Ex-Bona AD closes 'cautionary tale' - Business First of Buffalo:

meaning-sarajevo.blogspot.com
Last week, in a statementg e-mailed to the media six minutes shy of6 p.m. on a Friday he got it. The formefr athletic director, who resigned in the wake of the school's 2003 basketballl player-eligibility scandal, has settled his lawsuit against the While the settlement terms are the university acknowledged in an April 21 statement thatthe "di d not make any findings or impose any penalties" againstg Lane in a February 2004 reportf on the basketball scandal, which centered on the eligibility of a transfer player whose highesgt level of education was a welding certificate.
That acknowledgment is key to who levied the April 2004 libel lawsuiyt against his former employer seeking atleasrt $1 million in damages. "That's very gratifying becausr that's 180 degrees from what they said," he "and from what I begged them not to An April 2003 internal reviewby St. Bonaventure claimes that Lane had violated NCAA Lane says he pleaded with universitgy officials on the morning ofthe report's releasde to leave his part out of it. "You're wrong," he claims to have told them, "I haven't violatede any rules.
" To the contrary, Lane he had already warnede university officials in 2002 thatthe player, Jamil was not academically eligible under NCAA rules. Lane says he was overruled by then PresidentRobertf Wickenheiser, who also lost his job after news of the situationn broke in March 2003. who resigned from St. Bonaventure in May 2003 after learninhg his contract would not be says he applied for 84 jobs before finding his curreng position as director of championships for theCape Cod-basede . He says the internal Bonaventurs report caused deep personal damagre to him andhis wife, Mary Lou.
"Theree were days where the only words that came out of her moutu were aboutthe (Bonaventure) he says. Though the 2004 NCAA ruling essentiallycleansed Lane's name, he was clearly anxiou s to hear St. Bonaventure acknowledge his At first, the April 21 statement from the Allegany-based school capturef little media attention. Lane e-mailecd Business First one daylater - a Saturday - with the Bonaventure statement attached. He pointed out that the newspapedr had covered the basketball situatiomn extensively and asked for an update on his The vindication, he later acknowledge in a telephone interview, was He's even considering writing a book.
"It'zs a cautionary tale about college athletics," Lane "It's a story about a university president who losthis way. It talkds about a board of trusteeswho wouldn't listen to a professiona in the athletics department who knew what was going