Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 23, 1993 TAG: 9308230088
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SEATTLE LENGTH: Long
He quit hours after the football program was placed on probation and banned from postseason play for two years. The Huskies also were forced to give up scholarships and $1.4 million in television revenue.
James said he was "very disappointed" with the penalties, particularly the bowl ban. His letter of resignation was read by athletic director Barbara Hedges at a news conference.
"I have decided I can no longer coach in a conference that treats its players and coaches so unfairly," said James, who did not attend the news conference.
The resignation of Washington's winningest coach touched off emotional responses across the campus.
Co-captain and fullback Matt Jones said it was like he heard it was "when JFK got killed . . . it was a great shock. Everybody just broke down and started crying."
James said he was upset there was no chance to "cross-examine" those players and recruits whose allegations contributed to the sanctions.
James temporarily will be replaced by defensive coordinator Jim Lambright, a 25-year Washington assistant. Hedges said it would be wrong to call Lambright an interim head coach because she had not had time to discuss the matter with university president William Gerberding.
"I look at it as if I'm going to be the head coach here forever," Lambright said.
Hedges said she telephoned James, who stayed at home with his team and did not go to the San Francisco area for the Pac-10 announcement, to tell him the 30-member league council had increased the Huskies' bowl ban from one to two years. A four-member compliance committee had recommended one year. Hedges said James told her then that he was going to resign.
James, 60, has won more Pac-10 games than any coach in the league's history. He led the Huskies to a 12-0 record and a share of the national championship in 1991. He is the winningest coach in Washington history with a 153-57-2 record in 18 seasons, leading the school to 13 bowls in the past 14 years.
The Huskies, who have appeared in three straight Rose Bowls, will not be able to go to Pasadena this season because of the Pac-10 penalties. Washington won't be eligible for the conference title following the 1993 and 1994 seasons.
The Huskies remain eligible for national championship consideration in The Associated Press media poll, but not in the CNN-USA Today coaches' poll. Washington is ranked 12th in preseason by the AP.
The Pac-10 also limited Washington's football scholarships and recruiting visits, and prohibited the university from sharing in 1993 television rights fees. The team can appear on television, but will lose about $1.4 million in TV revenue.
Washington will lose 10 scholarships in each of the next two years and is limited to 35 - instead of 70 - paid recruiting visits.
Gerberding called the scholarship reductions excessive because the school wasn't a repeat offender.
"Cases involving the University of Oklahoma, Texas A&M and just this week, Auburn University, did not involve sanctions of this magnitude," he said in a statement.
Washington is the second major football program to be placed on probation in the last week. Auburn was hit with a two-year probation and one-year television ban by the NCAA last Wednesday.
Four Washington boosters will be ordered to disassociate themselves from the Huskies, and three players, including senior tailback Beno Bryant, will lose their eligibility.
These are the most severe penalties the Pac-10 has handed out against a member school.
"We are shocked and stunned," Hedges said. "We believe this sets a precedent and a higher standard that is unheard of in the NCAA."
Among the violations found by the Pac-10 were improper loans to athletes, free meals provided to recruits and improper employment of athletes by boosters. The conference also cited a lack of institutional control over funds provided to students hosting recruits.
However, Pac-10 representatives refused to characterize Washington as "an outlaw" program.
"There is no evidence the University of Washington set out to accomplish the achievement of a competitive advantage," said James O'Fallon, faculty representative at Oregon and head of the conference's compliance committee. "We have not found the University of Washington guilty in that sense."
The Pac-10, the only major athletic conference that conducts its own compliance investigations, will report the penalties to the NCAA, which can decide to levy more severe sanctions but cannot lessen them.
Last year, the conference investigated reports that quarterback Billy Joe Hobert received $50,000 in loans from an Idaho businessman. Hobert, then a junior, was declared ineligible last season and was drafted by the Los Angeles Raiders.
James' statement was read by athletic director Barbara Hedges:
"It is with great relief that I can finally make a public statement concerning the investigation of our football program.
"First and foremost, I want to say how pleased, but not surprised, [I am] that none of our coaches have had any charges leveled against them. They are what I have always known them to be, upright, honest and of the highest integrity.
"I am personally, however, very disappointed that the Pac-10 Conference has seen fit to assess the penalties they have, particularly the bowl ban. Throughout my tenure for the last 19 years, I have worked very hard, and in my opinion successfully, to run a clean program which complies in all respects with the letter and spirit of the conference and NCAA rules.
"What is particularly disappointing to my staff and me is the impact that this ban will have on the coaches and many of the fine young student-athletes now in the program, especially the seniors. Many of them became Huskies because they believed that in addition to the education and living opportunities that Washington has to offer, our football program provided them with a great chance to participate in postseason play, perhaps even the Rose Bowl. These young, innocent student-athletes are being penalized by the alleged conduct of people whom they have never met.
"As for our football coaches, the conference action will also tarnish our reputation in our profession. We have suffered for nearly 10 months from media character assassination. By looking at the penalties, it appears we are all guilty based in large part upon statements of questionable witnesses.
"I hope this experience will prompt the conference to make some changes in the procedures that govern how it investigates and judges future rule allegations. There is a trend within the NCAA, and rightfully so, when handing out penalties, to punish only the guilty and not the innocent. Hopefully, the compliance committee was as frustrated and concerned as I was that meaningful opportunity was not provided for them to cross-examine the handful of former players and recruits who apparently provided some information to the conference investigator on which most of the allegations were made.
"I prepared this response earlier, based on what I understood the committee recommendations were.
"Yesterday, this conference elected to add on a second year of bowl bans. However, they will continue to allow us to play on television so that they can reap monetary benefits, as they have been doing because of the outstanding play of our Huskies for many years.
"I have decided that I can no longer coach in a conference that treats its members, its coaches and their players so unfairly, therefore: effective immediately, I am retiring as the head football coach of the Washington Huskies."
by CNB