Boeheim's beer ad creates controversy
Posted: 03.03.2008 at 5:57 PM

Basketball fans worried about underaged drinking

A still frame from the Sackets Harbor Brewing Company ad 
Photo

DEWITT -- Considering he has the most famous face in Syracuse, any business would be lucky to have him pitching their product. In ads running on television SU Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim is pushing beer for Sackets Harbor Brewing Company. Stuart Halpert of DeWitt was shocked when he saw the ad recently on TV after a game.

"It's not the message I think the NCAA wants to send, it shouldn't be a message SU wants to send," Halpert says.

Halpert and his wife were so upset by the ad they wrote a letter to the editor of the Post-Standard. The couple also takes issue with the fact that most of the members of the Syracuse University basketball team aren't even old enough the drink legally.

"My wife called Dr. Gross's office and never got the courtesy of a response," Halpert says.

SU student Yong Jae Shin has seen the ad and has no problem with it.

"He's doing it for the team, I don't mind, I think it's right," says Shin.

Whether or not you agree with the ad, at the end of it Coach Boeheim leaves viewers with this important information: drink responsibly.