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 Another headache Minnesota coaches: Some past complaints 'racially biased'
Posted: Friday May 21, 1999 07:44 PM
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Coaches at the University of Minnesota said one reason they became involved in complaints against their athletes was they felt a need to protect players from false accusation and racial bias, the Star Tribune reported Friday. Former football coach Jim Wacker and men's basketball coach Clem Haskins offered no proof of racism, and the women who accused players in 11 cases include whites, blacks and Asians, the newspaper said. Wacker, who left the university after the 1996 season, told the newspaper he sometimes conducted his own investigations and determined that the accuser was lying. "I had problems with some of the people in that [university police] department," said Wacker, now athletic director at Southwest Texas State. "They can say all they want about the discrimination down South. I coached 18 years down here; I never had my players run into the problems that they did when they were in Minnesota. They're racially biased, you bet." Haskins would not comment for the Star Tribune's report. But in an unpublished interview with Star Tribune reporters two years ago about accusations of assault by his players, he also suggested race was a factor. He questioned campus police and university medical reports in the cases, referring to "white" police and "white" hospital staff members as a reason to doubt the allegations. Wacker said McKinley Boston, university vice president for student development and athletics, expressed similar views in discussions with him about police cases against his players. "Mac Boston believes the same thing," Wacker said. "You go ask him. He's seen it, I've seen it. We've talked about that." Said Boston: "I do not recall having those conversations with coach Wacker." Haskins also questioned whether two white Star Tribune reporters were racially motivated in pursuing stories about his players. And he suggested that accusations by white women could be a factor as well, though not all of the accusers were white. "We have a problem between the white female and the black male," he said. "It was consensual," he said in general when talking about the alleged sexual assaults. When asked to back up his statements, Haskins said he only knew what he had heard and read in the newspaper.
Haskins said at the time that he wanted his remarks to be off
the record, but when reporters repeatedly refused to agree, he
responded by saying he would deny ever making the comments if they
were reported in the newspaper.
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