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One hundred seven years of editorialfreedom
Tuesday
October 14, 1997
roof i 4=43sm
Fisher:
Don't
call me
dishonest
Ex- coach
maintains
innocence
By Heather Kamins
Daily Staff Reporter
After months of silence, former Michigan men's basketball
coach Steve Fisher defended his reputation and expressed dis-
pleasure about the manner in which he was fired.
Fisher's supporters and all 12 members of the basketball
team stood and applauded as he entered the press conference
at the Sheraton Inn on South State Street yesterday. Fisher
donned a blue and yellow tie and proclaimed himself a
"Michigan man"
"I've always been a team player" Fisher said. "I always
thought I've got nothing that needs defending and when the
truth comes out, it's going to be fine"
Last week, the findings of a seven-month investigation of
the program were released to the public in the form of a 280-
page report. The investigation, conducted by a private law
firm hired by the University, revealed no major violations,
but still uncovered items that concerned University officials.
Just six days before basketball practice was scheduled to
begin, Athletic Director Tom Goss announced Saturday that
Fisher had been fired.
Michigan guard Travis Conlan said Fisher's dismissal will
be extremely difficult for the team to overcome.
"It crushes everything,' Conlan said. "It's my senior year.
We had a successful year to look forward to until this hap-
pened. We lost the father figure of our family'
Fisher said the University did not handle the situation cor-
rectly. Fisher said he has kept silent during the investigation
under the recommendation of the University and was
promised to receive a copy of the report before it was
released to the media and the public.
"I was asked by our administration, for the benefit of the
University of Michigan, to allow one voice to speak for the
Athletic Department," Fisher said. "President (Lee)
Bollinger said I would get a copy of the report and would get
a chance to review the report before the public."
Fisher, who was vacationing in Florida at the time of the
report's release Thursday, said Bollinger broke his promise,
and said that he was not given ample time to return from his
vacation before the report was released.
See FISHER, Page 2
Contact the Daily:
We are interested in your opinions
about this article and the recent
events surrounding Michigan men's
basketball program. Please e-mail
basketball.letters@umich.edu
before Thursday at 4 p.m.
with your input. Letters
may be published, either
in part or in whole, in The
Michigan Daily.
Fisher responds
"I always thought I've
got nothing that needs
defending and when
the truth comes out,
it's going to be fine."
Former Michigan
basketball coach Steve Fisher
Goss explains
"We don't make
changes in coaches
very often at
Michigan, It's not my
plan to make changes
in coaches very
often."
- Athletic Director Tom Goss
Players react
"1 feel bad for
everybody that is
Involved ... we feel
sold out by it all."
- Michigan guard Tras Conlan
"It will be bard for us
to induct a- new guy,
in and respect him
the way adead coach
is supposed to be
respected."
- Michigan center and
co-captain Robert Traylor
r MARGARET MYERS/Daily
At the Sheraton Inn in Ann Arbor yesterday Steve Fisher held his own press conference yesterday, which was attended by many of the Michigan
men's basketball players. Fisher gave his own version of events leading to his being fired on Friday.
Regents react w
B janet Adamy
Staff Reporter
Members of the University Board of
Regents reacted to the firing of former
Michigan men's basketball coach Steve Fisher
with mixed feelings of sadness and approval.
"I think it's sad because Steve Fisher is an
awfully nice ;guy," said Regent Philip Power
(D-Ann Arbor). "But I think at the end of the
day, it was the right thing to do.:
Regent Shirley McFee (R-Battle Creek) said
t although she personally likes fisher, she
Wednesday 5 p.m. Fisher
-Scalls his secretary, who
= y says nothing's unusual.
terda
Fisher mapped
put the days 5.-10 p.m. Fish
before hdwas goes out to dint
fired.
agrees with Athletic Director Tom Goss' deci-
sion to fire Fisher, who has been under scruti-
ny since allegations of NCAA violations sur-
faced last winter.
"It is my belief that if after all the things
(Goss) had to consider, he thought that was what
he had to do, then 1 support that,' McFee said.
While most of the regents approved of Goss'
decision to fire Fisher last Friday, two regents
have publicly expressed dissatisfaction with'
the way the Uniyersity handled the situation.
Regent Daniel Homing (R-Grand Haven), a
personal friend of Fisher, said both he and the for-
mer coach were under the impression that they
would both receive a copy of the report before it
was released to the public, but that didn't happen.
"Steve Fisher never got a chance to react to
the report before news media outlets started
calling him a liar and a cheat," Horning said. "I
just think that with the way the whole thing
came together so quickly, that as a University,
we did not deal with it well."
Although Regent Andrea Fisher Newman
See REGENTS, Page 7
to 12 a.m. Thursday Report is
Walter flown by plane to
get Fisher in Florida.
umber.
10 p.m. Fisher returns
to find 7-8 messages on
his answering machine.
10:30 p.m. t
Fisher calls
Harrison tof
Bollinger's n
10:30 p.m. Goss calls
Fisher to discuss,
release of the report.
12 a.m. Fisher calls Bollinger to ask
why he won't see the report before.
it's released to the public.
may war
winters
By Dan Stillman
Daily Staff Reporter
Seventy degrees and sunny - in the mid-
dle of Deceiber?
This winter could be unusually warm in
Michigan thanks to what forecasters are call-
ing the strongest El Nino of the century.
But then again, maybe not.
The last "El Nino of the Century"
occurred, ironically, just 15 years ago. And if
0at winter of 1982-83 is any indication, the
nited States is in for a wild ride.
While Ann Arbor reached high tempera-
tures upwards of 60 degrees nine times that
December, intense rainstorms ravaged
California and flooding devastated the Gulf
Coast states. El Nino was credited with $2
blion worth of storm-related damage
troughout the United States that winter.
A pioneer in El Niio prediction studies, Jim
tbrien said Ann Arbor may experience condi-
ns similar to those of 1982-83 this winter.
"For Michigan, we're talking about a drier
winter," said Obrien, professor of meteorolo-
gy and oceanography at Florida State
University. "Once you get into the late winter,
we're really talking about a warmer winter."
El Nino is a weather phenomenon that
occurs once every two to six years in the
waters off the coast of Peru and varies in
How El Nino works
El Nino is the presence of warmer than usual ocean temperatur es along and on both sides of the equator from South America
to the central par t of the Pacific. This results in unusual weather patter ns around the world, not only in Nor th and South
America but as far away as Africa, Australia and Antarctica.
In a normal year r Inan El Nino year
Students counterfeit
'M' split-season tickets
South
Amenca
.c K
; ;;< _
El Nino and the United States
Forecasts produced in early October based on Center for Ocean-Land-Atmospher e models.
Temperature outlook Rain outlook
Fahrenheit degrees above average for Inches of rain above and below average for
JanuaryMarch 1998: January-March 1998:
2
4 2
2 , ° iNear normal
By Rick Freeman
Daily Staff Reporter
Many first-year students who received split-
season football tickets probably expect to spend
half of Michigan's football Saturdays glumly hud-
dled around a TV, watching their fellow students at
the game less than a mile away.
But not all first-year students stayed home when
the Wolverines took on the Fighting Irish last month.
Several first-year students who received split-
season tickets found a way to make credible forg-
eries of tickets to the Michigan-Notre Dame game.
The Michigan Athletic Ticket Office gives split-
season ticket holders the full set of game tickets,
marking "VOID" on half of the tickets in the pack-
age. Some students replaced "VOID," which is
printed where the section, row and seat assign-
ments would be, with fake seating information.
Two first-year students, who did not want their
full names used, said they made counterfeit tickets.
Engineering first-year student Sarah and her
friend, a varsity athlete at the University, said they
didn't come up with the idea themselves. But they
used counterfeit tickets to slip into the Notre
Dame-Michigan home game Sept. 27.
"It was just kind of an idea that's been floating
around," said the varsity athlete, who is also an
LSA first-year student. "I don't know exactly
where the idea originated"
After trying to find last-minute tickets, Sarah
and the athlete said they finally decided to forge
the tickets.
The pair said a quick application of nail polish
remover with a cotton swab completely erased the
word "VOID," and they used a pencil to write fake
seating information. The next obstacle was getting
past the person taking tickets at the gate.
Robert Chaddock, director of Michigan football
game day operations, said the ticket office relies on
ticket-takers to catch fraudulent tickets.
"In a training session prior to the first contest,
See TICKETS, Page 7
,j
iA -(f'r
2
.. ")
A;
Near normal
r-
°..
Alaska: Near normal ~r Alaska: N
U Hawaii: Near normal JHawaii: -
Source: Center for ocean-lanAtmospher e Sties; Dooley Seaweather Analysis; Al resea O/S. Hohmann
tion near the coast that led to poor fishing This cha
near Christmas time. warm wate
As it turns out, that change in circulation to drift east
affects weather across the world, coast of So
The key to global weather patterns is the tion of war
location of warm waters, over which precipi- form, whic
tation forms. During an El Nino, the trade weather pa
Near normal
1to -5
nge in winds allows a large mass of
er, normally located near Australia,
along the Equator all the way to the
uth America. This shift in the loca-
m water changes where rain clouds
h alters the jet streams that dictate
iterns across the world.
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