"Tarnished Heels" Author Silent

Update 11:50 a.m., June 5, 2014

The author of the book Tarnished Heels: How Unethical Actions and Deliberate Deceit at the University of North Carolina Ended the “The Carolina Way” isn’t ready to talk about the book until the release date gets closer.

The book by Rob J. Anderson hit Amazon.com in early April and releases June 15. Anderson’s agent, Barbara Casey—who attended UNC, N.C. State, and North Carolina Wesleyan—told WCHL that he won’t be scheduling interviews until after the release. However, she said he and his publisher will be doing pre-release publicity once the release date gets closer.

Anderson says on his blog that he’s collaborated on a number of writing projects, but it appears this is the first book he has authored.

Art Chansky of Chapelboro.com and host of Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook on WCHL has written five books and is getting ready to come out with his sixth. He has also played a major role in the publishing process of one of his books along with three others.

“Particularly if you’ve written a series of books in the past, the publishers will try and capitalize on the author’s name by having him on,” Chansky says. “That would, sort of, build momentum for the new book. With Anderson being a new author, I don’t know how much value that would have.”

Anderson has been spreading the word about the book through his Twitter handle, @RJAndersonBooks, and on Facebook. Most recently he has pointed out the precise sections of the book in which UNC African and Afro-American administrator, Deborah Crowder appears. However, the blog doesn’t share what the book says about Crowder.

Chansky says it’s hard to guess why Anderson and the people he’s collaborating with on the book have decided not to release much information about the book right now.

“Maybe they’re trying to pique the curiosity of people exactly what’s in it,” Chansky says. “Or, maybe they’re afraid that people will see it and say, ‘oh this is just a rehash, we’ve already read this in the News & Observer and 45 other websites over and over again’. You can have a kiss of death to a book, too, before it ever comes out if it gets out that there’s really nothing special about it.”

Dave Ridpath is an Associate Professor and Kahandas Nandola Professor of Sports Administration at Ohio University. He is one of the authors of The Drake Group, which was started in 1999 by a former professor of Drake University. Its website says its mission is to “defend academic integrity in higher education from the corrosive aspects of commercialized college sports.”

Ridpath joined us last week on WCHL to talk about what academic improprieties he’s seen in his years of academia.

He reviewed Tarnished Heels and said the book tells the story of how UNC “sold its soul for the perceived benefits of athletic glory at the expense of core values and academic integrity.” He goes on to say that those actions put Carolina among the “worst offenders of academic integrity in intercollegiate athletic history.”

Anderson’s agent, Casey told WCHL to get in touch again closer to the release date in order to speak with the author.

“Tarnished Heels” Author Silent

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