Yesterday, the
Herald-Leader reported on the firing of four Univ. of Kentucky College of Pharmacy employees due to improper or unexplained purchaces totaling over $20,000. Doug Bruce, the former College of Pharmacy Chief of Staff, was one of the men fired by the university. In case you don't recognize the name -- and sadly, I didn't until late yesterday -- Doug was the P.A. announcer for Wildcat basketball games in Rupp Arena until his retirement in 2007.
Included in the documentation obtained by the Herald-Leader's Open Records request was Bruce's termination letter. In it, College of Pharmacy Dean Kenneth Roberts writes that Bruce was responsible for the Continuing Education department, who's members misused funds and broke University regulations. Roberts writes that Bruce was "unaware of the operations" of the CE department -- despite being responsible for CE since the fall of 2007, Roberts writes that Bruce, "only met the CE employees for the first time on 2/11/09."
Bruce was reached for comment by the Herald-Leader:
"There were some decisions made there that were not the right decisions to make," Bruce said.
He said he first learned in December about the scope of expenses racked up by the continuing education department.
"I was very surprised by that and frankly disappointed," Bruce said.
As chief of staff, Bruce said he mostly focused on broader curriculum issues and development of the pharmacy college. He "was not aware this was going on and probably would have stopped it if I was aware," he said.
"I have gone to graduate school on trust," Bruce said.
While serving as the P.A. announcer at Rupp, Bruce worked for 23 years at various positions inside the University, until
his retirement in 2003. Bruce then worked as an executive coach while still announcing games at Rupp. After stepping down from the P.A. position, Bruce was hired by Dean Roberts into the Chief of Staff role.
Despite this blemish on his executive resume, I think we all can agree that Mr. Bruce excelled at his time in Rupp. Bruce seemed to know exactly how to accentuate a big run by the Wildcats. I especially loved the nonchalant tone in his voice when opposing players would score -- like it was not a big deal. As
this interview with Jerry Tipton shows, Bruce didn't mind creating a bit of a home-court advantage:
"I usually attempted to get it in when the score had a touch of drama attached to it," [Bruce] wrote in an e-mail. "Or if the assist was more difficult than the score."
Announcing assists had its controversial moment.
"I got some negative reaction from visiting SIDs because I wouldn't announce their assists on a more consistent basis," Bruce said. "I didn't mind that criticism much because of the home-court advantage I tried, within certain boundaries, to encourage."
Bruce had no problem with [current UK P.A. announcer Patrick] Whitmar not announcing any assists.
"Patrick is pretty busy if he is keeping his own stats, getting scores attributed correctly and navigating some really interesting hand signals from officials when a foul is called," Bruce wrote. "Squeezing an assist in as part of the game flow is really a luxury."
Personally, I wish the best for Mr. Bruce and his future endeavors.
(I don't feel the same for
the guy who took a limo to the airport so he could pick up a rental car, spent $1740 at Malone's for an office Christmas party, went on trips where he had a rental car and still used taxi's, and spent $2550 on "working lunches" over the course of 6 months. Assuming he went to lunch every working day, he spent an average of $20 for each lunch. I guess he was going to Malone's and Sal's every day? Sheesh!)
Discuss This Article
Comments have moved.
Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.
KSBoard