The Most Disgraced Endings to Legendary Coaching Careers

Happy Valley is not so aptly named these days.

With this weekend's shocking child sex abuse scandal involving former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno has announced that he will retire after the season amid scrutiny stemming from his treatment of an incident in 2002 brought to light in the grand jury's report.

This will be remembered as one of the most disgraceful endings to a legendary coaching career in American sports history.

But Paterno isn't the only legend to go out amid controversy and disgrace.

Jim Harrick

Jim Harrick may not be a legend like many of the other coaches on this list, but he did compile a lifetime 471-234 record, including a national championship and 192 wins at UCLA, the second-most in the university's history behind John Wooden (though Ben Howland will likely surpass that total this season).

His career was marred by several scandals. At UCLA, he was fired for filing a false expense report. He resigned from Georgia amidst a scandal involving his son, who was an assistant coach at the time. From Sports Illustrated:

"

Harrick was suspended with pay March 10 as the university announced findings of academic fraud involving Jim Harrick Jr., the assistant coach who granted credit hours to three basketball players who did not attend the class in basketball strategy he was teaching.

Harrick Jr. had been suspended before the end of the season when former player Tony Cole's various accusations were telecast by ESPN.

Georgia subsequently found that current players Chris Daniels and Rashad Wright had also received the fraudulent credit, leading the school to declare them ineligible and withdraw the No. 25 Bulldogs (19-8) from the SEC and NCAA tournaments. Harrick Jr. was also told that his contract would not be renewed.

"

Kelvin Sampson

Some guys just never learn.

Kelvin Sampson, who finished his coaching career with a 496-271 record and led Oklahoma to the NCAA tournament in 11 of his 12 seasons there, was banned from coaching in the NCAA for five years in 2008 after resigning from Indiana. From ESPN:

"

Indiana was accused of four major NCAA violations that stemmed from more than 100 impermissible phone calls to recruits by Sampson and his assistant coaches during his first season in Bloomington. Sampson resigned under pressure, short of completing his second season, after accepting a $750,000 buyout.

Sampson was still on NCAA-imposed probation as Indiana's coach for his involvement in similar offenses committed while the coach at Oklahoma.

Colonial Athletic Association commissioner Tom Yeager, the chair of the NCAA infractions committee during Sampson's Oklahoma case, said a five-year show cause would not be out of line for a coach who had recently appeared in front of the committee.

"

Eddie Sutton

He was two victories shy of 800 in 2006 when Eddie Sutton resigned and announced his retirement from Oklahoma State.

The reason?

The legendary basketball coach crashed his car in a drunk-driving incident. From ESPN:

"

Following the February accident, Sutton said chronic back and hip pain led to a relapse in his fight against alcoholism dating to his days as Kentucky's coach.

Court records showed his blood alcohol level was 0.22, almost three times the legal limit. Since the accident, Sutton had back surgery and underwent alcoholism treatment.

He pleaded no contest to charges of aggravated DUI, speeding and driving on the wrong side of the road and received a one-year deferred sentence and was ordered to pay a fine.

"

Sutton would come out of retirement on an interim basis and return to the University of San Francisco during the following year, surpassing the 800-win mark.

Barry Switzer

In 1989, Barry Switzer would resign from Oklahoma after the university was hit with a three-year probation for 20 NCAA violations. From The New York Times in 1989:

"

The fourth most successful coach, based on winning percentage, in Division I college football history, Switzer has been under pressure to quit since the school's football program was put on probation by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in December. Early this year, several players were charged with crimes involving drugs, guns and sexual assault.

"

Switzer, named in four of the 20 violations, expressed displeasure at the NCAA's rules:

"

"I am not making excuses but simply giving an explanation when I say it was difficult to turn my back on these young men when they needed help," he said.

"We have created a system that does not permit me or the program to buy a pair of shoes or a decent coat for a player whose family can't afford these basic necessities.

"How can any coach stick to these rules when a young man's father dies many miles away and the son has no money for a plane ticket home to the funeral?"

"

Jim Tressel

All Jim Tressel did during his 10 years at Ohio State was compile a 106-22 record (94-22 in the record books, since all 12 victories in 2010 were vacated), win six Big Ten titles, win a national championship (and appear in two other national championship games) and go 9-1 against Michigan (8-1 in the record books).

But that was all erased when it was discovered after the 2010 season that Tressel had known about and covered up a memorabilia-for-cash scandal, leading to his forced resignation. From ESPN:

"

The central point of the hearing was the contention, admitted by Tressel, that he alone among Ohio State officials broke NCAA bylaws when he learned some of his players had accepted improper benefits from a Columbus tattoo-parlor owner in April 2010.

He then declined to tell Ohio State or NCAA officials for more than nine months, contrary to his contract and other NCAA rules.

In effect, Tressel knowingly played ineligible players throughout last season.

"

Jerry Tarkanian

In 1998, Tarkanian settled with the NCAA for $2.5 million in a lawsuit that alleged the NCAA had tried to push the legendary coach out of college basketball for 20 years.

He had left his famous UNLV post amid scandal, after all. From the Las Vegas Sun:

"

By December 1990, the NCAA filed a new round of alleged infractions stemming from the 1986 recruitment of high school standout Lloyd Daniels.

And six months, later he announced his resignation after a newspaper published a photo of several of his star players lounging in a hot tub at the home of Richard Perry, a convicted sports fixer.

"

That photo can be found here. While Tarkanian maintained the NCAA found no major violations against him or the school, they didn't walk away free of violations either. From ESPN:

"

"We went five years with that kind of intensive investigation and when they finished they didn't have a major violation against us," Tarkanian said. "Not one major violation."

Major, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.

In 1993, the program agreed to 28 violations cited by the NCAA that stemmed from a six-year case prompted by the recruitment of Lloyd Daniels.

In announcing a three-year probation, an NCAA spokesman cited "inducements to prospective student-athletes and extra benefits to current student-athletes" during Tarkanian's tenure.

UNLV's scheduling and television appearances were restricted, but the team was not banned from NCAA tournament play.

"

Tarkanian would return to head coaching three years later at Fresno State, where he remained for seven years.

Bob Knight

If you want the full story of how Bob Knight was dismissed from Indiana, I highly recommend clicking this link.

The paraphrased version goes something like this: A number of incidents—including Neil Reed alleging that Knight choked him in a 1997 practice and student Kent Harvey alleging the coach scolded and grabbed his arm roughly for speaking to Knight in what he felt was a disrespectful manner—led to Knight's 2000 dismissal from the university he was synonymous with, Indiana.

Knight would go on to coach at Texas Tech from 2001-08, but his legacy will always largely be attached to Indiana and that bright red sweater.

Woody Hayes

ESPN Classic sets the scene of this fateful punch by legendary coach Woody Hayes in 1978:

"

Losing by two points with a little more than two minutes left in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Ohio State was driving, and had moved the ball into field-goal range at Clemson's 24-yard line.

But then noseguard Charlie Bauman intercepted freshman quarterback Art Schlichter's short pass over the middle on the 18.

Bauman was knocked out of bounds on the Buckeyes' sideline. An irate Hayes went over and threw a punch at Bauman before he was restrained by several of his players.

The morning after the 17-15 defeat, Hayes was fired. He never coached again. He also never apologized to Bauman for hitting him.

"

That last sentence is the worst part of all.

Pete Rose

Pete Rose was famously banned from baseball in 1989 after it was discovered he had been gambling on games involving the team he was managing, the Reds, from 1985-87 (though it was found that all of his bets were on Cincinnati to win).

He was replaced that year by Tommy Helms.

In 2004, Rose would finally admit that he had indeed bet on baseball. To this day, his efforts for reinstatement have been unsuccessful.

Dave Bliss

Bliss had a career record of 525-328 at Oklahoma, SMU, New Mexico and Baylor. But what happened after he was hired at Baylor was nothing short of horrendous. From the New York Times:

"

Four years later, player Patrick Dennehy went missing, then was discovered to have been murdered. A former teammate, Carlton Dotson, later pleaded guilty to killing Dennehy and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Baylor officials then discovered that Bliss improperly paid up to $40,000 in tuition for Dennehy and another player, and that the coaching staff had not reported players’ failed drug tests.

And Bliss asked players and an assistant to lie to investigators by saying Dennehy paid his tuition by dealing drugs; the assistant taped that conversation and turned it over to authorities.

"

Utterly reprehensible.

My name is Timothy Rapp, and I put the "grrrr" in Swagger.