Testimony ends in Notre Dame lawsuit
Posted: Tuesday July 14, 1998 08:01 PM
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Chris Clevenger says Moore hit him in the face several times during his sophomore year at Notre Dame (Jonathan Daniel/Allsport) |
LAFAYETTE, Indiana (AP) -- A former Notre Dame football player
testified Tuesday that an ex-assistant coach suing the school for
age discrimination once punched him so severely that blood poured
from his mouth.
Chris Clevenger also said that, despite the abuse, he respected
Joe Moore and said the former offensive line coach helped him more
than anyone else in his five years at Notre Dame. He even said he
missed the coach during the 1997 season.
"I have a lot of respect for coach Moore. He was a great coach.
He was very tough on his players, very disciplined, very strict,
and he had coached some great athletes, some great offensive
linemen," said Clevenger, who testified by videotape.
Moore, 66, who was fired after Bob Davie took over as the Irish
coach in November 1996, is suing the university for $1 million,
claiming he was fired because Davie thought he was too old to
coach.
Clevenger, testifying in a videotaped deposition, said Moore
struck him on several occasions during his sophomore year,
including incidents during the 1994 Florida State-Notre Dame game
and the Irish's 1995 spring scrimmage game.
In the second incident, Clevenger said Moore first hit him under
his facemask on the sidelines during the scrimmage. The linemen
were then called into a separate locker room at halftime and Moore
ordered them to take off their helmets as he yelled at them.
Clevenger said he struck the other four starters several times
before reaching him. He said Moore didn't hit him as hard as the
other players, something he didn't understand until he looked in
the mirror and saw blood pouring from a split lip and cut tongue.
"He worked his way through all of us," Clevenger said.
A Walt Disney Corp. executive, also testifying by videotape,
testified about what he saw during the 1994 Florida State-Notre
Dame game and said he stepped between an ABC cameraman and the
scene between Moore and Clevenger to prevent it from being
broadcast.
Phil Lengyel, vice president of sports for Walt Disney, which
owns ABC, said the episode prompted him to ask Davie in 1996,
"What's with this guy? It's unbelievable on the sideline with his
behavior."
Davie claims Moore was fired for abusing players, as well as for
such other reasons as smoking, not changing clothes in the same
locker room with other coaches after practice and doodling during
coaches meetings.
Moore's lawyers called him to the stand Tuesday to refute some
of the minor claims.
He said he changed clothes at home after practice because he
only lived four minutes from campus and it gave him a chance to say
hello to his wife before returning to the football facility for
evening work sessions. Moore also said he wasn't good at taking
notes so he'd doodle unless the discussion centered on the offense
because an assistant recorded the sessions and gave coaches a
typewritten summary an hour after the meetings ended.
Moore said he washed his car every three or four weeks after
Davie said the condition of Moore's car bothered him.
Defense witnesses also claimed Moore frequently talked of
retiring after the 1996 season and was let go partly because Davie
couldn't count on him for a long-term commitment. But Moore
testified those discussions were born out of frustration, not a
desire to leave coaching.
"Everyone was frustrated at the time, from [former Irish coach]
Lou Holtz on down," he said. "He felt he was being run out of the job.
"He didn't know what was going on, so there was a lot of
talk."
Closing arguments were scheduled Wednesday morning.
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