LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — For more than two months the University of Louisville athletics department has operated with an interim athletic director.

Men’s basketball, the school’s signature program, endured its longest losing streak in more than eight decades while competing with an interim coach since Jan. 26. The 7-game slide ended Saturday when the Cards beat Clemson, 70-61.

Like Cardinal Stadium during the 2021 football season, the KFC Yum! Center has been less than half full much of this hoops season. As fans and boosters have tuned out and stayed home, one topic consistently twists their interest back to the struggling program:

Is former athletic director Tom Jurich a legitimate contender to return to the school that fired him more than four years ago and later paid him a $4.5 million settlement.

The discussion soared again Friday night and Saturday morning after multiple pictures of Jurich snapped at an area establishment with a handful of members of the local media were shared on social media.

Opinion is mixed. “For every four or five people you hear in favor of it, there are two or three against it,” one former Louisville basketball player said Saturday before the Cards played Clemson at the KFC Yum! Center.

So are the reports on Jurich’s interest in the job. Josh Heird, an administrator that Jurich originally brought to Louisville in 2007, is the Cards’ interim AD. The board of trustees will tackle the twin tasks of recruiting a new AD and men’s basketball coach.

A source said that Jurich has called at least one person close to the search to discuss a successful path forward for the program. That’s not a move made by somebody completely disconnected from the future of Cardinals’ athletics.

Another source said Jurich’s followers have peppered members of the U of L board of trustees with more than 75 phone calls and e-mails expressing their support for Part II of a Jurich Administration.

Their message was that Jurich was treated poorly by the school in 2017 and that he remains the best choice to unify the fan base and bring many high-level boosters back to the program.

Several weeks ago a billboard near campus flashed with the message: “Bring Home Tom Jurich | U of L trustees do the right thing!” The billboard was paid for by Alex Walker & local fans. The appearance left is one of a carefully orchestrated trial balloon, if not a full-fledged play for the position that Jurich held with success for two decades.

JURICH BILLBOARD.jpeg

A billboard in Louisville asking UofL to bring back Tom Jurich.

Others insist that Jurich is not interested in returning to U of L. The purpose of his current trip is to visit family members, including a new granddaughter, who live in area, not to lobby for the job. The hard feelings about the end of his tenure remain powerful.

“It’s becoming somewhat political,” one source said. The source said that Jurich was concerned that he lacked the support of the current board of trustees.

He might be right. Another source said there was “no way,” the current board would bring Jurich back to direct Louisville athletics again. A third source said that while Jurich still has friends among the university administration, he also has key members of the university’s senior leadership who would actively oppose any return.

Jurich has not worked in athletic administration since his Louisville run ended when he was placed on administrative leave Sept. 27, 2017, a prelude to his departure nearly three weeks later. Jurich, 65, and his wife, Terilynn, split time between homes in Colorado and Florida.

Under Jurich’s direction, U of L celebrated across-the-board success in multiple sports. The football team won conference titles, played in prestigious bowl games like the Orange and Sugar and produced a Heisman Trophy winner in Lamar Jackson.

The baseball program, led by Dan McDonnell, one of Jurich’s finest hires, made multiple trips to the College World Series.

The women’s basketball program, led by Jeff Walz, another Jurich hire, made the first two of its three trips to the Final Four.

Then there is the troubled men’s basketball program. Basketball is what led to Jurich’s dismissal because of multiple investigations of NCAA rules violations as well as an embarrassing scandal involving strippers and prostitutes in the players’ dormitory.

Louisville also figured prominently in the “Pay for Play” saga with the federal government. That led to the dismissal of head coach Rick Pitino before the start of the 2017-18 season.

The program is awaiting a ruling from the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Process for violations committed during the school’s recruitment of 5-star prospect Brian Bowen.

Those situations occurred during the Jurich Era. He is also the athletic director who brought Bobby Petrino back for his second stint as the Louisville football coach, a tenure which began well but wound up crashing the program and leaving scars from which it is still battling to recover.

Not only did Jurich recruit Petrino after the football coach made embarrassing exits with the Atlanta Falcons and the Arkansas Razorbacks, he also bid against himself by upgrading Petrino’s contract and sweetening the coach’s buyout.

That decision left Jurich’s successor, Vince Tyra, with a $14.1 million buyout to pay when he fired Petrino in November 2018, with two games remaining in a 2-10 season.

The football program has delivered three losing seasons in the last four years. The basketball program is racing toward missing another NCAA Tournament.

But the discussion about who can fix the University of Louisville athletics department is only heating up. Until a decision is made, expect it to include another discussion about Tom Jurich.

Copyright 2022 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.