Columbia football coach Pete Mangurian resigned on Friday, Columbia President Lee Bollinger said in a press release.
Mangurian resigns amid controversy after 25 players sent a letter to Columbia President Lee Bollinger and the Board of Trustees alleging abuses, including the mishandling of concussions. The letter said that Mangurian denied concussion diagnoses while also being physically and verbally abusive with players. It also claimed that Mangurian has created rifts between underclassmen and upperclassmen on the team.
“I have accepted Pete Mangurian’s resignation because we have all come to the conclusion that it would be in the best interests of Columbia Athletics,” Bollinger said in the release. “Under [Columbia Dianne Murphy, Columbia teams have built a new winning tradition across our men’s and women’s sports and we expect no less of our football program.”
Columbia's football program has been mired in losing and controversy over the past few seasons. The Lions have lost 21 straight games dating back to 2012 — the first year of Mangurian's three-year tenure — and have not beaten Penn since 1996. Columbia also did not score against Harvard in Mangurian's tenure.
Mangurian, formerly Cornell's football coach as well, finishes with a 3-27 record as the Lions' coach.
After this past season, Columbia announced a review of the struggling football program that is being conducted by former coach and Athletic Director Rick Taylor that will continue.
Read more at the Columbia Spectator.
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