Louisville will deem Jurich's departure a retirement as opposed to a firing without causeGETTY IMAGES
Former Univ. of Louisville AD Tom Jurich "will receive a settlement package to close the matter of his dismissal" from the school, according to Jake Lourim of the Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL. The "main part of the settlement package" is $4.5M, and Jurich also will "receive the deferred compensation he is already entitled to, named in the settlement agreement as at least $911,000, paid within 30 days of the agreement's enforcement." Additionally, he will "receive the annuity payments already vested," totaling $1.76M. Jurich and his wife can "belong to the university's medical coverage plan until they become eligible for Medicare." Jurich also will "own eight club level tickets and two parking passes for Louisville football and men's basketball home games for 20 years." The financial payments listed total $7.171M, "not counting the value of the other perks." As part of the agreement, UL will "deem Jurich's departure a 'retirement' as opposed to a firing without cause" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 5/19).
EXPENSIVE MISTAKE: In Louisville, Tim Sullivan writes seven months after the "clumsy, counterproductive and deeply divisive 'for cause' firing" of Jurich, UL has settled with an "equally clumsy attempt to massage the facts." UL interim President Greg Postel's "scathing termination letter of Oct. 20 has been removed from Jurich's personnel file." As an "exercise in tracks-covering," UL's "efforts at revisionist history fall somewhere between laughable and ludicrous." The negotiated exit "provides Jurich a symbolic victory." In UL's "reluctance to honor Jurich's contract, the university administration invited and experienced an expensive backlash." Former men's basketball coach Rick Pitino said in a text message, "They could have sat us down (and) said, 'We want to move in a different direction,' rather than a smear campaign (and) making enemies forever. Difference between class (and) ignorance" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 5/19). WDRB.com's Eric Crawford wrote, "They called it a settlement. It was really a surrender." About all UL "didn't give back to Jurich was the full amount of money his contract stipulated, and his job back." Jurich was "holding the cards." Crawford: "You don't put together a package like U of L put together for Jurich unless there's some fear that you'll have to cough up a much larger package if the matter gets pressed legally" (WDRB.com, 5/18).
