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Illinois State AD resigns
- Thread starter braves16
- Start date
He is accused of pilfering $100 million from his business
https://www.25newsnow.com/2023/03/10...ish-lifestyle/
Incredible for a business (Reditus Labs in Pekin) that was just founded in 2019, and ceased operations in 2022.
Rossi donated $75,000 to Bradley, in addition to his $3 million pledge to ISU.
He is a graduate of Elmhurst College.
ManMythLegend
Member
It's incredible how quickly he built that business and how quickly it was decimated. Most of it on the back of Illinois taxpayers.
Tommy
Well-known member
Pretty easy to get rich these days if you have no scruples.
ManMythLegend
Member
Very true
Follow-up article with anonymous athletic department sources that discusses unprofessional behavior (doing shots with grad assistants) and even implies a "relationship".
https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-04-21/isu-athletics-reckoning-with-the-past-to-move-forward
https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-04-21/isu-athletics-reckoning-with-the-past-to-move-forward
tomahawk chop
Member
This article reminds me of the past president at Bradley where she ran off a lot of good people because of her ridiculous expectations.
Wow. What a story! I am impressed that investigative journalism is still alive in some places. WGLT, the public radio station in Normal that is owned by ISU (and now runs WCBU), has done a great job getting the facts and the real story about what went on with ISU sports administration. And, as we suspected, it went a lot deeper than the AD's outrageous spending junket with that millionaire donor. So where is the rest of the media in Bloomington-Normal? The Pantagraph has had only one brief story a week and a half ago about the AD resigning, and nothing since. And no mention anywhere about all the deeper issues that WGLT has uncovered.
Too bad none of our local Peoria news outlets even attempted to do any such journalism and report the facts during the final years of Bradley's inept (and worse) leadership leading up to the mass firings (of Glasser, Cross, Ford, and others) in 2015.
I've mentioned this before, but one of the Bradley Board of Trustees personally thanked me back then because Bradleyfans.com did more to report those facts than the people who were paid to report the news, and thus lead to corrective action being taken by the Board.
I think this would a very interesting trial when in comes to court. Maybe comparative to the case of ComEd paying off Madigan and associates to get rate increases in Illinois.
bradleyfan124
Active member
No accountability! No follow thru to see if the money is being paid the way it was supposed to be paid. Typical government programs
ManMythLegend
Member
The small portion of his car collection I got to see was outrageous. There's no question that misappropriation of funds was happening. The fact he did it so blatantly is what is shocking. As Molar said, it'll be an interesting trial to follow.
PhiAlphaBoy
New member
I don't necessarily think there was anything illegal or intentionally nefarious occuring during those days, just poor judgement and mismanagement. Bradley's Board stood by and allowed the outrageous "hair allowance", allowed and approved the (arguably) unethical poaching and overpaying of Geno Ford, and signed off on all of the (poor) executive decisions of that era. The entire executive system at Bradley was disfunctional and "rigged" during those days. That said, I really like the current president at Bradley and have high hopes for the next decade.
If the people who served on the Board of Trustees back then could speak publicly, people would be shocked.
I'm not saying the local media should have gotten confidential info, but there was plenty of facts that were publicly available, including the damning financial report put out by the Finance Dept.
Here was a tweet from an old thread worth reading (from the start) if anyone wants to learn more-
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...989#post483989
PhiAlphaBoy
New member
Thank you for posting that link Da Coach, I obviously missed that when it was posted since I had been sporadically checking the board back then. By the way, whatever happened to tornado? I don't think he posts here anymore. I hope whatever happened with Bradley Athletics didn't totally turn him away from what must have been a lifelong passion. Hopefully he can see that the program is back on solid footing and jump back on the bandwagon again. The program needs solid supporters like him now more than ever.
Not at all... Tornado still is an avid fan and supporter, still has season tickets, and follows here. But he's gotten busy with family and businesses, and is out of town more. But maybe he'll post again some day.