Under pressure, Memphis dumps plan to honor John Calipari
On Wednesday, the University of Memphis announced that it would honor former coach John Calipari, who is being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday night.
Calipari won 252 games in nine seasons at Memphis, and if not for missed free throws and a miracle shot by Mario Chalmers would have won the 2008 NCAA Tournament.*
*Although, that season’s 38 wins were vacated because of troubles with Derrick Rose’s test scores
In 2009, Calipari left for Kentucky and Memphis fans were not happy with the school’s plans.
@UofMemphisPres I think your Twitter account has been hacked... #Vacated #NoWins @GtownJohn @bharre55
— Brian Schneider (@schneidogg) September 9, 2015@UofMemphisPres Wholly disagree with this. Honoring him for what?
— Steven Duffel (@Duffelupagus) September 9, 2015@UofMemphisPres @UKCoachCalipari this is a joke right
— Michael Anderson (@memphisfan2095) September 9, 2015@UofMemphisPres @UKCoachCalipari is this a joke? Disgraceful that he will be honored
— Drew Campbell (@dcam901) September 9, 2015And there are a lot more comments like that, including some we can’t show here.
Well, the message was heard loud and clear by Memphis president M. David Rudd, who scuttled plans for the celebration, which was to be held Dec. 28-29.
Here is my response to our University and Community. pic.twitter.com/A8yx1ZlVDd
— Dr. M. David Rudd (@UofMemphisPres) September 10, 2015To reach Pete Grathoff, call 816-234-4330 or send email to pgrathoff@kcstar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @pgrathoff.