At 01:43 PM 2/23/96 -0600, Rich Selin wrote:
>From todays Blue Line Club luncheon with Wisconsin coach Sauer
>and Minnesota coach Woog:
>
>1) Brush Christiansen from Alaska-Anchorage retired from
>   coaching last night.  I don't have any more info but it
>   sounded like it wasn't voluntary.
 
This story received front page headlines in today's Anchorage Daily News.  I
was only able to skim the article but at no point did I get the impression
that Brush was effectively fired.  Doyle Woody, local hockey beat writer,
has more entre into the inner sanctum of Seawolf hockey than anyone on the
planet and, IMO, would have certainly pounced on a forced exit angle if it
existed.  Officially, Brush cited the exhaustive travel schedule and his
desire to spend more time with his wife and 8-year old daughter.  (As the
proud dad of an 8-year old girl, I can relate 100% to his desire to shed the
pressures of the daily grind...)
 
I'd be interested to hear more about this news from a Lower 48 perspective,
particularly with regard to a possible successor.  AD Tim Dillon has
promised a selection by May 24, the date Brush chose for his retirement to
become effective.
 
Brush has faced his share of detractors in recent years, a fact which is
indisputable.  However, as UAA's *only* coach since startup of the program
in '79, he wrote his own ticket.  Dillon, in his push for across the board
DI status for UAA, has always appeared to be more sympathetic to UAA's DII
hoops program which, although successful, enjoys nowhere near the community
following of the hockey program.  But the fact remains that Brush has
outlasted a lot of smart AD-types and would have likely outlasted this one
if it were his choice.
 
More after I digest all the day's news...
 
Mark J. Sonnier, C.P.M.
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UAF '90
 
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