BREAKING: Art Chansky out at UNC, 10/6 Chansky email to Thorp about search for Davis replacement

UNC Scandal42

Late this afternoon the word came down that Art Chansky, who is a big wheel at Tar Heel Sports properties, was out, apparently unexpectedly.

Also, around the same time, WTVD made available this email, which is amazing.  Basically Chansky is critical of Davis in a vague way and is suggesting some guys to conduct a coaching search to replace Davis.  You have to read the whole thing.

I will let others speculate about whether these items are related.

The best place to follow this is on Mark Armstrong’s Twitter feed.

In the news article on WTVD, the head of Tar Heel Sports Properties and Chansky don’t seem to necessarily agree on what happened.

Well-known and longtime Tar Heel Sports Properties employee Art Chansky was fired Wednesday after 18 years as Associate General Manager and Account Executive for the company.

Chansky confirmed the news to Eyewitness News over the phone, but had no further comment.

The firing comes after an email surfaced in a recent release of documents

Compare that understanding to this one, also in the same article:

Gary Sobba, the head of Tar Heel Sports Properties insists Chansky resigned and said Chansky has been “a tremendous resource” and wished him the best.

In the WRAL article about Chansky, they quote a source saying:

people within the company were “surprised” that Chansky was leaving.

For those of us who aren’t in the know about Tar Heel big wigs, Chansky has written several books about North Carolina, along with the UNC-Duke rivalry. He is as much of a well-known name when it comes to Tar Heel fans as Woody Durham and Mick Mixon (pre-Panthers days).

UNC Scandal

42 Responses to BREAKING: Art Chansky out at UNC, 10/6 Chansky email to Thorp about search for Davis replacement

  1. Pack78 12/16/2010 at 8:47 AM #

    I understand that this review will be wrapped up by next Friday (LOL), but the longer this goes on, the greater the chances that unx will be conducting a coaching search under massive NCAA-imposed restrictions. They will have to come up with huge bucks to entice a viable candidate to take the job under those conditions IMO…

  2. wolfpackdawg 12/16/2010 at 8:53 AM #

    My take is that the UNC-cheat people would look at firing Butch as an admission of guilt…which is the last thing they have tried to do thus far. So it really depends on how badly/quickly things turn out. The hypocrosy machine keeps on giving!!1

  3. Master 12/16/2010 at 9:27 AM #

    I’m only suggesting that Art Chansky recognizes the end game that will occur and is offering advice to the man who needs it. No doubt Chansky knows people who can help UNC most in the next stage of hiring. And like I said, if it does not happen in the next 3 weeks, it won’t happen until after the 2011 season.

  4. foz 12/16/2010 at 9:32 AM #

    I just love that he put quotes around “done it the right way”. I read those as the sarcastic air quotes.

  5. graywolf 12/16/2010 at 9:58 AM #

    Wonder what Butch has on Thorpe? It must really be good for him to continue to support that cheat. WOW!

  6. 61Packer 12/16/2010 at 10:25 AM #

    Get real, everybody.

    For the life of me I just can’t understand why so many people on here just KNOW that the hammer is coming down on UNC. The NCAA, like the UNC heirarchy, is bought and paid for, and they aren’t going to do anything about this except slap UNC football on the hand, take away maybe a few scholarships, and send them on their merry way.

    Blue Skies, smilin’ at me, nothin’ but Blue Skies, do I see……

  7. bradleyb123 12/16/2010 at 10:51 AM #

    I am only partially joking when I ask this: Is Carolina run by the mob?

  8. Phang 12/16/2010 at 11:11 AM #

    graywolf – what does Butch have on Thorp? He has Bob Winston and his cronies on his side. When BOTBob says “jump”, Thorp just hikes up his skirt and asks “how high?”

  9. gcpack 12/16/2010 at 12:17 PM #

    “The NCAA, like the UNC heirarchy, is bought and paid for, and they aren’t going to do anything about this except slap UNC football on the hand, take away maybe a few scholarships, and send them on their merry way.” 61packer

    Exactly what I have felt since most of this UNC-CHeat scandal became public. All one has to do is look back to 1957. A Sports Illustrated article on the ’57 UNC-CHeat basketball team quoted a man in NY City who acknowledged that UNC coach Frank McGuire paid him to recruit players out of NYC. There was hardly a ripple in the NCAA office. Did UNC get in any trouble with the NCAA? Nope.

    UNC-CHeat has possibly more undue influence with the NCAA than any other school. I agree with you 61packer that fans will hardly notice the minimal NCAA action handed down to UNC once its all over.

    Do I blame UNC in taking advantage of their influence with the NCAA for decades. Not at all.

    I do find it completely inexplicable in this post Watergate, Bernstein & Woodward era of investigative journalism that no investigative reporter/journalist or publisher has not summoned up the guts, gumption or inspiration to pursue why UNC has such influence with the NCAA.

    It would surely be one of the most explosive revelations in U.S. sports history if the public knew the truth why the 1957 NCAA basketball championship team was able to use players recruited by an agent in NY City.
    It was an NCAA violation at the time but the NCAA was selective in deciding to enforce that rule with other member schools who were also accused of using agents to recruit players. What influence with the NCAA did UNC have to get away with this practice while other schools were getting penalized?

    By the way go to COACHOFTHEYEAR.COM & vote for Tom OBrien EACH DAY.
    TOB has moved up from 7th place to 5th place to pass Tressel of OhioSt. & Marrone at Syracuse. Pass the word around to your State friends.
    It would be great recognition for the program to get TOB into the top three.

  10. primacyone 12/16/2010 at 12:18 PM #

    I guess that is what you get when you violate your company’s “Computer Use Policy” . . .

  11. GoldenChain 12/16/2010 at 12:51 PM #

    I like the last line:
    “Thanks for reading this. I reinterate this will remain strictly between us.”

    HELLO!
    Art: Never ever takes sides against ‘The Family’!

  12. chickenchan 12/16/2010 at 1:14 PM #

    I hate to use the word “shocked” about anything coming out of the Hole these days, but I find it hard to believe that the man lost his job of 18 years over that email. It sounded like an alum offering up some contacts to help his school out to me. Are these guys really that loyal to “I’ve won nothing” Davis, where even the mention of looking for his replacement gets you canned?

  13. BladenWolf 12/16/2010 at 5:06 PM #

    I can’t see it. I cannot see a guy with the status and years of service that Chansky had being dumped because he sent a “confidential” email to Bolden Twerp suggesting Bitchy Davis may need to go. I also don’t see how he gets the knife because he said BOT’ers don’t understand athletics like “the insiders” do. WTF?
    This had to be leaked by someone other than the author or recipient. The “insider language” being aired in front of non-UNX folk may have been the trigger for such harsh damage control, but I can’t see how Twerp would extinguish a loyalist like Chansky for simply trying to grease the skids for what will ultimately take place…Bitchy Davis getting the axe.
    In Bladen County we have a saying…”That don’t pass The Smell test.”

  14. Phang 12/16/2010 at 6:32 PM #

    Bladenwolf – He said things that weren’t complementary about BOTBob. My guess is that BOTBob was shown the letter, and that he forced the firing.

  15. BladenWolf 12/17/2010 at 10:52 AM #

    Phang- I wonder who showed BOTBob this confidential letter. Bolden Twerp? If so…it wasn’t THAT confidential was it?
    I could see throwing a mid level manager at UNX under the bus, but Chansky had a lot of pull with Tar Hell Sports properties (Assoc. General Manager and Account Executive) and history with the school as well, authoring several books about the smurfs.
    What I read in the letter didn’t warrant that kind of response.
    My sense is something else is amiss in Chapel Hole and the ole’ blue argyle sweater is just beginning to unravel.

  16. Phang 12/17/2010 at 11:20 AM #

    Holden is BOTBob’s hand-picked boy. Checkout bobleesays.com, he’s run this down in previous columns. He’s a tarheel that isn’t drinking the kool-aid. And I agree with your argyle sweater comment 🙂

  17. highstick 12/17/2010 at 7:54 PM #

    BOTBob sounds like Kennel on steroids!

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