Minority Group Leader Says Ellerbe Should Stay For Duration Of Contract

Minority group leader says Ellerbe should stay for duration of contract

■ U-M African-American Alumni chair: coach hasn't had chance to build winner.

By JOE SLEZAK
NEWS SPORTS REPORTER

We're strong supporters of the university and the athletic program. There will be a lot of alumni, particularly African-American alumni, that will be incensed with Martin and Bollinger."

- Richard Stacy, membership chairman of the U-M African American Alumni Council

The membership chairman of the University of Michigan’s African American Alumni Council said Saturday that embattled men’s basketball coach Brian Ellerbe should not be fired.

Richard Stacy, a corporate executive who lives in Detroit, sent e-mails and/or faxes supporting Ellerbe to U-M president Lee Bollinger, athletic director Bill Martin, several regents, administrators and others with ties to the university Friday.

Stacy’s support comes on the heels of a letter supporting Ellerbe sent to Bollinger by the Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of Detroit’s NAACP chapter. Stacy said he believes Ellerbe should be allowed to coach U-M for the remaining three years of his contract and develop the freshmen on this year’s team.

Stacy wouldn’t say racism was at work in the Ellerbe matter, but he said he has concerns about the athletic department as a whole.

“I don’t know if I would actually call it racism,” Stacy told The News. “I don’t believe Martin has indicated anything to me that he’s a strong advocate of African-American interests. (Almost) all the African-American people in the athletic department have left (during Martin’s tenure). That seems to bear it out.”

Many of the employees to which Stacy makes a reference left the university for better opportunities.

Not everyone agrees with Stacy. LaVell Blanchard Sr., a black who is father of U-M player LaVell Blanchard, said he’s concerned about the issue of racism being connected with Ellerbe’s status.

“I think there are more important things the NAACP can work on,” Blanchard Sr. said. “If they are in the business of helping people, there are a lot of things in the world that need straightening out besides a basketball team.”

Ellerbe is 62-60 in his four years at U-M. The Wolverines were 25-9 and won the Big Ten tournament in his first season, 1997-98, but have posted a 37-51 record in the three seasons since. They were 10-18 overall and 4-12 in the Big Ten this season, and lost Thursday in the first round of the conference tournament to Penn State, 82-80.

Stacy said that Ellerbe hasn’t had the opportunity to build a winner at U-M because the investigation surrounding booster Ed Martin has been hanging over the program.

“Brian now has the ability to do some decent recruiting,” Stacy said. “When you look at his schedule and his win-and-loss record, he hasn’t been given an opportunity to build a quality program. This is the first year he’s been able to get kids in who have some talent. They won’t have the skills to compete until next year. To remove him from the spot this year would be premature and clearly unfair.

“It’s absolutely preposterous to use that (record) as a barometer. The university had the huge stench of the Ed Martin scenario.”

Stacy said that this year’s freshmen - Josh Moore, Avery Queen, Bernard Robinson Jr. and Maurice Searight - have the ability to be the core of the team that brings U-M back to glory, and adding other recruits to complement them next year could bring Michigan back to the Fab Five success of the early 1990s, in which the Wolverines twice lost in the NCAA Tournament championship game.

Queen, Robinson and Searight all were disciplined by Ellerbe late in the season for various team rules violations. But Stacy counters that the disciplinary measures taken are a reflection of Ellerbe’s character.

“Brian has shown he has concern for the quality of the program when he benched some of his top players this year for disciplinary reasons,” Stacy said.

Stacy said he doesn’t know Ellerbe personally, but met him last summer at a golf outing hosted by the U-M Club of Greater Detroit.

“He has the skill and personality to lead the program at U-M,” Stacy said.

Stacy said that if Ellerbe were to be fired, many members of his group would be upset.

“We’re strong supporters of the university and the athletic program,” Stacy said. “There will be a lot of alumni, particularly African-American alumni, that will be incensed with Martin and Bollinger.”

Stacy, who earned a bachelor’s degree from U-M in 1973 and graduated from the Law School four years later, said the African American Alumni Council has upward of 10,000 members, some of whom graduated as far back as the 1940s.

“I believe I speak for the vast majority of those folks,” he said.

News sports reporter John Heuser contributed to this story.