David Jones of the Patriot-News has a good column about Rene Portland today. So far, it is the best thing I have read about her resignation. I never knew about her rivalry (putting it mildly) with Bruce Parkhill.
Last June, Jones wrote another column about Portland. I was going to post it but I actually forgot about it. The link to “Infamous Portland quote distorted” is long gone, but I have excerpts of it. Jones discovered that the “I won’t have it in my program” quote was actually taken out of context.
A few weeks ago, I decided to see if I could find the 1986 Chicago Sun-Times story from which it supposedly emanated. The Internet is a wondrous thing.
I found the story, published June 16, 1986, and written by a reporter named Bill Figel. I also found Figel and spoke to him. He now runs a public relations firm in Chicago.
Everyone has assumed for two decades that Portland was talking about lesbian players when she told Figel she would not have “it” in her program. It’s been printed that way on countless Web sites.
Turns out, a little mining uncovered an unexpected glint in that old vein no one’s much checked in all this time.
According to Figel, Portland didn’t mean she wouldn’t have lesbians in her program. She meant she would not have lesbians attempting to turn heterosexual recruits into latent homosexuals. That’s a significant difference.
The difference becomes more apparent, though not conclusively so, when you see the context in which Portland made the comment.
According to Figel, coarse editing by the copy desk and his own lack of diligence drained the precision from the quote. Here’s how the entire Portland section reads:
One of the first things Penn State coach Rene Portland brings up during a recruiting visit with a player and her parents is lesbian activity.
“I will not have it in my program,” Portland said. “I bring it up and the kids are so relieved and the parents are so relieved. But they would probably go without asking the question otherwise, which is really dumb.”
Quite a backstory isn’t it? Portland was crucified in part because of something that was taken out of context. That would be really sad if there was not so much evidence to support Portland practiced what she said, misquote or not. To the best of my knowledge, Portland never sought to clarify what she was actually saying in that article. The nonsense between her and the men’s program makes her a lot less sympathetic too.
When I was an undergraduate, Portland was losing players frequently under circumstances never adequately explained. There were more than whispers that homosexuality of players, real or perceived was a reason for so many departures. The Times even picked up a Collegian story on all the departures.
In the end, if you take out all the politics, Portland’s behavior was unacceptable for a coach, especially a college coach. That she was able to leave on her own terms (at least publicly) might be more than she deserved.