it now.
December 6th, 2013 at 7:35 AM ^
December 6th, 2013 at 9:27 AM ^
December 6th, 2013 at 7:45 AM ^
$500k at least. . .
December 6th, 2013 at 1:34 PM ^
They were sort of very expensive business cards or presidental pens. I know he sent several to my son's Cub Scout pack when they were having an auction fundraiser to buy a new Pinewood Derby track. I have seen them offered up at other charity events as well. Maybe there was a cheaper way to do it, but it actually served a PR purpose. To the best of my knowledge he was not going all Imelda Marcos with them.
December 6th, 2013 at 8:02 AM ^
December 6th, 2013 at 8:03 AM ^
Over at WVMetroNews, they've already come to embrace Gee (again, as he was at WVU once before). One Hoppy Kercheval writes:
"Along the way, Gee will probably say or do something that will cause folks to cringe. After all, he’s the college president who rode the mechanical bull at a bar during one of WVU’s bowl trips. But Gee’s quirkiness is not malicious; it’s part of his unique character. And, when he keeps his foot at least a short distance from his mouth, it’s part of his charm."
December 6th, 2013 at 8:23 AM ^
December 6th, 2013 at 10:05 AM ^
You didn't find Mary Sue's "Blackout" speech to be charming?
December 6th, 2013 at 1:25 PM ^
December 6th, 2013 at 8:25 AM ^
Gee actually is quite charming - met him in person once years ago and he had everyone in the group laughing the entire time.
He is also an amazing fund raiser.
Thus, this is no surprise.
The only surprise (to me) is how many times he's stuck his foot in his mouth - perhaps a property of witty people...
December 6th, 2013 at 8:31 AM ^
My family and I met him once on a trip down to Columbus. My dad asked for a picture with Gee and the guy was hella charismatic. Gee talked to all of us, asked our names, playful jabbed at us when he found out where we were from, and had us laughing in the short 2 minutes.
December 6th, 2013 at 8:37 AM ^
December 6th, 2013 at 8:52 AM ^
West Virginia (1981-85) -> Colorado (1985-90) -> Ohio State (1990-98) -> Brown (1998-2000) -> Vanderbilt (2001-07) -> Ohio State (2007-13) -> West Virginia (2013-?)
Talk about a rise and fall. Kind of funny that he passed through Ohio State once on the way up and again on the way back down.
December 6th, 2013 at 10:01 AM ^
December 6th, 2013 at 9:25 AM ^
Does he say stuff he probably shouldn't say? Yes, but that is part of his charisma. If people want to be outraged because he made a light-hearted joke about Notre Dame, so be it. The students love him, the faculty loves him and, most importantly, the alumni and the boosters love him. He may have been a goofy president with his foot in his mouth at times, but he was our goofy president with his foot in his mouth. He is unscripted and real. That's refreshing to me.
December 6th, 2013 at 9:56 AM ^
Yeah, I can see why he'd be popular in Columbus. Most of the rest of the world was pretty cheesed off about Tressel and his lying, hypocritical ways and Gee summed up the feelings of the faithful perfectly by thinking it was all just a big joke.
December 6th, 2013 at 10:31 AM ^
Oh yea. I forgot that Gee was the horrible man behind the horrible Tressel scandal. Had he only raised millions of dollars to fund more important things than sports, say, cancer research or a heart hospital, then maybe his reputation would be a little better outside of Columbus.
December 6th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^
So if he's good at fundraising, we should just forgive his complete refusal to hold anyone acountable for athletic cheating?
December 6th, 2013 at 12:10 PM ^
If not, you clearly don't know what you are talking about. Athletics was an afterthought to Gee in general, but a necessary evil at OSU.
December 6th, 2013 at 12:32 PM ^
I thought I was laying the sarcasm on pretty thick.
December 6th, 2013 at 1:14 PM ^
Not sure the homers on this site would catch it otherwise. Other than patrolling for grammar, not sure how bright some of them are.
December 6th, 2013 at 11:05 AM ^
"Gee summed up the feelings of the faithful perfectly by thinking it was all just a big joke"
That's not how I heard his "joke". It was the only way he could get away with saying what needed said, that the athletic department at OSU was running the university.
December 6th, 2013 at 9:33 AM ^
I just hope Dana Holgorsen doesn't fire him.
December 6th, 2013 at 10:58 AM ^
Underrated post.
December 6th, 2013 at 1:26 PM ^
December 6th, 2013 at 9:34 AM ^
we all know that WVU has had such a squeaky clean record of leadership...
December 6th, 2013 at 12:05 PM ^
I feel like I have to add my 2 cents here. Gee was the Chancellor at Vanderbilt when I was in medical school there (his signature is on my diploma), and I thought he was a pretty decent president at the time--agree with the "charismatic" comments above. He was very visible around campus, always approachable, great fundraiser, etc., just without the national media buffoonery that highlighted his time at OSU. He also was behind the restructuring of the athletic dept at Vandy (which was unpopular when proposed) that has worked out extremely well for them.
December 6th, 2013 at 12:14 PM ^
While he may have been fired because of a sports related gaffe, he's an academic at heart. Think a lot of folks can't seperate him (or anythign OSU related) from the football program.
December 6th, 2013 at 12:48 PM ^
Nuff said...
December 6th, 2013 at 1:22 PM ^
This reminds me of when Dick Cheney was leading the search committee for Vice President and then became the VP nominee himself. I bet Gee gets ends up with the full-time job even though he's just the interim for the time being while they "look for a replacement."
December 6th, 2013 at 1:26 PM ^
It was at the Faculty Club for Undergrad Honor's students who were participating in a research contest. He spoke to me for at least 5 minutes, asked about my major, my project and the fact I commuted to OSU instead of living in one of the dorms. I mentioned I stayed home because my father had some health issues, I was an only child and it just made more sense to stay home.
I would see President Gee from time to time on Campus, he would always greet me by name, ask how my progress towards my degree was going and how my father was doing. A few days after my father died I got a handwritten note from President Gee expressing his condolences for the loss of my father. Less than a year later I unfortunately had to send him condolences on the death of his first wife.
As someone said, he comes off as a bit of a clown, but he was our clown and we loved him for many reasons outside of football. In fact, the only bad thing I could say about him is I wish he would have spoken less about sports.
I would suggest, if you have the time, you listen to the This American Life segment about Gee and his daughter and the letters his late wife wrote to her. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/401/parent-trap It is Act One. Too often we let the rivalry blind us to the fact that there are actual human beings on each side.
December 6th, 2013 at 3:51 PM ^
Aside from his penchant for making off-color comments (which would actually be funny if were not the president of a major university), he was a successful president by many metrics. He was loved at Ohio and Vanderbilt, and is known as being an excellent fund-raiser.
The curious thing is that he was criticized at Vanderbilt for not supporting sports, especially football--he reorganized the athletic department--and at Ohio he was criticized for being overly deferential to sports. He did whatever it was he believed was in the best interests of his constitutents, nothing more.
He is a Wall Street/CEO type president, with an outsized persona and a penchant for getting attention, and funding. That is not going to work with many institutions (he was not liked at Brown), but this may work for West Virginia.
December 6th, 2013 at 6:34 PM ^
...that he was told when he was interviewed for the OSU job that the athletic department was off limits and if he had any thoughts of repeating what he'd done at Vanderbilt he could forget it.
That would explain his deference and it would especially explain his Tressel-firing "joke".