The Oklahoma State women's basketball coach was killed in a plane crash Thursday night while on a recruiting trip to Arkansas.
Kurt Budke, 50 at the time, assistant coach Miranda Serna and 8 others didn't survive a plane crash near Denver while returning from a game in Boulder, Colorado.
The cause of the crash is unknown since it came amid a clear forecast.
Budke had just begun his seventh season as coach of the Oklahoma State Cowgirls. He had elevated the program to being a consistent top participant and a perennial NCAA power.
My father always had a great saying to live by. He said "Don't worry about what the world thinks of you, worry about what you think is right" I have lived by this modicum. In school when I studied criminal justice I constantly lobbied for the injustice of the incarceration rate of blacks to my grades detriment. Recently I've argued about being underpaid to the detriment of my job. What I am getting at is there is always a cost to being right. McCreary problem was that he did not want to pay that cost.
Penn State's sex abuse scandal has dominated the news headlines all week. Public sentiment has gone from shock to anger to looking for everyone to blame. The first domino to fall was Joe Paterno on Wednesday and University president Dr. Graham Spanier. On Thursday, mass calls from radio shows and the Penn State campus went to call for the head of one of the only whistleblowers in the whole scandal Mike McCreary, to either step down or be terminated on sight. McCreary recently was granted a leave by the trustees at Penn State. I think the trustees are the only ones to understand the great obstacles that McCreary has had to go up against.
McCreary reported to a grand jury that he witnessed former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually molesting a 10 year old boy in the shower. He told his father and then told Paterno who told McCreary "he would take care of it" This resulted in the telling of Sandusky "not to bring kids on campus."
Could McCreary have done more? There is no question that he was part of the systemic problem at Penn State that allowed a pedophile to keep attacking victims under their jurisdiction. His dilemma was more than the outside world to comprehend. His dilemma was does he do the right thing and take on two legends on campus or does he continue his career?
Most who have commented this week say they would have done the first option. They argued that it is a grown man’s responsibility to report an unnatural act on a child and to go six years with this burden on your chest is unfathomable. Since they have put themselves in Mike McCreary’s shoes all week I would like to cement them.
Imagine you were a graduate assistant coach who was recruited by Sandusky and Paterno. You played your four years garnering their trust and attaining a second career as a coach. You revere these men even after Sandusky retirement in 1999, you know he is still a well-respected figure on campus. Besides this every other building you go into is named after Paterno, not to mention the statue that was resurrected in his honor in front the stadium. Then you witness what you did and report it to Paterno to no real response. So do you go up against Paterno get fired receive death threats and there is no saying that Penn State won’t pay off the victim so it will be your word against Sandusky or do you stay quiet and continue your career?
Understand this is not excusing McCreary actions at all. People with great personal convictions have fought injustices throughout history. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X both lost their lives to fight for people and be heroes. My complaint is McCreary didn’t want to be a hero he wanted to stay employed.
According to ESPN, Legendary coach Joe Paterno will retire at the end of this season with the grace and dignity that his legend has afforded him. This means he will be afforded the gracious exit of being lifted upon the shoulders of the players he cared for one last victory lap. This will be the last time we can spit in the face of these victims whom were harmed immeasurably by the actions of Jerry Sandusky and the inaction of the Penn State hierarchy.
This is not the normal player's having sneaker boxes filled with cash type of scandal. This one hits deeper to the core of humanity. According to published reports, then graduate assistant Mike McCreary in 2002 caught Sandusky in a compromising position with a ten year old boy. McCreary reported this to Paterno who reported it to his superiors Athletic Director, Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz. After these reports no further action was taken by the university other than to ban Sandusky from bringing children on campus.
Penn State gave Sandusky a strong message: You can be a pedophile but not on this campus.
Sandusky who was arrested Saturday for 40 criminal acts of child sex abuse is one of the worse kinds of child predators, a predator with connections. He used his "Second Mile" program for underprivileged children as a perverse dating service and had unquestioned access to not only the Penn State facilities but the most famous man in the state, Joe Paterno. The question isn't how much of a sexual deviant Sandusky is, it’s how could Penn State allow this monster to put more children in danger?
After 2002, seven more children alleged that Sandusky had sexually inappropriate relationships with them. Yet not only was he allowed on Penn States campus, he still had an office there! While children were being scarred for life Sandusky had free reign and access of everyone and everything on campus after it being discovered that he was a pedophile.
A child's innocence is the one thing all parents and human beings try to protect. Joe Paterno who has been at the forefront of helping children and has been known as a beacon of light in education made a conscious decision. He decided that the Penn State brand was more important than children's innocence and justice being served. For that decision he deserves to never coach another game where he molds children into men
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