Frazier's firing puts NCCU in spotlight

DURHAM, North Carolina — N.C. Central gets to test the notion that all publicity is good publicity.

During an on-campus Thursday news conference, NCCU athletic director
Ingrid Wicker-McCree announced that Henry Frazier III had been relieved of his head coaching duties with the football team, the result of his arrest on Monday for violating the domestic violence protective order that governs his relationship with his former wife, Lanier Turner-Frazier.

Frazier initially was suspended as NCCU’s coach, as he was a year ago after police charged him with assaulting Turner-Frazier at their Morrisville home. The couple since has divorced.

Wicker-McCree explained that Frazier’s personal issues were distracting school personnel from focusing on student-athletes. Cutting ties with Frazier and establishing NCCU assistant head coach Dwayne Foster as the team’s interim head coach would allow the players to get the attention they deserve, she said.

On Saturday, NCCU will visit Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium for the Bull City Gridiron Classic, the season opener for both teams.

CONTINUE READING