Jeff Jacobs: With no explanation from Yale, the firing of Henry Harutunian seems heartless and cruel

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Wei-Tai Kwok, the former fencing captain at Yale, used the words callous and insensitive. Strong words.

Kwok was being kind.

Heartless and cruel fit much better.

Unless there is something the outside world doesn’t know.

How do you tell an 86-year-old man, an international fencing institution, a man who has coached at your university 49 years and won multiple national championships, that he can’t coach a 50th and final season?

That is what Yale athletic director Vicky Chun did two weeks ago to Henry Harutunian in refusing to extend his contract. The move sparked outrage among an alumni fencing community caught off-guard by Chun’s email to essentially fire Harutunian.

Seventy-five of them, Kwok said, wrote letters in protest or to express their concern to school president Peter Salovey and Chun.

“Some were diplomatic,” said Kwok, the 1985 Yale captain and board member of the Yale Fencing Association. “Others were less diplomatic.

Former Yale University fencing coach Henry Harutunian instructs épéeist Alexia Cesar, Class of 2012, in this 2010 photo from the Yale Alumni Magazine. Harutunian was fired March 28 after 49 years. Former Yale University fencing coach Henry Harutunian instructs épéeist Alexia Cesar, Class of 2012, in this 2010 photo from the Yale Alumni Magazine. Harutunian was fired March 28 after 49 years. Photo: Julie Brown / Contributed Photo Photo: Julie Brown / Contributed Photo Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Jeff Jacobs: With no explanation from Yale, the firing of Henry Harutunian seems heartless and cruel 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

“I look at the biggest mentors I’ve ever had and Coach Harutunian is one of the top two people in my personal life. I learned so much about life on the fencing strip, more than other professors at Yale. That thought resonated through all 75 letters. He’s one of the very special people in the world.”

This is a man who came to America from Armenia in 1966, who had coached with the Soviet national team. He arrived at Yale in 1970, started a women’s program in 1974, won three national titles with the women and two with the men. He coached U.S. national teams in the Pan Am Games, the World University Games and in 1984 the Olympics. He has been selected national coach of the year by various organizations, has coached a long list of All-Americans and was inducted into the U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame.

The man is a fencing legend.

This is how Yale treats its legends in 2019?

Heartless. Cruel.

Unless there is something the outside world doesn’t know.

Yes, Harutunian’s teams had dipped in the last decade. No, they weren’t as strong as during earlier decades. Yet both the men’s and women’s team finished seventh in the 2019 NCAA championships, their best results in 17 years. Harutunian was named Ivy League coach of the year.

“The overwhelming feeling is, why did this happen so close to his planned retirement in one year?” Kwok said.

After he was fired, Harutunian told the Yale Daily News that Chun had not given him a reason for the dismissal and he had planned to retire after his 50th season, hoping assistant Haiban Wang would replace him. A reported $3 million donation by late Yale fencing captain Carl Knobloch made an endowed assistant coaching position possible for the two-time Olympic silver medalist and former coach of the Chinese national team. With Wang, Yale’s finishes have improved over three seasons.

Such a succession plan seems to make all the sense in the world. From the broader perspective, a golden jubilee for Harutunian is a narrative too delicious, too romantic to resist. With its Gothic architecture to Depression-era Heisman Trophy winners to the acappella Whiffenpoofs to Handsome Dan, everything about Yale tastes of tradition and respect for history. Do you know how many college coaches have been at one place for a half century? Hardly any.

This guy is a fencing treasure. From talking about the old Soviet Union athletic machine to his seventh-floor Payne Whitney office filled with photographs and tools for the weapons and fencing suits ... c’mon, the man is the same age as Payne Whitney Gymnasium itself. He should have been on “Good Morning America” and ESPN next year, not thrown overboard.

The Yale fencing alumni have every right to be upset by being blindsided. The AD absolutely should make the call on hiring and firing, but there is so much support, financial and otherwise, in Ivy League sports like fencing you run the risk of embarrassing yourself and the school by acting unilaterally. And to this point, that is what Chun has done.

What was Chun thinking?

I asked. I asked. And I asked. First Yale’s sports publicity, where I was directed to Chun’s office on April 3. After initial contact, I didn’t hear anything further for five days. I reached out again Monday. On Tuesday, I was directed to put my questions in writing. I did.

“In this situation, I made the determination that the overall program would best be served by change in leadership,” Chun had emailed Yale Daily News on March 31. “This decision was made after careful and thoughtful deliberation. The next head coach for Yale Fencing will build on Henry’s legacy, and I look forward to the exciting work ahead.”

Over 10 days, I’ve not heard from Chun.

Anyone who has even casually followed the news in the past month is aware of the national admissions scandal. From Lori “Aunt Becky” Loughlin to Yale women’s soccer coach Rudy Meredith, who admitted in court to accepting bribes, the ugly scandal has shaken higher education to its core.

Beyond that, there is the most incredible coincidence in Ivy League athletic history. The Boston Globe uncovered Harvard fencing coach Peter Brand sold his Neeham, Mass., home in 2016 for more than $400,000 above its market valuation to Jie Zhao. Zhao’s younger son was admitted to Harvard shortly after, although Zhao, who took a $300,000 loss on the house’s resale, insisted it had nothing to do with getting him into Harvard. Zhao, whose older son also fenced for Harvard, said he was helping out Brand to reduce his commute.

Whatever. You’d have to be the worst reporter in America to fail to ask Chun, who took over at Yale last summer, if Harutunian’s dismissal had anything to do with either scandal. Or another one.

If Harutunian has nothing to do with any of it, surely Chun should have been smart and sensitive enough regarding a man’s good name to make sure the Yale community and the public know this was solely about the fencing program. To leave it hanging out there speaks poorly of Chun’s ability to manage a delicate situation.

“It’s very unfortunate timing,” Kwok said. “From what we heard and read there was no cause for termination. If there was something egregious, they could have terminated him immediately, thrown him out, taken away his key and locked him out.

“That’s not what happened. His contract runs through the end of August.”

Kwok said Harutunian, unavailable Thursday and Friday, has been sick the past few days and does not keep a cellphone. Harutunian has been showing up for work and was at a postseason team banquet last week.

“He was extremely upset the first week after it happened,” Kwok said. “He was wondering, ‘What’s going on here?’ ”

That’s a hell of a question.

Kwok was not of the opinion that fencing was singled out. He said Chun had put other coaches on one-year contracts when she arrived to gain leeway to reshape the department. He pointed to Joakim Fligh leaving the women’s ice hockey team after the season ended. Norwich’s Mark Bolding was hired this week. Harutunian got his notice only days after the end of the season. A national search was announced to replace him. Kwok said Wang has applied. Other sources at the school say in the midst of various changes, most everyone is walking around on eggshells.

“We hope despite all this craziness, the school will honor Coach Harutunian,” Kwok said. “Certainly the alumni plan to honor him.”

The record will show Harry Harutunian, 86, lived by the sword. Unless there is something Chun and the school are hiding, his remarkable career died cruelly by one buried in his back.

jeff.jacobs@hearstmediact.com; @jeffjacobs123