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Imrem: New abuse allegations make it hard to trust Illini

Last week I half-joked that nothing embarrassing had happened in University of Illinois athletics for at least five minutes

Time is up. The punch line was issued Monday afternoon, except it wasn't funny.

Reports, beginning in The Daily Illini school newspaper, are that women's basketball coaches down there have been accused of abusing players and mistreating injuries.

The accusations are similar to the ones a former player leveled at football head coach Tim Beckman.

When the school is in the news for all the wrong reasons, it bothers me just as it likely would bother grads of other schools involved in controversy.

Which brings me to what scares me most about the latest messes: I don't trust the athletic administration down there.

That remark might not be fair at this point because fact hasn't been separated from fiction in the Fighting Illini football and women's basketball programs. Everybody in Champaign is pure until proven filthy, of course, including Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas.

But I was spoiled for a couple of decades when Ron Guenther was the Illini AD.

Guenther is an Illinois alum. He was a starting offensive lineman for the football team. He held other jobs with the school before taking over the athletic department.

I always knew Guenther loved and respected the university as much as I did. He wouldn't do anything to harm the school's reputation and actually would do everything to protect it.

Guenther knew that winning was important in all sports but that it wasn't so important that it superseded other athletic missions.

Guenther became AD after a couple of decades of major scandals, starting with the infamous athletic slush fund when both of us were in school during the 1960s. My impression always was that Guenther's No. 1 priority, even above winning, was to have the Illini comply with NCAA rules and regulations.

Sounds uncomplicated except that it wasn't for too many of the coaches and athletic directors in Champaign before Guenther.

Treatment of athletes? My goodness, that probably went without saying.

It pained Guenther that Illinois never became a consistent national power in football and men's basketball, but it would have pained him more if Illini athletics failed at ethics.

That made me believe that it doesn't matter whether it's Illinois or any other school: It doesn't hurt to have one of its own watching the store.

Thomas, who succeeded Guenther in 2011, came from the University of Cincinnati and had no previous connection to the Illini. The same goes for his major hires, Beckman in football and John Groce in men's basketball.

Now, granted, that's how it is at most schools these days. Nick Saban was an outsider before arriving at Alabama. So was Mike Krzyzewski at Duke.

It was OK at Illinois, too, until these recent allegations against the football and women's basketball programs surfaced.

To be honest, I don't know Mike Thomas personally. He might be as honest as Honest Abe was the Land of Lincoln.

Heck, Illinois athletics might be as much a passion to Thomas as it is a job. We'll have a better idea once all the internal investigations are completed down there.

But fairly or not, I'd have more faith if Illini athletics were being administered by someone I'm certain loves and respects the university as much as I do.

And that's not even a half-joke.

mimrem@dailyherald.com

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