aTm track and field teams (men's and women's) each won their third National Championship in a row yesterday. Exactly why did we let Pat Henry get away.:dis:
Pat Henry never got along well with Skip Bertman as their two programs jockeyed for position as the #3 sport at LSU. Henry won 27 National championships to Bertman's 5 but Skips program got all the ink and Skip got the high salary. It got worse when Skip was made AD. Henry never understood that sports like track which do not attract paying ticket-holders costs the department a lot of money and did not bring any in. The final straw was when Skip hired Pokey Chapman at a salary higher than Henry's. So Henry walked.
They let Pat Henry go for the same reason that they got rid of Bob Broadhead. Not part of the buddy system.
Well if we are gonna have a track team seems we would want to win the national championship. In that regard losing Pat Henry was a big mistake and I imagine the track program is still losing money...
"The final straw was when Skip hired Pokey Chapman at a salary higher than Henry's. So Henry walked." Ironically, Henry and Shavers now make virtually the same amount of money (~250,000$). Not much compared to coaches in money-making sports.
