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Site Launches Geared to Fire Saint Joseph's Phil Martelli

Frustration is reaching a fever pitch at Saint Joseph's and a new site has been launched geared to oust the longtime Hawks head coach.

Eric Francis

Frustration seems to be boiling over for the fans, students, and alumni of Saint Joseph's. In particular, fans have recently launched a website named "Phil Must Go" to usher eighteenth year head coach Phil Martelli out of the "City of Brotherly Love".

The site features a petition that has 174 signatures and the site owners explain their frustration:

While Phil is the winning-est coach in SJU history, he has lost more games than any coach in his 17 year tenure, eclipsing Bill Ferguson’s 208 losses in 25 seasons. Martelli has lost 240 games in 17+ seasons at Saint Joseph’s as of December 6, 2013.

The owners of this site have had enough of the mediocre product put forth by Saint Joseph’s University. The Men’s Basketball team has continued to flounder even though it has very talented (and possibly NBA caliber) players. Phil Martelli continues to run the same plays with the same results, while other teams are able to easily exploit our weaknesses. Yet, Don DiJulia continues to support Phil and his staff.

St. Joe's has only been to the NCAA tournament once since making it to the Elite Eight in 2004. The Hawks are off to a 4-4 start this year and have lost to crosstown rivals Temple and Villanova by a combined 38 points. Their next game will not be until December 18, but will also be against Philadelphia rival Drexel.

No author or single person takes credit for creating the site geared to fire Martelli and the original three signatures of the petition are anonymous. Which begs the question, if you're this passionate about ending someone's employment then can't you at least put your name on it?