Flashback: March 30th, 2006 from “Kennel Delivers Annual Communique To The Masses”:
Dear Chancellor Oblinger,
NC State is a Great University, and you are doing an excellent job building upon the strengths of previous Chancellors and taking us even further. Sincere thanks to you.
[snip]
Finally, I wish to state my personal support for whatever decisions you make. I also trust the recommendations that AD Lee Fowler makes and any actions of the Board of Trustees. I have known most members of the Trustees for many years and implicitly trust their judgment as well as their Chair Wendell Murphy. I also believe the Council on Athletics can always be helpful in giving a representative view from the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and Wolfpackers.
Congratulations again on the overall job you are doing and wisdom on future decisions as well.
If you frequent the Pack Pride premium message boards and have the ‘pleasure’ of reading anything written by Bob “My middle initial must be I” Kennel then you are undoubtedly ‘enlightened’ to the fact that StateFansNation employs evil mind control tactics on the oblivious and unsuspecting Wolfpack Nation. (Exactly what does this say about this guy’s inherent belief of the low intellect of all of you undeserving regular folks who don’t heed his numerous edicts to follow and never question what he says – better known as ‘supporting the status quo’.)
Mr. Kennel’s exhausting fixation on this website and obsession with unprovoked attacks on one of our long time contributors by name borders on the scarily obsessive. However, his regular rhythmic attacks leave no doubt that the superior Kennel falls far beyond the grasp of diabolical tactics!! Curses!! And we would have gotten away with it too, if not for those meddling kids!!
The man who played a public and vital role in running off Jim Valvano and who was willfully used as pawn in NC State’s administrative reshuffling in late 1980s/early 1990s continues to haunt our plans to take over NC State’s community!!
(Sidebar: In May of 2003, Kennel came as clean as you will ever get regarding his position on the only before-the-fact change we can identify:
Kennel in May 2003: “For the record, I admired Jim Valvano as much as anyone could. As President of the alumni Association in the 90-91 time frame, I had written the UNC Board of Governors to let our NC State Board of Trustees handle the issue, and I had written a joint letter to Coach Valvano and Interim (at that time) Chancellor Monteith (and met with each) to ask Coach Valvano to resign effective one year later (giving him his tenth year at State with his kind of team again – Fire, Ice, and Googs) and then have the permanent Chancellor appoint whomever he wanted for the basketball coach. I did believe it was time for Coach Valvano to move in the direction he was heading which was into the media and away from the witch hunt mentality of the N&O.”
)
But, take heart you foolish minion! Kennel’s practice of exposing our mind control tactics is not slowing our efforts to infiltrate the mushy minds of the University’s youth! The last two Student Government administrations have been very active proponents of driving change within NC State’s Athletics Department and we have also recently learned that the University’s student newspaper does not share Kennel’s immunity to our abilities!!
Check out the evaluations Technician shared on May 12th:
Chancellor James Oblinger: D
Oblinger was not accessible this year and he brought down his grade by how he handled certain situations. He did not handle the controversy over Mary Easley’s salary with grace and did not deal well with the Free Expression Tunnel Incident — not even showing up at the unity rally. One thing Oblinger knows how to do, and do well, is fundraising, but in order to be an effective leader of the University, he has to be open and accessible to students and make an effort to communicate with them.
…and compare that to Kennel’s public declaration just 10 days later that James Oblinger is a “HERO” less than two weeks later.
I still have heroes in System President Erskine Bowles and NCSU Chancellor Jim Oblinger, both of whom I trust implicitly.
SFN/Technician – 1
Kennel – 0
In case you haven’t noticed, despite Kennel’s extreme disconnect with reality and obvious public embarrassment of calling the likes of Oblinger, Bowles & Nielsen ‘hereos’ within the last three weeks — his recent posts on Pack Pride have not been mea culpas. You know, most people wouldn’t blame old Bob if he just put his pen down and retired for a while. I mean, how many times can one guy be wrong in one 20 year period? Valvano. Monteith. Robinson. O’Cain. Amato. Sendek. Fowler. Tarantini. Oblinger. Nielsen. and dozens of others. Yet…he just keeps on trucking…
But, instead of quietly hiding in a hole with deserved embarrassment, this Nostradamus with an unlimited supply of pen and ink has actually chosen to originate posts focused on criticisms of SFN and call out some of our authors for past criticisms of Lee Fowler. Really? Really? REALLY?
Then we have this interesting perspective from Technican’s sport editor, Taylor Auten.
As sports editor, you take on an incredible volume of criticism from people who don’t seem to have actually read the paper. As an editor, your response must always be prompt, measured and polite. But now that I am saying farewell to N.C. State, it is my turn to deliver some criticism of my own.
Lee Fowler: you should almost consider extending free student tickets to everyone who is graduating in 2009 for at least another year or two. We have simply not gotten our money’s worth in the past four years, having suffered through one of the worst eras of N.C. State Athletics in memory. One winning football season, one trip the men’s basketball NCAA tournament and widespread mediocrity in most of the non-revenue sports has left me feeling cheated of some element of my college experience.
SFN/Technician – 2
Kennel – 0
Coaches: if you are looking for success, please follow volleyball coach Charita Stubbs’ three step plan for establishing a winning program and building fan support. [SFN note: Stubbs is a Fowler hire]
1. Demonstrate unflinching excellence on the court. In three years with the Wolfpack, Stubbs has accumulated a 3-61 record in the ACC and a 14-84 record overall.
2. Respond to criticism in a professional, mature manner. On Oct. 14, Technician ran an editorial cartoon complimenting Stubbs’ first ACC wins in a backhanded manner. Stubbs, a black woman, felt the cartoon was directed at her race rather than her performance as a coach.
Stubbs responded to the Oct. 14 piece by refusing to comment to Technician reporters, demanding a front page apology and talking to seemingly everyone about the cartoon except the Technician staff. Repeated invitations to Stubbs to come to our office and discuss the issue in an open forum were left unanswered, and what could have been a learning experience for everyone involved developed into a bitter standoff.
Personally, I don’t think there was anything racist about the cartoon, but I will invite anyone interested to make up their own mind. Search “stubbs cartoon†on Technician’s Web site and see for yourself.
3. Create strong student and fan support by alienating the student newspaper. Stubbs understands that the best way to put out the word about her blossoming volleyball program is to refuse to talk to the only media outlet that will ever regularly cover N.C. State volleyball. She has not allowed any interviews with Technician reporters since the cartoon ran Oct. 14 (She has also not won any matches since that date.)
As sports editor, I have loved working with the wonderful people in the Athletics Department. From coaches to media relations, people have always behaved professionally, even if the results on the field weren’t ideal. But Stubbs has shown there are exceptions to the rule. Technician will continue to send reporters to objectively cover the volleyball program. It is up to Stubbs to do the mature thing and repair the bridge that has been burned between our organizations.
SFN/Technician – 3
Kennel – 0
Chancellor Oblinger: you have demonstrated your utter lack of connection and empathy with the sentiment of the student body by continuing to handicap one of N.C. State’s greatest traditions—tailgating. Five hours is not enough, and students and alumni will never be satisfied with that restriction. Tailgating is a big selling point NCSU can hold over the other ACC schools in the state of North Carolina, so stop killing one of the strongest aspects of our student culture and lift the five-hour limit immediately.
SFN/Technician – 4
Kennel – 0
Ouch! This is getting ugly! Can you imagine if today’s Technician was around when Mike O’Cain, Chuck Amato and Les Robinson (x2 – coach and AD) were pushed out and when Todd Turner left? We’d be on our way to a complete shutout!
I could ramble all day about crazy inconsistencies of this ‘truth denier’ and ‘SFN mind-control-resistor’!! But, I cannot comment on things that I do not understand. For example, can someone explain how to reconcile that someone who posts on internet message boards as if their life depended on it for over a decade can then espouse the positiong that “Message Board Fans: They should simply be ignored. The anonymous nature of the Message Boards leaves it no credibility in either quality or quantity of posted information.” is baffling. One day – all internet conversation is worthless. The next day – message boards and websites are accused of having mind control abilities and are compared to multi-million corporations. Can someone make up their mind?
There is no way that we can write this entry without sharing the following quote from Cal that he probably doesn’t even remember authoring:
The V situation is a window into Kennel’s true motivations and thought process. Mr. Kennel only objects to pressing for results or removal of a coach or administrator when the matters causing the irritant are not important to him.
For instance, I can say with little fear of contradiction that Mr. Kennel appears unconcerned with the won-loss record of any program, given that he has (despite being given the opportunity) not come out with a position regarding Tarantini.
On the other side of the coin, he feels it entirely appropriate to approach an incumbent coach – and, I might add, incumbent athletic director – and inform him that he should step aside “for the good of the university” – i.e., for the Kennel view of “the good of the university.”
Thus, I conclude as follows: Kennel here doesn’t like the criticisms of [insert name here], because he favors [insert name here]’s retention for his own private reasons, or because he doesn’t care about winning.
Wrapping himself in the Wolfpack flag does not disguise this simple fact: That Kennel shows a clear history here of simply and completely trying to tell other people what to do, which is a trait I do not find especially admirable. Worse, he accuses those taking the opposite view of aligning themselves with the worst anti-State crowd in the history of journalism. And that, my friends, is reprehensible.
