Pete Mangurian resigned Friday as football coach at Columbia University after being accused of abuse.
Twenty-five football players sent a letter to Columbia president Lee Bollinger outlining the third-year coach’s disregard for concussions, according the Columbia Daily Spectator, Columbia’s student newspaper.
Pete Mangurian and the Columbia team (Courtesy Columbia Athletics)“Pete Mangurian has consistently denied the diagnoses of concussions,” the letter stated. “There are several players who will speak to the fact that Mangurian told them to return to practice, that they are faking their concussions, and that they are being soft if they sit out for their concussion injury.”
The letter has been withdrawn, but the damage was done.
“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 a statement.
Mangurian was also accused of creating voids between older and younger players and being physically and verbally abusive. The note to Bollinger referenced a speech after the team’s 42-7 loss to Albany. It was the team's 21st consecutive defeat.
“You are terrible [expletive] people,” Mangurian allegedly told his players after the loss. “The world would be a better place without you.”
Mangurian is a former NFL assistant with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was 3-27 at Columbia — including winless seasons in 2013 and 2014.