CHAPEL HILL, N.C., May 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ The world of sports has been a long time bastion for standards of American integrity, ethics and fair play. So much so that sport scandals, more than any other, have the jarring propensity to rock society to its core. Athletes, coaches, managers and agents are held to a higher bar and when that code is violated, it seems like the collective momentarily halts and takes note. From the Penn State college football nightmare to the recent Donald Sterling escapade with the Clippers, disgraces involving athletes make an indelible imprint on the psyche of our culture.
Author Rob J. Anderson, a North Carolina freelance writer and statistician, understands this well. With his new release, "Tarnished Heels: How unethical actions and deliberate deceit at the University of North Carolina ended 'The Carolina Way'" from Strategic Media Books, he unfolds an explosive investigation of the athletics program at the University of North Carolina and the drama that shook not only the campus but the entire nation. Anderson diligently chronicles the numerous transgressions, events, and discoveries that redefined what had reverently been known in North Carolina as "The Carolina Way." An impressive nonfiction work, the book boldly takes to task all parties involved and questions the authenticity of what had been for the university a sterling reputation, both athletically and academically.
With shocking detail, "Tarnished Heels" scrutinizes the players, coaches, faculty and university leaders who all played roles in the outrage, and in many cases appear complicit. What Rob Anderson uncovers is no less than staggering! From the football coaches who were also deemed to be working with NFL agents; to players who received cash payments, travel expenses and impermissible academic help, "Tarnished Heels" leaves no stone unturned.
Anderson's detailed findings reveal a string of discrepancies including sports agents who were hired to teach classes at the university; a parent of a basketball All-American hired as a university employee; numerous fraudulent classes where countless basketball and football players were supposedly enrolled; dozens of grades forged and changed without permission and basketball players receiving impermissible benefits from a convicted felon, who was also directly connected to UNC alumni.
"Tarnished Heels" does not leave the NCAA blameless in the Tarheel scandal either. The author raises doubts about the effectiveness of the NCAA to properly and fairly handle the multiple issues. Ambiguity has always been evident in the penalties the NCAA hands down to different college programs, but for UNC at Chapel Hill it appears that, in some cases, major athletic/academic infractions at the university were ignored entirely. As Anderson closely examined and dissected events and scrutinized historic public documents, he found strong evidence that the issues of fraud and benefits may have started far in the past and actually spanned the years of multiple basketball National Championships at the school.
Anderson's conclusion about the overall atrocity is disturbing but sobering. Still not willing to truly examine the depth of the issues that have negatively affected its campus, academics and revenue sports teams, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill remains in moral limbo, even though what was once proudly known as "The Carolina Way" is forever tarnished.
With some of the NCAA's toughest critics currently being invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, including Mary C. Willingham, a former reading specialist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who stepped down amid the long-running scandal, Rob Anderson's "Tarnished Heels" is required reading for anyone interested in the welfare of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the state of big time college athletics, and the quality of higher education throughout the United States.
"Tarnished Heels: How unethical actions and deliberate deceit at the University of North Carolina ended 'The Carolina Way'" is more than just a literary reveal; it is a reflection of a moral institution whose ideology is tarnished indeed, but also a statement about society at large.
For more information and to secure your copy of "Tarnished Heels" go to www.strategicmediabooks.com or Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Tarnished-Heels-Unethical-Deliberate-University/dp/193952122X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399676224&sr=8-1&keywords=tarnished+heels .
Tarnished Heels book cover: http://imageshack.com/a/img838/751/9ueu.jpg
Contact: Makeda Smith/ Jazzmyne Public Relations
jazzmynepr@gmail.com / 323-596-1522
SOURCE Strategic Media Books
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