Pete Thamel and Kevin Armstrong from the NY Times released some long awaited pieces on Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez yesterday.  One of the pieces focused on Gonzalez when he was the head coach of the Manhattan College Jaspers from 1999-2006.

And in a very rare, candid and some may say unprofessional way; Manhattan College Athletic Director Bob Byrnes opened up to the NY Times about how he truly feels about the man they call Gonzo. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen quotes from an AD like this about a former coach.

Here’s what Byrnes had to say:

-the following are excerpts from the NY Times-

Byrnes told a story about the bus company Manhattan used to travel to games.

“The guy who runs the bus company called me and said something to the effect of: ‘I have 131 drivers that drive for us. But we’re down to one guy that will drive for Bobby Gonzalez,’ ” Byrnes said.

“It was him and the team against the world,” Byrnes said. “It was a war. Everything was a war.”

Byrnes received letters from sports editors threatening to stop coverage because of Gonzalez’s treatment of reporters. He said the only effective management style was “by threat.”

Byrnes said Gonzalez would ask campus security, “Do you know who I am?” and routinely broke campus speeding and parking rules.

Manhattan has not achieved nearly the same success under Gonzalez’s replacement, Barry Rohrssen, but Byrnes quickly answered “no” when asked if he would bring Gonzalez back.

Byrnes said that when he was informed that Gonzalez was leaving for Seton Hall he said: “Good luck. I had him for seven years. I used to have a lot of hair. I’m almost bald now.”

He said he had seen Gonzalez only once since he left, at a dinner, but did receive a bobblehead of Gonzalez in the mail recently from him.

“I don’t talk to you for four years, and you send me a bobblehead?” Byrnes said. “Save the postage.”

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