The Len Bias Legacy - Timeline

Dave Ungrady

Oct 6

3 min read

October 7, 2014

Athletic Director

Dick Dull Resigns

Dick Dull was the first high profile staff member of the University of Maryland athletic deparrtment to resign following the death of Len Bias on June 19, 1986.

***Dick Dull announces his resignation at a press conference.***

As Reported in the Washington Post

Excerpts from the book Born Ready:

The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias

When Dull Found Out Len Bias Had Died

On the morning of June 19, Dull was home when Maryland Assistant Vice President John Bielec called to inform him of Bias’s death. Dull immediately called Jeff Hathaway, an assistant athletic director, to go to Leland Memorial Hospital in nearby Riverdale and confirm the news. The tragedy turned Dull’s world upside down. “I was in shell shock for about six weeks,” he says. “You go from being the fair-haired boy to people calling for you to leave. It was difficult for me to handle. It was unlike anything I had ever seen.” Dull says he felt like one of the main characters in what he called “a Greek tragedy” with no winners. “I can remember walking out of my office to go to the bathroom, and someone would be following me down the hallway. It was like that every day.”

What Prompted Dull to Resign

Dull testified in front of a grand jury called to investigate the cause of Bias’s death as well as drug use at Maryland. Dull remembers police officers letting him out the back door of a courtroom to help avoid the throng of media covering the story. When Dull publicly stated that Driesell should keep his job despite being part of the grand jury investigation, he sensed his own job was in jeopardy. The move helped convince Chancellor John Slaughter that a change was needed. “Dr. Slaughter told me, ‘I wish you hadn’t said that.’ He felt he had to make a decision about Driesell,” Dull says. “I painted myself in a corner because of my support for Lefty. We agreed the situation wouldn't go away unless I stepped away. I don’t have regrets.” Slaughter says Dull strongly supported the decision. “He felt I would be able to accomplish what I needed to do if he stepped aside. He and I sort of agreed it was the best thing to do. He was helpful to me, and I admired his courage.”

Dull resigned on October 7, 1986. On the way to the press conference announcing his resignation, according to a report in the Washington Post, Dull told Slaughter, “I might recite Martin Luther King’s words: ‘Free at last.’ ” It turns out that Dull, in the second year of a four-year contract, had long been thinking about leaving when it expired. At the press conference, according to reports, he said there was more to life than “slaving away trying to manage an intercollegiate athletic program. It was about a year and a half ago that I realized I no longer had a personal or private life, that I didn’t do anything I enjoyed, like fishing, playing golf or photography.”

Read about the recent passing and the life

of Dick Dull on umterps.com

Much of the content presented in the Timelines was produced in 2022 by Enzo Alvarenga, a University of Maryland Journalism student at the time. Enzo died in an accident while riding a bicycle when he was working as a volunteer on the project. The honor his memory, the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism has established the Enzo Bibes Alvarenga Endowed Scholarship in Journalism. For more information and to support the scholarship, click the button below.

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