The Chronicle

Issue date: 8/28/07 Section: Column
Last update: 8/28/07 at 8:55 AM EST

Media Credit: Chronicle File photo Joe Alleva was reappointed as Director of Athletics earlier this month by President Brodhead.

A little more than a year ago, I received an e-mail from a friend who jokingly asked what Joe Alleva had on Richard Brodhead that has kept the Director of Athletics at Duke.

The tone of the message was certainly rife with hyperbole and sarcasm. But the thought behind it-that without such an off-the-wall explanation, Alleva's continued employment by Brodhead and his administration would not make sense-was one shared by a large contingent of the Duke community.

This was, of course, during the summer of 2006, when the Duke lacrosse case was still a national controversy, and this school's vaunted athletic department was under intense scrutiny. Despite the fact that we would learn over the course of the next year that the charges were false and the accused players were themselves victims, last summer was undoubtedly a low point for Duke Athletics.

Let's review for a second what we knew about Alleva then. After being appointed AD by Nan Keohane in 1998, Alleva guided Duke Athletics to some of its best achievements, including its highest-ever finish in the Director's Cup and a continued record of outstanding academic achievement. Alleva raised $130 million during Keohane's Campaign for Duke-twice the original goal of $65 million-which bolstered Duke's facilities and helped to endow more of the school's athletics scholarships. All the while, most of Duke's teams flourished in competition.

Not everything was so pretty, however. In 2005, the department was accused of overlooking steroids and coaching abuse in the baseball program. Though the report may have been overblown, it was clear that Alleva had allowed the program to languish under the leadership of a man who Alleva had hired and watched coach his two sons.

In 2006, the charges against members of the lacrosse team were Mike Nifong's fault, not Alleva's or Brodhead's, but Alleva's public comments failed to mitigate the public relations disaster and at times even added to it. Take for example when he said it was just "boys being boys," which as it turns out wasn't so wrong, but at the time was ill-advised and added fuel to the growing fire.

When the Coleman Report- one of the most in-depth investigations into the lacrosse culture at Duke-was released in May of last year, it largely exonerated former head coach Mike Pressler and passed some of the blame onto Alleva for overlooking a pattern of behavioral issues.

Continued...

Page 1 of 3 next >

Article Tools