SECond Comming

Ol' Ballcoach ready to stir up SEC once again


COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The University of South Carolina charter plane is scheduled to leave here Wednesday at 1 p.m. and land in Birmingham less than two hours later. That's when The HBC and his small Gamecock entourage will make their way to the Wynfrey Hotel, site of the annual pigskinpalooza known as SEC Football Media Days or, as some are calling it: Return of the Visor.
Some things just don't seem right: Hooters waitresses wearing cardigans ... french fries dipped in yogurt ... Steve Spurrier in the NFL. This -- The Head Ballcoach returning to the league and college game he once ruled -- seems right. That's because Spurrier and Saturdays in the SEC go together like Ohio State and investigations.

Steve Spurrier has a new look on the golf course. Will the Gamecocks look any different on the field?
Nearly 700 media credentials have been issued for the three-day football fest, which is more than were issued for the SEC championship game and only about 100 fewer credentials than were issued for last January's national championship in the Orange Bowl. Those were actual games. This is a dozen coaches wearing suits, droning on about their two-deep depth charts.
But Spurrier will liven things up. He always does.
"I don't have any profound words of wisdom or predictions for the [media]," said Spurrier, as he sat in a restaurant booth Monday evening, just hours removed from attending the funeral of a University of Florida friend. "They may be a little disappointed. I'm going to say we're going to have a competitive team. What our record is, who knows?"
I've listened to Spurrier before at these SEC preseason gigs. I'll take the over on profound, on predictions, on moments when Spurrier won't be able to press his own mute button. That's why there won't be an empty seat in the hotel auditorium when Spurrier arrives for his late-afternoon session. That's why 20 sports talks shows have reserved space on Radio Row, the long hallway just a few steps from the Wynfrey's registration desk.
When Spurrier ended his self-imposed one-year stay on Elba and replaced a Lou Holtz regime that had atrophied and resorted to NCAA rules cutting, it was as if the SEC suddenly chugged a case of Red Bull. Now there are so many storylines this week that you need a valet parker for them all.
Not only do you have Spurrier's return after a confusing, dysfunctional two-year tenure with the Redskins, but you have Urban Meyer replacing Ron Zook at The HBC's old dynasty -- Florida. You have Les Miles replacing Nick Saban at LSU, Ed Orgeron replacing David Cutcliffe at Ole Miss, and Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer almost replacing Auburn as the person/rival Alabama fans would most like to see hideously scarred by a lava flow (Fulmer, among others, ratted on 'Bama to the NCAA, and the testimony became public).
But make no mistake: Spurrier is the SEC Media Days headliner. He's the reason why South Carolina's leading newspaper, The State, runs a daily "Countdown to the Spurrier Era."
Until Monday evening, the last time I saw Spurrier was in April, the week of the Masters. Back then he still didn't completely know his way around Carolina's Williams-Brice Stadium, but he knew more than $3 million worth of donations had streamed in since he took the job.
He gave me a tour of the new football facility attached to one end of the concrete stadium. He showed me the football-only weight room, the sprint track, the state-of-the-art film rooms. But there was an awkward silence when he stopped at the sparse trophy case, which featured hardware from a 2001 Outback Bowl victory.
"Outback Bowl, that's about it," said Spurrier, who won a national championship, seven SEC titles, and 122 games during his 12-year stay at Florida. "Yep, Outback Bowl."
His third-floor office, which overlooks the field, had been aired out to rid the place of Holtz's pipe smoke. On a shelf in back of his desk was his original Florida helmet (a MacGregor model) from his days as a Gator star, as well as helmets from all of his playing/coaching stops (San Francisco 49ers, Tampa Bay Bucs, Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL, Duke), except the Redskins. Spurrier would rather sing "Rocky Top" than acknowledge his employment experience with Redskins owner Daniel Snyder.
He pulled out a blue-and-white seersucker outfit and said he was going to wear it on the sidelines one day. He clicked on a battery-operated mascot doll called, "Little Cocky," and happily watched as it strutted and played the school fight song. He pointed toward the empty stadium and said he was going to have the place painted, that he wanted to make South Carolina "a cool school ... get a buzz going about it."
The buzz will reach critical mass the moment he steps foot into the Wynfrey and becomes close, personal friends with the army of waiting minicams. And just wait until the Gamecocks' Sept. 1 season opener against Central Florida, or the Sept. 10 game at Georgia, or the Oct. 29 visit to Tennessee (he loves to push Fulmer's buttons), or the Nov. 12 game against Meyer and the Gators.
Spurrier turned 60 in April (as part of his birthday present, staffers arranged a call with one of his longtime favorites, John Wooden), but looks 50. He follows the advice of Satchel Paige, who once said something to the effect: How old would you act if you didn't know how old you were?
Once again, free of the 12-20 Redskins experiment, Spurrier doesn't know how old he is.
"I feel rejuvenated," he said at dinner's end. "I feel a lot like my first year at Florida in 1990."
That was the year the Gators finished 9-2 and ranked 13th in the polls. Do that this year at Carolina and the Outback Bowl hardware is going to have to find a new home.Gene
Wojciechowski is the senior national columnist for ESPN.com. You can contact him at gene.wojciechowski@espn3.com.

A Cheesy Way To Lure Voters

Class, This is what We Call Elections Fraud...............

In Philadelphia they're calling it "The Cheese Caper." A Deputy City Commissioner asked the District Attorney's office to investigate who passed out flyers on primary election day -- May 17 -- promising free cheese to voters for particular candidates.

The flyers are topped by a handwritten scrawl, "Come Out + Vote," adding below, "For Who Ever." In type, they say "Free Cheese." The flyers list two candidates, both Democrats, running in an area dominated by the 300-plus-unit Hill Creek housing project.

"This guy comes to the polls, votes, and asks us for his free cheese," says Eileen Kleindienst, a Republican judge of elections. Geraldine Hacker, the Republican official who sent Kleindienst's complaint to the DA, thought the food might be from a government nutrition program.

The woman who wrote the flyers, Hill Creek tenant council President Gerri Robinson, doesn't think she did anything wrong. "The people around here, you can't get them to come out and do nothing unless you're giving them something," she says. Besides, she adds, the flyers worked: The two cases of cottage cheese were gone by day's end.

Quote of The Day

Well Class Scuba Steve Gets the Gold Star Sticker for this Quote

"The only way a supreme court nominee could win the approval of
NARAL and Planned Parenthood would be to actually perform an
abortion during his confirmation hearing, live, on camera, and
preferably a partial birth one."

--The Always Cynical but still Funny Ann Coulter

"A" for Effort

Now this is a nice use of City Reosources & Your Tax Dollars....so class the most important lesson here is while he does get an "A" for effort.....Dont Be this Guy


Fire Captain Uses Fire Truck to Water Lawn
By The Associated Press
Wed Jul 20, 8:36 AM ET

KOKOMO, Ind. - A city fire captain has gotten in trouble for mixing work with his home life.


Capt. Kevin Shaffer must repay the department $120 for using a fire truck to water his yard. He also was reprimanded and must pay 35 cents per gallon for the water he used, officials said.

Shaffer and other firefighters were training recently on the south end of town, after which Shaffer wanted to purge the truck's tank.

Instead of dumping the water down on the street or down a drain as is normal procedure, Shaffer put the water on his lawn in the city 50 miles north of Indianapolis, Deputy Chief Pat Donoghue said Tuesday.

"We consider that a misuse of fire department equipment," Donoghue said. "He said he didn't want to waste it. If he didn't want to waste it, he could have watered the department's lawn."

Shaffer said he did not plan to appeal the reprimand or fine.

Roberts May Lead a Conservative Shift on High Court

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- John G. Roberts Jr., President George W. Bush's first nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, may nudge the high court in a more conservative direction, according to legal experts and interest groups.

Roberts, who would succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, offers top academic marks, a resume laden with conservative connections and a bipartisan list of high-powered admirers acquired over the course of a 25-year career as a Washington lawyer.

The 50-year-old jurist's intellectual heft and personal skills offer at least the potential to influence other justices and shift the court to the right, said Pepperdine University law professor Douglas Kmiec, who worked with Roberts in the Reagan administration.

``This is the makings of a conservative Bill Brennan,'' Kmiec said, referring to the justice who was the intellectual leader of the liberal court under Chief Justice Earl Warren in the 1960s. ``Combine his work ethic with a downright dynamite personality, and you've got somebody who will be extremely effective.''

With barely two years judicial experience and only a handful of academic articles to his credit, Roberts doesn't have much of a track record on many of the issues he likely would consider as a justice. And justices have been known to surprise their presidential sponsors. On the current court, Republican appointees David Souter, Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor and John Paul Stevens all proved less conservative than some of their supporters had hoped.

Conservatives Applaud

After Bush nominated Roberts to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2001, 150 Washington lawyers signed a letter saying he ``represents the best of the bar'' and ```would be a superb federal court of appeals judge.'' The group included a number of prominent Democrats, among them former top Clinton administration lawyers Seth Waxman and Lloyd Cutler.

``I don't see ideological underpinnings,'' said A.E. Dick Howard, a law professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. ``Conservative, yes, but ideology, no,''

Conservative groups reacted with pleasure -- and liberals with trepidation -- at Bush's choice of Roberts. ``His nomination is a solid first step towards returning the federal judiciary to its proper role in our system,'' said former White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray, chairman of the Committee for Justice, which was formed to support Bush's judicial nominees.

``It is extremely disappointing that the president did not choose a consensus nominee in the mold of Sandra Day O'Connor,'' said Ralph Neas, president of Washington-based People for the American Way. The group's legal director, Elliot Mincberg, once worked with Roberts at the Washington law firm Hogan & Hartson.

Adhering to Precedent

The biggest question may be how quick Roberts would be to overturn Supreme Court precedents with which he disagrees. In a 2003 case involving the Endangered Species Act, he suggested he may take a cautious approach toward the law.

Roberts voted to reconsider a three-judge panel's ruling that upheld application of the law to protect a California toad species, saying it ``seems inconsistent'' with Supreme Court precedent. At the same time, he suggested he would be open to other arguments in favor of the law.

Abortion-rights groups point to a Supreme Court brief he filed in 1990, calling on the justices to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion-rights decision. Roberts signed that brief in his official capacity as a lawyer for President George H.W. Bush's administration.

Settled Law

In Senate testimony in 2003, Roberts called Roe, which the high court reaffirmed in the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, ``the settled law of the land.'' He added: ``There's nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent, as well as Casey.''

In its next term, the high court is set to decide whether states that require parental notification before a minor can get an abortion must make an exception when the procedure is needed to protect the girl's health.

Roberts, who grew up in Indiana and earned both his undergraduate and law degrees with honors from Harvard University, came to Washington in 1980 to clerk for William Rehnquist, then an associate justice and now chief justice.

The two have remained close, friends said. Roberts attended Rehnquist's annual law-clerk reunion earlier this year and imitated the chief justice as part of a good-natured skit.

After his clerkship, Roberts was a special assistant to then- Attorney General William French Smith before joining the White House counsel's office under Reagan. Roberts left the government to join Hogan & Hartson in 1986.

Supreme Court Practice

He rose to head the firm's Supreme Court practice and in 2003 earned slightly more than $1 million, according to his federal financial disclosure form.

Roberts left the firm in 1989 for four years to work in the first Bush administration, serving as deputy to Solicitor General Kenneth Starr. With his time at the Justice Department and in private practice, Roberts has argued 39 cases at the Supreme Court.

``He is without question, one of the best Supreme Court advocates of his generation,'' said Gregory Garre, a former colleague at Hogan & Hartson.

As a private litigator, Roberts often served corporate clients, among them Toyota Motor Corp. and the American Gaming Association. Roberts also argued before a lower court for a group of states suing Microsoft Corp. for antitrust violations.

Legendary Preparation

Roberts's preparation for arguing at the high court is legendary at Hogan & Hartson, said Garre.

Weeks before he was due to appear in court, Roberts would carry around a legal pad and scribble questions he might be asked, and his expected answers. As the date approached, Roberts would have ``literally hundreds'' of potential responses. He would also hold at least three mock arguments, honing his reasoning.

As a boss, Roberts was demanding, said H. Christopher Bartolomucci, another Hogan partner, who worked for him as a younger attorney. ``You know what he's expecting of you, but he doesn't wield a stick,'' he said.

Roberts is an avid golfer who hasn't been able to spend much time on the course since adopting a son and a daughter about five years ago, Bartolomucci said.



To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net.

John G Roberts Jr., Nominee 109th US Supreme Court Justice

Bush Chooses Roberts for Court

By Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei

President Bush nominated U.S. Court of Appeals Judge John G. Roberts Jr. for the Supreme Court last night, passing over several female candidates to replace the retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in favor of a well-regarded litigator with conservative credentials and friends in both parties.

Bush introduced his choice for the nation's 109th justice in a prime-time East Room ceremony broadcast live on national television after a dramatic day of shifting speculation that captivated Washington. The president hailed Roberts as an impressive legal figure who would interpret the Constitution and laws rather than legislate from the bench.

"John Roberts has devoted his entire professional life to the cause of justice and is widely admired for his intellect, his sound judgment and his personal decency," Bush said, with Roberts at his side. The president added, "He is a man of extraordinary accomplishment and ability. He has a good heart. He has the qualities Americans expect in a judge: experience, wisdom, fairness and civility."

Liberal advocacy groups immediately assailed Roberts for his positions on abortion and other issues. Before the announcement, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) ordered his fellow Democratic lawmakers to offer a more measured response to whomever Bush chose to avoid appearing knee-jerk negative, aides said. But Democrats expect to eventually wage a fight

"The president has chosen someone with suitable legal credentials, but that is not the end of our inquiry," Reid said in a statement. "The Senate must review Judge Roberts's record to determine if he has a demonstrated commitment to the core American values of freedom, equality and fairness."

Roberts, 50, a resident of Chevy Chase, clerked for William H. Rehnquist when the chief justice was still an associate justice and worked in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He was appointed by the current president to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit two years ago and confirmed by the Senate on a unanimous voice vote. But Roberts made his mark in Washington as one of the most successful advocates before the same high court he would now join.

As a successor to O'Connor, a centrist-conservative who cast the swing vote for years, Roberts is expected to move the court further to the right, but legal experts do not consider him among the most ideological of the candidates Bush considered. Often described as steady and even-tempered, Roberts has accumulated a slim record as a judge but has a longer paper trail as a lawyer for the government and in private practice. That paper trail will surely become fodder for debate in the coming weeks

Critics have already called attention to his writings on abortion. As deputy solicitor general in the George H.W. Bush administration, Roberts signed a brief on abortion financing that argued in a footnote that Roe v. Wade , which established a constitutional right to abortion, should be overturned because it "finds no support in the text, structure or history of the Constitution."

Some allies and analysts cautioned against reading too much into that because Roberts was reflecting Bush administration policy at the time. At his confirmation hearing for the appellate bench in 2003, he offered a careful answer to the abortion question that likewise was open to interpretation. " Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land," he testified, adding: "There is nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent."

Bush picked Roberts after interviewing five finalists Thursday, Friday and Saturday alongside White House counsel Harriet Miers, according to aides. Roberts, who has been teaching international trade law in London, secretly flew back to Washington to meet with the president in the executive mansion's residence for an hour on Friday. Bush spent much of the weekend consulting with his chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., and then "essentially" decided Monday night, aides said.

The White House that night called Roberts, who had returned to London for a class, and told him to fly immediately back to Washington without telling him whether he had the nomination. Bush telephoned Roberts at 12:35 p.m. yesterday to offer him the nomination, the aides said. "I just offered the job to a great, smart 50-year-old lawyer," the president told aides afterward. The judge and his family then joined Bush at the White House for dinner.

In selecting Roberts, Bush passed up the opportunity to name his friend and attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, as the first Hispanic on the court, after conservatives attacked him for being too moderate. And Bush chose not to take the advice of first lady Laura Bush, who publicly suggested that O'Connor, the nation's first female justice, be succeeded by another woman.

White House officials said Bush considered several women and minorities, but the aides did not explain why he bypassed them. He began the process by taking the files of 11 candidates with him to a European summit two weeks ago, but the list shifted repeatedly since, aides said. Bush interviewed Judge Edith Brown Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit at the White House on Saturday, and Republican allies were told Monday night and yesterday morning that she probably would get the nod.

Within hours, though, the White House signaled that she was not the choice, leading some GOP strategists to wonder aloud whether they had been used to spread disinformation or whether Bush changed his mind at the last minute. White House officials said last night Roberts was the only candidate Bush offered the job to and blamed reporters for trusting uninformed Republicans.

The nomination comes at a delicate moment for Bush's presidency, which was struggling with sagging poll numbers, a relentless war in Iraq and a stalled domestic program even before disclosures about the role of his top adviser, Karl Rove, in the CIA leak investigation. Some Republican strategists said the nomination could help the White House divert attention from the Rove scandal and reinvigorate Bush's political prospects.

The prospect of filling the first Supreme Court vacancy in 11 years has already mobilized political forces on both sides to raise vast financial resources in preparation for a struggle akin to a presidential campaign. From the moment O'Connor announced her retirement July 1, interest groups have been airing television and Internet advertising, blitzing supporters with e-mail, and pressuring elected officials to stand strong.

Liberal organizations that have been collecting dossiers on Roberts for months quickly moved to portray him as more extreme than his reputation.

"While he may not have been on Jim Dobson's short list of pre-approved nominees, let's be clear: John Roberts is no mainstream judge," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, referring to one of the nation's most prominent conservative leaders.

Reid wanted to avoid such a reaction from Senate Democrats, concerned about falling into what he considered a Republican trap of condemning a nominee before hearings start, aides said. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview that the Democratic strategy is to withhold judgment for now, but he predicted an inevitable fight with Republicans over opening up Roberts's records and forcing him to talk about abortion and other topics. "The threshold question is: Will he be forthcoming in both answering questions and making available documents about his previous record?" he said. If Roberts refuses, as many Republicans expect, Schumer said Democrats will take the question to the public.

"We know Judge Roberts is no Sandra Day O'Connor, and the White House has sent a clear signal," Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who lost the presidential election to Bush in November, said in a statement. "There are serious questions that must be answered involving Judge Roberts's judicial philosophy as demonstrated over his short time on the appellate court."

Conservatives who have pressured Bush to fulfill what they saw as a promise to appoint a justice in the mold of Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas pronounced themselves satisfied. "He's going to be a fabulous justice," said Todd F. Gaziano, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation. "He's a very thoughtful person, a very collegial person, a very deliberate person."

Republican senators quickly rallied behind Roberts. "I don't know what his views are [about Roe v. Wade ], but groups have raised a lot of money to oppose this nominee," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said on CNN. "It is incumbent on these senators not to let these groups decide it, and listen to what he says. He has been exceptional in every way."

Roberts, who was born in Buffalo and raised in Long Beach, Ind., and earned undergraduate and law degrees at Harvard University, worked in the Justice Department and the White House during the Reagan administration. After a stint at Hogan & Hartson in Washington, he served as deputy to Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr under President George H.W. Bush. He was nominated for a seat on the D.C. Circuit in 1992, but his bid disappeared along with the president's reelection hopes. Roberts spent the Clinton administration back at Hogan & Hartson and participated in the recount fight after the 2000 election before being installed on the D.C. Circuit by the current president in 2003.

Suave, telegenic and well-traveled in Washington circles, Roberts is popular in both parties and widely considered among the most talented appellate lawyers of his generation. He argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court and spoke with awe about joining the justices he has appeared before so many times. "I always got a lump in my throat whenever I walked up those marble steps to argue a case before the court, and I don't think it was just from the nerves," he said last night.

Bush has been waiting since the day he took office for an opportunity to reshape a court that, except for the recount case, has bitterly disappointed conservatives over the years.

Although seven of the nine current justices were appointed by Republican presidents, the court has preserved abortion rights, affirmative action and a ban on school prayer -- if sometimes in a more circumscribed form -- while banning the death penalty in some instances and overturning laws against sodomy.

Perhaps no voice on that court has been more pivotal than O'Connor's. With three staunch conservatives on the right and four liberals on the left, O'Connor and sometimes Justice Anthony H. Kennedy have often cast the swing votes, and O'Connor's case-by-case pragmatism has generally forged the tone and direction the court has taken in key opinions. When she announced her retirement, it raised the stakes all the more.

The Passing of a Giant

The Following is Gov. Mark Sanford's Statement on The Passing of Frm US Army COS and West Point Legend Gen. Westmoreland, a great american who's greatness is summed up well by Marky Mark below heres a little info for those who don' know.............. Although mostly associated with the Vietnam War, Gen.Westmoreland had a 36-year military career spanning World War II, the Korean Conflict and the Cold War. After his retirement, he was once acandidate for South Carolina governor, recieiving more than 42% of thevote in the 1974 Republican primary against eventual Gov. James Burrow Edwards.

WESTMORELAND "STOOD TALL, STOOD UNAFRAID,STOOD FOR WHAT HE BELIEVED IN"

Columbia, S.C. - July 19, 2005 -

Gov. Mark Sanford today issued thefollowing statement on the passing of South Carolina native and former U.S. Army Chief of Staff General William C. Westmoreland:"Whether it was leading an army into the unknown in South Asia orleading its survivors to accept their tribute at the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, General Westmoreland always stood tall, stood unafraid and stood for what he believed in," said Gov. Sanford."He's a personal friend who's had a tremendous impact on my life, he's someone I've always looked up to and had the deepest respect for, and his loss is one that will be felt by everyone who has committed their lives to the notion of spreading freedom across the globe. I'd ask all South Carolinians and all Americans to join Jenny, the boys andI in offering our thoughts and prayers to Kitzy, their children and themany friends and family members whose lives were touched by this American hero."

CGS Creative

Just an FYI, I have Recently Taking a Position within CGS Creative, A Washington DC Consulting firm specializing in Creative Marketing/Brand development. Sorry for the lack of new post during the move, should get back up to speed once I get settled in.

Check Us out at www.cgscreative.com

Heres to you Big Tom

Class we continue our tributes today with the best version of my good mate Tom Greeves of the United Kingdom, So Heres to you Big Tom...........

Rome goes Hollywood

Well a little fun for all my fellow Catholics and pretty much anyone else with a sense of humor.....The First Testament says "an Eye for an Eye", The Second Testament says "Love Thy Naighbour", and the Third Testament.....KICK ASS!!!!!....this ones for you Scuba Steve

From Across the Pond

McGee did it his way USC Athletic director calls it a career
By David Cloninger The Herald (Published June 30‚ 2005)


This isn't the story of a beloved elder statesman riding off into the sunset after a glorious reign or the story of a scoundrel being ridden out of town on a rail. This story falls somewhere in the middle.
This is the story of Mike McGee, who ran the University of South Carolina athletic department for 12 1/2 years and did it his way. He didn't do it to appease or annoy anyone -- his goal was to improve the USC athletic department, and his decisions reflected that goal and more often than not, achieved it.
"I'm not a particularly good salesman," McGee said with no shame. "I'm direct. I say, 'Here's the way we see things, here's our goals, and the budget,' and those kind of things."
When McGee walks out of the Rex Enright Athletic Center today, his tenure at USC will end and his legacy will be set. McGee will be praised by many and scorned by a few, but even his detractors have to admit McGee improved USC immeasurably.
"No question about it," said Columbia mayor Bob Coble when asked if he and McGee had ever clashed. "We fought over a number of issues relating to professional sports, but we came together for the big picture in how the Colonial Center and (USC's new baseball) stadium were to be used."
It's not like McGee is the most hated man in the state or even close to it. It's just that his abrasive style and legendary stubborness sometimes hindered business and, some say, made USC suffer as a result. Critics point out McGee's spats with Coble over the Columbia Inferno minor league hockey team and the Capital City Bombers minor league baseball club. They also bemoan the Carolina Panthers' decision to play at Clemson's Memorial Stadium during their inaugural season instead of Williams-Brice Stadium.
What many don't see is that McGee's decisions usually benefited USC in the long run.
"We received some criticism from the merchants in Columbia about not making (the Panthers) deal work," said Kerry Tharp, USC's sports information director and McGee's right-hand man for all but the last two months of his tenure. "Actually it was a financial deal. He wasn't going to sell the farm just to have pro football spend a season at our stadium, to shortchange our program at all."
As Tharp pointed out, Memorial Stadium had more luxury suites and fit better into the Panthers' plans to generate revenue than Williams-Brice, which was undergoing a renovation at the time. McGee did negotiate with the Panthers but at the end of the day, they decided to look elsewhere.
McGee never apologized because he felt there was nothing he needed to feel sorry about. The tactic helped when he began negotiating with the city of Columbia on the use of the new Colonial Center for USC basketball and hockey.
"He was not a fan of minor league pro sports," Coble said.
When the Inferno were new and were drawing fans, playing their home games in Carolina Coliseum while the Colonial Center was being built, it seemed McGee made a mistake. Today, the Inferno's attendance has dwindled and the Colonial Center has become a jewel for basketball and other events.
It's also worth pointing out that the Colonial Center is configured for hockey but the Inferno still play in the Coliseum.
"The Colonial Center, we retrofitted that for hockey," Tharp said. "The point of contention was the hockey team wanted us to pay their freight. We weren't going to do that.
"We had an extra locker room we had set aside for hockey. The way the floor and the configuration is, you could play hockey there."
The same situation arose with the Bombers, who played in a decrepit ballpark and were hinting they'd like to share in USC's new venture, a new baseball stadium adjacent to the Colonial Center set to open in 2007. That idea fell by the wayside as well.
The Bombers left town a season ago and USC will be the only tenant in the new field.
"The city, we encouraged them to participate," McGee said. "It was originally looked at as kind of a grander stadium, but not responded to favorably."
McGee leaves USC with a new basketball arena that draws several high-profile events, a new baseball stadium in the works, a twice-renovated football stadium that draws over 80,000 people for every home game and an athletic department that earned $52 million last year, just a shade up from the $18 million during McGee's first year.
There's also plans in the works to try and develop the Farmer's Market area next to Williams-Brice Stadium for a spring sports complex and to possibly purchase the property on the other side of the stadium for a new athletic department building.
Yet, McGee will leave with little fanfare from the people he was trying to serve. His prickly personality wasn't going to win over many of the Gamecocks' fans, despite him doing what he thought was best to serve them.
"At times he made some tough decisions, they may not have been the most popular," Tharp said. "He always had the best interests of the university, and sometimes they didn't coincide maybe with the best interests of the city, but his job was to lead the athletic department."
McGee did it well. He hired "name" coaches like Lou Holtz, Ray Tanner, Curtis Frye, Dave Odom and most recently, Steve Spurrier, to lead USC's athletic teams. Even if the teams didn't have tremendous success, they put USC into the national spotlight. He took over when USC was entering its first year in the Southeastern Conference, and pulled the necessary triggers to make sure the Gamecocks could compete.
If he had to step on a few toes along the way to make that happen, so be it. McGee saw what needed to be done and did it.
"Since I left South Carolina and came to Clemson, I just haven't discussed any of that," said Brad Scott, a former USC football coach who McGee fired. "I'm not going to comment on that."
When McGee announced his retirement in January, it disappointed a lot of university personnel. It also sponsored some muted cheers across the state. Since then it's been a case of tying up loose ends and preparing for successor Eric Hyman to start July 1. Hyman will be entrusted with the task of keeping a financial empire afloat and to take USC into the next phase, with only the dragged-out NCAA investigation of the football program lingering.
"I thought it'd be all wrapped up by now," McGee said.
The only question left is what McGee will be remembered by. The Colonial Center and the new baseball stadium will certainly be the tangible pieces of his reign, and the coaches he put in place should be staying for years to come.
Tom Price, USC's historian who's had an association with the school for almost 50 years, said McGee would rank among the best of USC's ADs. Price worked under a few others as the school's SID for just under 31 years, retiring when McGee was just beginning. He said McGee was at the top of the heap when it came to effectiveness.
"He was always looking out the interests of the university, which is his job," Price said. "Any confrontations he may have had were based on his feelings for the basis of his university. I'd say that he, in some respects, might have been the most controversial of all the athletic directors."
"He was pretty steadfast in his thoughts about putting the interests of say, a professional franchise ahead of USC," Tharp said. "He'd been in the pro markets before. He knew how difficult it could be to succeed."
McGee, of course, didn't really care what he'd be remembered as. He did his job and that was it.
"I think that's tough for me to answer to some extent," McGee said. "I think I've been persistent in going after people, and hopefully, the university was well-served during that period."
It was, and he was. He may not have been friendly and he may not have been gung-ho, but he did what he set out to do.
"I'm not on last legs, but I've been in this business a long time," McGee said. "I've been here 12 years and I planned to come for five."
David Cloninger • 909-4218

Prayers for our Trans-Atlantic Brethren

Prayers for all in London on this sad sad Day...........