“Traitor” Returns: Cooley Takes High Road, PC Students Take Low Road - McMahon
Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist
“Traitor” Returns: Cooley Takes High Road, PC Students Take Low Road - McMahon
You might have seen on social media a mob of Providence College students trampling each other last Saturday. Pop quiz: What was depicted on the videos showing PC students trampling each other?
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- PC students trying to get into St. Dominic’s Chapel before the start of Mass; or
- PC students signing up for the Philo 301 class at PC, “Ethics, Moral Leadership, and the Common Good”; or
- PC students trying to get to Mr. Lemon before it closed for the season; or
- PC students entering the Amica Mutual Pavilion to vilify a former coach who left to make more money and to get a change of scenery.
I suspect you guessed the right answer is “d.)” For those students injured in this trampling scene, I’d love to hear your explanation to your Mom and Dad’s health insurance company.
Most of us diehard PC fans were upset when Cooley announced last spring that he was leaving Friartown for Georgetown. Coaches come and go at PC—we are small school with limited resources, and we have always been a stepping-stone for coaches to go to bigger programs. Just ask Rick Pitino, Pete Gillen, and Rick Barnes. Unlike these other jumpers, Cooley made his decision known before PC’s season was complete last year. I was upset only because he didn’t wait until the season was over; the timing of his decision essentially killed the PC season last year.
So, I and everyone else expected Cooley’s return to the AMP to feature lusty booing when he was introduced and every time he questioned a referee’s call. Nope, booing wasn’t enough. PC students felt the need to vilify Cooley with continuing “F—k Ed Cooley” chants and other vulgarities. Cooley was professional and ignored them. Am I the only one who thought the PC students were over the top and completely embarrassing to Providence College, to Coach English, and to the majority of Providence Friar fans?
The AMP anticipated some additional emotion in PC fandom at Saturday’s game and employed extra Providence police for the event. I mistakenly thought that the PC administration might counsel student fans before the game to perhaps refrain from outlandish behavior on Saturday. Nope. Here’s some tidbits from an email sent to students on Friday about the Georgetown game by the PC Office of Student Life:
“We have been waiting for this day, this moment, for months…and finally, it has arrived. Let the depth of our love for our team, for one another, and for our Father God be unmistakably known…This is Friar Nation, and we have one heart, one heartbeat, and we are one community…This is OUR home, the place that evolves, transforms, and is dedicated to discovering TRUTH. Our minds are clear, our vision is precise, and we are without a doubt, blessed and unstoppable.”
I am pretty sure that the vulgarities hurled by PC students at Cooley last Saturday are not the kinds of TRUTH that Providence College is seeking to instill in its students.
I have loved Friars hoop and Providence College for over 60 years now. But I am extremely disappointed by the PC student's stupid behavior on Saturday. They need to be told that they were over the top. Providence College needs to send them a message, and the only appropriate message should come in the form of a public apology from the
President of Providence College, Reverend Kenneth Sicard, O.P., to Ed Cooley and to Georgetown University. Not from Coach English, not from the Athletic Director, not from a student organization, but from Father Sicard. The sooner, the better, so we can all move beyond this embarrassing moment in what is, otherwise, a great Friar season.