Len McNamara said the writing was on the wall that UNBC was shifting its focus away from athletics when president Don Cozzetto resigned in June 2008, less than two years into a five-year contract.
Shortly after that, Bill Lynch resigned as UNBC board chairman and the unraveling of work the three had done to raise the profile of UNBC athletics continued.
UNBC's change in direction was made clear to McNamara by Charles Jago when he met with him after taking over from Cozzetto as interim president in late June 2008.
"His first words to me when he came back were: 'We're a research-intensive university and athletics isn't a high priority', and I understand that," said McNamara, who was fired from UNBC as athletics and recreation co-ordinator in September 2009.
"Cancer research is little more important than the score of a basketball game. But we just felt there was a role athletics could play with the student body and in the community and I personally felt it was the Northern Sport Centre that could bridge the gap that had existed between the community and the university."
McNamara, Cozzetto and Lynch were the driving forces behind UNBC's bid to join the Canada West Conference as part of Canadian Interuniversity Sport.
That application was turned down Thursday in Victoria in a vote of the 11 Canada West member schools. UNBC's male and female basketball teams and its two soccer teams currently play in the B.C. Colleges Athletic Association.
McNamara said his requests for tuition waivers for student athletes, his work to attract university funds to pay for student financial awards and support the Timberwolves Athletic Association, all of which came during Cozzetto's term as president, were not received well by some members of the UNBC administration, and that led to McNamara's dismissal.
"If you look at the Jago years, there was very little advancement (in athletics) as opposed to the two short years where Cozzetto said 'Do what you do best,'" McNamara said.
"There was a mentality there that I wasn't a team player, but I really am. The things I was doing, I thought that was what my job was. It was always to build the program and there were big things that developed."
None were bigger than the UNBC Northern Timberwolves men's basketball team winning the national championship two months ago in Calgary. Without Cozzetto's influence, McNamara said UNBC would still be in the hunt for its first Canadian Colleges Athletic Conference championship.
"Mike Raimbault (who left UNBC as men's basketball head coach in April for the University of Winnipeg) wouldn't have won a national championship had Don Cozzetto not been there," McNamara said.
"He raised our financial awards to the point where Mike Raimbault could afford all those guys on his roster. You don't just build to a national championship and build those (Northern Sport Centre) crowds in one year."
