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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Not sure what to think
of the ‘crazy’ PrezTHE firing of Evan Dobelle as UH president is also a sports story because Dobelle himself was also a sports story. He threw himself into that arena, too, jumped in feet first, no socks. He made sports about him. It seemed at one time or another, everything was about him.
His tenure was short, strange, eventful and, even more strangely, uneventful.
I'm still trying to figure out exactly what it was that he did (as in great things that he accomplished as university president) or what exactly it was that he did (as in to get the boot "for cause").
But there was a lot of hype. Unnecessary controversy, grand promises, big dreams ranging from the almost believable (encouraging) to the utterly ridiculous (embarrassing). He jumped into everything, whether he knew what he was talking about or not.
That was enough for some people. Some loved that about him. Take the athletic department, where there are so many auwes today. What did Dobelle accomplish there? A few things, of course.
But mostly it looked like he jumped in, hung out, put an arm around everyone, told them all what they wanted to hear.
That's what got him into trouble most everywhere else -- everybody is still tapping his or her foot waiting for the actual results.
His problem seemed to be that he spent too much time blowing smoke about big things that didn't matter and not enough time on the little things that did.
But in sports, it was weird. Maybe just showing he cared, getting personally involved, telling people what they wanted to hear was enough.
Maybe no one had ever done that before.
I'll miss Dobelle. I liked him. He was quite a character, still is, and I'm sad he got canned. No, not devastated (he'll be fine, and he made his own bed, besides), but sad.
At first he struck me as crazy, then crazy like a fox, then, no, just crazy.
But in an endearing way.
I'll never forget the story he told about having been a high school basketball referee who got karanged in the head after a game by an irate parent wielding a bell. This made him, I wrote, "quite possibly the only university president in the country to have been assaulted by a musical instrument during a sports riot."
And there was the time, during the Kobe Bryant training-camp circus, going into the Sheriff Center as he was coming out, that he confided he was trying out for the Lakers. I'm pretty sure he was joking. Kind of.
And when he hit the locker room after a big UH win and -- with a wink from Riley Wallace -- gave the 'Bows the next day off. They mobbed him like he'd hit the winning shot.
I liked him. He was good to me. He was the kind of guy that you could write that he was clearly insane (and I hope those columns don't come up in some kind of "for cause" mental incompetency hearing) and his comeback was, "I like your style."
We'll always wonder if he just needed more time. We'll always know it was his own missteps that cut that time short.
Good luck, Prez. I hear the Lakers are looking.
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Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com