Coaches defend Williams
Bechard, Bunge livid about remarks made by former AD Bohl
Kansas University’s coaches had little to say Wednesday afternoon when Chancellor Robert Hemenway announced he had fired athletic director Al Bohl.
But coaches were livid later that night after hearing Bohl’s comments on the evening news.
During an afternoon news conference, Bohl blamed KU basketball coach Roy Williams for Bohl’s ouster and lashed out at the popular coach, saying “the mandate for my dismissal reverts the Kansas athletics department back to the pattern of great men’s basketball teams with other sports barely surviving.”
Volleyball coach Ray Bechard and softball coach Tracy Bunge had talked to Journal-World reporters after Hemenway’s news conference, but both made unsolicited calls to the newspaper Wednesday night to amend their statements after hearing Bohl’s radical comments.
“That’s the furthest thing from the truth,” Bechard said. “We have a new volleyball facility because of men’s basketball. The revenue they provide allows us to have a budget.
“Coach Williams is one of the most generous people I’ve ever met. … It’s just amazing to me. It’s very upsetting to characterize a guy who has been nothing but totally supportive for 15 years that way. I think people will see through that.”
Both coaches praised Williams for rejecting a basketball shoe contract and instead taking a Nike contract that benefited all of KU’s sports programs — despite the fact it cost him money.
“I’m saying right now — Roy Williams will be upset with me — but I’m going to tell you for the last three years Roy Williams has given my program $5,000 a year to help us because he feels like we do a good job, and he wants to support our student-athletes,” Bunge said. “He was the one who got the Nike deal and sent it back three different times so other sports were taken care of.
“Roy has done so many things for this entire athletic department. For Dr. Bohl to make that statement is ludicrous. For him to say that Roy does not care about other coaches, other student-athletes is crazy.”
Bunge, a former KU player in her seventh season as head coach, was on the search committee that chose Bohl as athletic director in June 2001.
She admitted that her program benefited from Bohl’s presence. Last fall, Mission Hills businesswoman Cheryl Womack donated $2 million toward the construction of a new softball stadium, and Bunge said Bohl made fund raising for the new complex a priority.
“I had one of better relationships with Al in the athletic department,” she said. “I really worked at it when he got here.”
But Bunge supported Hemenway’s decision to replace Bohl, who had succeed Dr. Bob Frederick less than two years ago.
“We felt very strongly that we had gotten to the point in the last couple months — probably very much where we were before with Dr. Frederick — that with his leadership we were not going to move forward and a change needed to be made,” Bunge said. “The chancellor made that change today. It was not for the benefit of Roy Williams; it was for the benefit of KU athletics.”
First-year swimming coach Clark Campbell was upset earlier this week in New Orleans when KU fans booed Bohl — the man who hired him — at a Final Four pep rally. But Campbell also was dumbfounded by Bohl’s comments about Williams.
“Coach Williams has done what’s best for University of Kansas and all of its programs,” said Campbell, a KU graduate and former Jayhawk swimmer. “It’s unfortunate how this has played out. The University of Kansas is bigger than this.”
None of KU’s 13 varsity coaches was surprised by Bohl’s dismissal.
“We knew something was bound to be happening,” said women’s golf coach Megan Menzel, who was hired under Bohl’s watch in July 2002. “There’s been speculation. I wouldn’t say it was a complete shock, by any means.”
Menzel said she had little contact with the athletic director.
“I would thank him for the opportunity to be here,” Menzel said, “but I didn’t have a very extensive relationship with him.”
Menzel wasn’t the only coach who said her relationship with Bohl was lacking.
“He had other agendas in his short time period,” Bechard said after Hemenway’s afternoon news conference. “There wasn’t a lot of contact. I think that was in the nature of what he felt like he needed to do. As a coach, you want to feel like they know how you are and how you’re doing. I don’t know if we ever got to that point.
“In his tenure here, I think he felt the job description was about energy and enthusiasm and creating a new attitude in the athletic department. I don’t think many people thought that was real.”
Four of KU’s 13 head coaches were hired since Bohl’s arrival. Only one — Campbell — replaced a coach that Bohl didn’t fire or force out. In the first year, Bohl dismissed football coach Terry Allen, baseball coach Bobby Randall and women’s golf coach Nicole Hollingsworth.
Hemenway would not comment specifically on whether he was satisfied with the coaching changes made under Bohl’s direction.
“I think Al Bohl has done many good things as athletic director,” Hemenway said. “I’m not going to get involved of the public assessment of things. In hiring coaches, you usually have a pretty good idea on whether they’re successful or not.”
Bohl had recently announced that women’s basketball coach Marian Washington would return next season, despite three straight losing seasons.
“I wish Al Bohl and his family well,” Washington said in a statement. “This is an opportunity for our department to come together and support each other as we look to the future. I will continue to trust Chancellor Hemenway’s leadership.”
6Sports video: KU announces Bohl’s firing
Audio highlights from Hemenway’s and Bohl’s press conferences
More stories about Al Bohl’s tenure