Tarnished Heels: How Unethical Actions and Deliberate Deceit at the University of North Carolina Ended The Carolina Way Paperback – June 15, 2014

This is an omnibus of the data collected over the last four years of the investigations by various news organizations along with other cold hard facts which bring to light the athletics\academics scandal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. No longer does a reader have to go to various sources to track down the facts of the scandal they can go to this volume to see the information that should bring the University of North Carolina's revenue sports the death penalty. The description of years spent by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill maintaining the eligibility of its athletes through fake classes is laid out before the reader chapter by chapter.I was actually saddened by this book because it exposes the façade of the amateur athlete at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The media had touted the myth of the "Carolina Way" for so many years that the general populace had come to believe it was real and that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was a grand ivory tower showing leadership to the rest of the NCAA membership on how to do things the right way.With the recent Rashad McCants interview on ESPN I would recommend this book to get an even greater peak inside how the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has gamed the NCAA system to win national championships as well as avoid its deserved punishment from the NCAA.Very Minor criticisms: Sometimes the questions at the end of the chapter are non sequitars and there are some very minor grammatical errors.

Rob Anderson has done an outstanding job of gathering the facts and presenting them in this book as they transpired. I have followed this scandal from the beginning and it's nice to see the facts laid out for all to see. Here in North Carolina the legislature and the Board of Governors have no interest in knowing the truth that is going on at Carolina. Millions have been spent to keep this under wraps. It all started when Swofford was the Athletic Director at Carolina and now he protects them from the ACC office as the Commissioner. Mark Emmert has no desire to levy the appropriate punishment to them because they are already under probation and with the basketball revelations it could mean the death sentence for a few years. That would hurt the NCAA's pocket. The worst thing about this scandal is when Michael McAdoo (football player) lost his eligibility and then sued and presented his papers in court to show he had done his work and a fan of NC State finds the paper was plagiarized. After he lost in court UNC made a statement and claimed they would still honor his scholarship and allow him to get his degree. They then signed him back into a fake no show class where he got nothing. McAdoo has stated he would love to get his degree but not at Carolina, they just wasted my time. This my friends is the real Carolina Way. Hopefully this book will put more pressure on the powers that be to really look into the corruption at Chapel Hill.

UNC does not want you to read this book. The "internal investigations" that they claim that have already taken place have confirmed and documented well over 200 Fake Classes and 500 Unauthorized Grade Changes (all within one department).......in classes that were comprised of a disproportional amount of Football and Basketball athletes. No one wants to investigate how many of these athletes would have been ruled ineligible to compete in NCAA sanctioned events if the "A's" that they received in these "classes" were used to bolster their grade point averages. It only takes one ineligible athlete to force a forfeit of games or to bring banners down. That one department was the elected Major of most of the UNC Basketball players for the decade of the 90's when UNC "won" two National Championships. None of these claims are unfounded...they are just being ignored. UNC basketball has not suffered any NCAA penalties for these issues. Hopefully this book will help force the hand of the NCAA to take some action, or increase the national exposure of these issues so that UNC will be known for what they really are...cheaters.Please note that the reviewers who have given this book a 1 star rating did not even purchase it or have read it. They want you to believe that this is all fiction..while the book is actually full of documented results from UNC's own paid investigations, sworn testimony to the NCAA, testimony during legal proceedings, and UNC's own "Friday" news releases. You can't make this stuff up......

This is a thorough summation of the wide-ranging and tangled scandal that has simmered and at times boiled over at UNC. Read it at my leisure in bits and bites. I was already fairly familiar with the story lines, but for someone who hasn't been clued in to the story -- there's been an awful lot of it over a long time -- this is a good resource. The book breaks no new ground, but just pulls together the most salient developments that appeared in various news outlets. The author makes a strong case that UNC flat out cheated for years, has failed to come clean and that the NCAA has been remiss in failing to properly investigate and punish UNC.That said, the book has its weaknesses:1) The writer didn't do primary research, therefore cannot bring to life the characters at play. Most of whom may never submit to an interview. Hopefully, one day, a great writer will track down Marvin Austin and P.J. Hairston and Fats Thomas and paint portraits of their lives and how they fit into the culture of cheating at Carolina.2) It seems likely the author is an N.C. State fan. He keeps a civil tongue, but you can tell seethes with righteous indignation. I'm an N.C. State grad and fan, so I don't blame him, but the book would be stronger with fewer telltales. The facts are atrocious by themselves.