For the second time this year, a Michigan legend-turned-head coach is departing from his alma mater.
But as opposed to Jim Harbaugh, Juwan Howard is leaving Ann Arbor on less than stellar terms.
Following the Wolverines’ season-ending defeat to Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, Michigan announced that it had fired Howard. That brought an end to the former NBA center’s controversy-filled five-year run at his alma mater, in which he amassed an 87–72 record, including an 8-24 mark this past season.
Prior to going to print on Wednesday, The Michigan Daily independent student paper revealed that it planned to commemorate Howard’s dismissal in less than flattering terms. “Fab Failure” read the front page, an obvious nod to the one-time All-Star’s college career in which he was a member of the famed “Fab Five.”
Following a disastrous season, @umichbball has parted ways with former coach Juwan Howard.
This week’s front cover: Fab Failure. pic.twitter.com/pdjHEqpEdk
— Michigan Daily Sports (@theblockm) March 18, 2024
Granted, I’m an Ohio State alum, but that’s a pretty great cover. Considering the lofty expectations that Howard returned to Ann Arbor with as a highly touted NBA assistant coach, his five-year run was an abject failure. And on-court shortcomings aside, his tenure was marked by multiple incidents that embarrassed the program, including his physical altercation with a Wisconsin assistant coach in 2022 and his reported confrontation with the team’s strength and conditioning coach this past season (the strength coach stopped working with the program and later resigned following the incident).
“Failure” might be strong, but in this instance, it’s not inaccurate. And the picture of Howard holding up his five fingers perfectly ties together the front page from a composition standpoint.
Unsurprisingly, however, many Michigan fans didn’t appreciate the pun or artfully designed front page. After The Daily‘s sports account posted a picture of the design on Monday, it received plenty of backlash, with many Wolverines fans taking issue with Howard being referred to as a “failure” considering his successful playing career in Ann Arbor three decades ago.
Before printing on Tuesday night, The Daily‘s main account quote-tweeted the original post, announcing that “The Michigan Daily’s March 20 issue will print with an alternate front page.” It’s unclear whether “alternate” meant that the new cover would be replacing the original one or made available alongside it, but the online archive of the paper features a completely new cover with no trace or mention of Howard, which suggests that the original cover was pulled.
UPDATE: The Michigan Daily’s March 20 issue will print with an alternate front page. https://t.co/3IBErBB7Gh
— The Michigan Daily (@michigandaily) March 20, 2024
If the independent paper did cave to public pressure, that would be disappointing, although I also understand students not wanting to be subjected to such backlash. Having worked at The Lantern during Ohio State’s “Tatgate” scandal, I can tell you firsthand that it’s not very fun to be the subject of scorn on your own campus as a student. Conversely, there might not be any better training for a career in journalism.
But while the cover might not have gone to print, it still exists on social media — as does the backlash.
The Michigan Daily staff didn’t immediately respond to a message from Awful Announcing seeking clarification. This story will be updated if it does.
