Akron Reacts To Losing Their AD To UH, With A Shrug Of Its Shoulders

By Richard Connelly Thu., Jun. 11 2009 at 4:04 PM

Categories: Sports

Pin It

As we noted below, UH has itself a new athletic director -- Mack Rhoades from the University of Akron, which we are reliably informed is in Ohio. Or somewhere around there.

Speaking personally, we only know of the Akron Zips because that is the purgatory Gerry Faust was banished to for running the Notre Dame football program into the ground.

But we have learned the Zips have a football team that plays in a new stadium. How are the fans taking Rhoades' departure?

Let's take a look at the message board at ZipsNation. ("ZipsNation"? Luxemburg, watch out!!!)

The very first post includes this: "Champagne corks-a-poppin' at ZipWatcher's house tonight!"

And then follows....not exactly a heartbreaking display of grief.

-- If it's true, best of luck to Mack, but don't let the doorknob sting your behind too much on the way out the door. The Zips will move on without you. Enjoy Houston.

-- Wow... I'm shocked that Houston would hand their job to such a young guy with such a short resume. No offense to Rhoades, who seems like a very bright and capable guy, but what-- exactly-- did he achieve at Akron?

-- It's about time. As they say in Mexico, Adios amigo

-- I have never been a big Mack fan and I'm okay with him leaving. I agree - what did he really accomplish here? That stadium was going up with or without him, and most of the funding was raised by the prior AD.

Now to be sure, whenever a lower-rung university (like, say, UH) loses a coach or AD to a bigger program, there's bound to be bitterness. So maybe the majority of Zip fans, such as they are, love the hell out of Rhoades but just chose not to post.

(By the way, please, please, Chronicle sports desk: No headlines about "Rhoades scholars" or "All Rhoades lead to..." or whatever bad Rhoades puns pop into your heads.)

One Zip fan was highly annoyed that Houston sources praised Rhoades' work at Akron:

I read the Houston Chronicle article about Mack being a finalist and then went on to read the comments. Almost all the fans posting put Akron down big time. They praised Mack for accomplishing all he did in "a place like Akron." That just pisses me off. None of those idiots have been here. They've never seen the campus and they are extremely arrogant. F U Cougars!

We're sure it's a very nice campus, dude. Wherever it is.

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

Write Comment

Email to Friend

Print Article

Related Content

JD I'd listen to Bastion. Just because something is on a message board doesn't mean it's true(which you know). It also doesn't mean that the statements of a few fans on the said board reflects the opinion of the majority of the fan base. In actuality, it barely represents any of the fan base. Most zips fans will admit that Houston is not a lateral move. Marshall would be a lateral move, at best. But at Houston, Mack will almost certainly double his salary. Best of luck to Mack, and I'd love to see some match ups in the future between UA and UH. Both of our Departments have a promising future.
Sheesh... Akron fans sure are a bit touchy arent they? When people think Akron, typically they dont really think much of anything when it comes to sports. Thats not a harp against you guys, if anything I would compliment on how far you guys have come recently. UH has had a bad reputation in its own right, and we are currently fighting that off and are working on building something very big if all things work out. Back to the glory days if you will and if thats possible. But when people from Akron start saying it is a lateral move, and Houston is no better... expect to be educated a bit. Thats all
Wow, this has made me lose a lot of respect for Houston. We pride ourselves in being classy in Akron, apparently Houston does not share that sentiment.
Is nice to see Houston fans taking shots at the school their new AD most recently worked for. An great sports history for sure. How many of those impressive records are from this century? Or say the last 15-20 years. Your school is improving and so is ours. No need to rain on our parade. Good luck Mack, best to Houston u. in CUSA.
As a former student athlete at the University of Akron, I must say that it makes me sad to see Mack go so soon. He's a great person and genuinely goes out of his way to establish personal relationships with all of his athletes, whether they are the basketball star, or just a lowly no-name rifle athlete (like myself). He really did do a lot of academic reform within the department including getting rid of incompetent advisers and restructuring the academic support to be more effective. The academic numbers reflect that success. Akron does not have an established tradition of winning, but that is a vision Mack worked hard on. It may sound pathetic, but now we have a student fan group and attendance at many events has increased. This is just my two cents, so take it for what it's worth.
If someone said it on a message board it *must* be true! What next? An indepth blog about the comments on Dick Justice's blog?
Football: Houston 29 Bowl games including 4 Cotton Bowls. 1 Heisman trophy winner, 15 top 25 rankings, 10 conference championships, 1 Lombardi winner, 1 Davey Obrien winner, 4 College Football Hall of Famers. Akron, 1 Bowl Game. Basketball: Houston 16 NCAA tournament appearances in Basketball, and 5 Final Fours, and 12 conference Championships. Akron 2 tournament appearances and 2 conference championships. Baseball: Houston 2 CWS appearances, 18 NCAA tourny appearances (6 since 200), and 11 conference championships Akron??
Best of luck to Mack R. who did a fine job for the Zips. Good guy. Way to stay classy Houston... Scott in Ohio
See, the problem is that you look at a few sections and listen to a repeat of a resume and think you know everything. Rhoades basically took the controls of train. We all knew what was going, he just had to keep it from de-railing. I thought he did a good job, did a great job with academics, a quality job with keeping coaches happy. We had 21 million promised for a stadium prior to him showing up, we now have 25 million. He was good, but he wasn't great, and that is the general feeling of the fan base here. And I will one up Eric. Play us in any sport, football, basketball, soccer (which I've heard you don't have). I would be interested to see how different we really are. You all seem to me like you are in the same spot as us. Metropolitan University struggling to get a foothold in a football heavy state where everyone other than the alums seem to be fans of "THE SCHOOL". I hear you have some history, don't know much about it. We had Heisman as a coach and a were municipal university for 50 years. We're hungy and trying to get where we belong and I think you guys are too.
Soccer???? lol
Really? You're really misrepresenting your university and it's fan base. I trust that there are some classy cougars fans out there. Atleast I hope. On a side note check out what I read this morning in the houston chronicle before Mack was hired: �I heard from a lot of people, 'Akron?'� the committee member said. �`We don�t want to be like Akron. We want to be like USC.�� Hm, apparently you want to be like Akron? I didn't realize hiring people who work at a certain university displays a strong compulsion to be "like" the original uni. Oh well, that trustee must surely feel like an imbecile either way. And he really gave a negative impression to Akron fans. Good luck and we'd love to play you guys in soccer. We had the number one recruiting class in the country this past year. Take Care, UA 4 Life. P.S. I'll leave it to the rest of Zipsnation to let you know about our opinion of Mack.
Grow up everybody!