Sam Haskell, who has a home in Oxford, gets much of the credit for the re-emergence of Miss America in the past decade.

The once-great pageant returned to TV and respectability and financial and scholarship success. And Haskell was pulling many of the right strings.

But in the type of scandal that has, unfortunately, become commonplace, everything changed for Haskell and Miss America just before Christmas when old emails from Haskell and others associated with Miss America were made public.

Haskell has resigned as the chief executive in charge of Miss America after an outcry over the emails that included derogatory language about some former pageant winners.

For his part, Haskell has said the emails don’t reflect who he truly is and we both agree and have no doubt. Reading the emails, it was almost as if he were provoked into some of the crude comments and should have just left it alone.

But that’s now how it went down, and now both he and Miss America face the fallout.

As for the organization, it’s not likely that Miss America will be able to easily overcome this. As for Haskell, this can be just a bump in a long and respected career if he makes clear public apology and regret.