Protect our Brand

At approximately 4:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon, a mass exodus of athletes made their way down the hill to the Kirby Sports Center. They assembled in the visitor’s stands of the basketball court, every Lafayette athlete gathered in one location. The mass buzzed until Athletic Director Bruce McCutcheon picked up a microphone on the basketball court and calledfor their attention.

“I want to talk real quickly about our brand,” he announced. All business.

According to McCutcheon’s statements during the meeting, there have been “two student-athletes who had to go to the hospital for over-consumption of alcohol over the past two weekends.” McCutcheon viewed these incidents as an attack on the Lafayette “brand” and called out the senior members of the athletic body. He asked all the athletes who attended Everett Glenn’s memorial service to stand. A substantial number rose from their seats. McCutcheon asked any athletes who were wearing Lafayette apparel to stand.

“I see all of our student athletes our brand on campus all the time, and that’s just fantastic,” McCutcheon said. “Frankly, I wish more of our students wore our Lafayette brand. But there are people trying to tarnish our brand. Where is the leadership?” he asked. He did not get a response.

“Stepping forward from today, we will clean our brand,” McCutcheon addressed. “We will not allow anyone to tarnish our brand. Because you’re tarnishing everyone else. Protect our brand.”

McCutcheon released a statement following the meeting. “Ninety percent of our student athletes do the right thing day-in and day-out,” his emailed statement read. “Unfortunately, there is a small minority trying to tarnish the athletic brand through immature or irresponsible actions. We appealed to our student athlete leadership…to step up and take a leadership role in protecting and enhancing our brand.”

The 12-year athletic director declined to confirm whether this was the first time he had to call a meeting like this, and although he declined to identify the athletes mentioned during the meeting, sources say that they belonged to the softball and track and field teams.