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 Haskins coaching job in jeopardy
Posted: Saturday May 01, 1999 05:16 PM
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- University of Minnesota President Mark Yudof says he has asked the university's lead attorney, Mark Rotenberg, to investigate allegations of improper travel by the Gopher men's basketball coaching staff. A 1997 Las Vegas trip and allegations of academic cheating among basketball players over five years have put coach Clem Haskins' job as coach in jeopardy, Yudof said. "As the number of [accusers] coming forward increases, it becomes more likely that some of it may be true," Yudof told the Saint Paul Pioneer Press on Friday. University auditors in early March raised questions about the Las Vegas trip. Haskins -- along with other coaches and their wives, and a trainer and his wife -- spent $9,100 on a trip to Las Vegas for a "coaches' seminar" that auditors say was little more than a golf outing. The trip was financed by the Golden Dunkers, an alumni sports booster club. "I don't know much about booster clubs, but I want to make sure the trip is all on the up and up," Yudof said. "You bet his job is in jeopardy if the charges prove true," Yudof said. When initial allegations of academic fraud were reported in March, Yudof said that due process in the investigation would be the key to fairness both for players and others involved in the basketball program. "We're dealing with the reputation of a great basketball coach, Clem Haskins," Yudof told the Minnesota Legislature in March. In a statement released by his attorney before the investigation began, Haskins denied all charges of academic fraud. If the allegations were to be proved and Haskins were to quit or be fired, a new coach would have to be in place by July in order to recruit players for the next basketball season. That would increase pressure to remove Haskins in June. "That was one reason I wanted the investigation done quickly," Yudof said. Now, it appears, the investigation is likely to run into the late summer, at least. Yudof said investigators Michael Glazier, from a sports law firm in suburban Kansas City, Kan., and Don Lewis, a partner in a Minneapolis firm, have talked with people who have facts and those who have come forward with suspicions. "They have critical interviews coming up with Alonzo Newby and Coach Haskins," Yudof said. Newby was an academic adviser to the basketball team when athletic department office manager Jan Gangelhoff said she wrote about 400 term papers and take-home tests for as many as 20 men's basketball players. Gangelhoff also said that Newby delivered $3,000 to her from Haskins to pay for her work for the players. Gangelhoff and Elayne Donahue, then head of academic advising for athletes, have accused Haskins of allowing a culture within the team that permitted cheating. Yudof said he was less worried about the future of Haskins' superiors -- Mark Dienhart, athletic director, and McKinley Boston, vice president for student development and athletics. "As you get further up the chain, it gets more attenuated," Yudof said. "I'm not as nervous about those two people."
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