Don Imus had 'regret' for Rutgers racial slur, said he 'knew better'

Bob Jordan | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Radio personality Don Imus has died at the age of 79 Don Imus hosted his radio show for almost 50 years and was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.

Don Imus, a radio host who had pushed boundaries and died Friday at 79, said in one of his last interviews he was sorry for his flip, bigoted remarks about the members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

"The Rutgers thing I regret," Imus told CBS correspondent Anthony Mason last year shortly before his retirement from the airwaves. "Cause I knew better."

In April 2007 Imus on his morning show described the players on the women's basketball team as "rough girls" and "nappy-headed hos."

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"It did change my feeling about making fun of some people who didn't deserve to be made fun of, and didn't have a mechanism to defend themselves," Imus said.

Imus had unleashed the racist barbs after Rutgers' loss to Tennessee in the 2007 national championship game. Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer and her team held a press conference to condemn the comments. Imus apologized, "but there wasn't anything I could do to take it back."

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The comments went beyond the local airwaves (the show’s broadcaster in New York was WFAN). There was national outrage and shock over Imus using racial and sexist slurs.

Players spoke out about just how hard those comments hit them.

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"Our moment was taken away - our moment to celebrate our success, our moment to realize how far we had come, both on and off the court, as young women," New Jersey native Heather Zurich, a sophomore forward, said at the time. "We were stripped of this moment by degrading comments made by Mr. Imus last Wednesday. What hurts the most about this situation is that Mr. Imus knows not one of us personally."

Imus, who was also known for his charitable work, died at Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in College Station, Texas, after being hospitalized since Christmas Eve, publicist Matthew Hiltzik said.