|
|
 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Means 'whistle-blower' suspended Memphis board bans ex-assistant Kirk from coaching
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- The Memphis school board permanently revoked the coaching privileges of a former assistant who testified that an Alabama booster paid his colleague $200,000 for getting a star linebacker to sign with the Crimson Tide. The board on Monday night permanently revoked Milton Kirk's coaching privileges, but sympathized with him because he was a "whistle-blower," and suspended him without pay for a year. He will be able to teach again in March 2002. Kirk had been recommended for firing on March 19, 2001, when he disclosed his involvement in the recruiting of linebacker Albert Means. In January, Kirk told The Commercial Appeal that he helped former Trezevant High School football coach Lynn Lang shop the talents of Means for $200,000. Lang resigned from the Memphis school system following the allegations, but has denied wrongdoing. Means, who was highly recruited after high school, played for Alabama last year. He has since transferred to the University of Memphis where he is awaiting a decision from the NCAA on whether he will be able to play football this season. He is accused of no wrongdoing himself. Kirk's testimony under oath at Monday's board meeting about Lang keeping the money given to him by booster Logan Young was the first time Kirk had named Young in a public forum. Kirk, who was on the stand for more than two hours, also detailed the deal. "The go-between person took Lang to Young's residence," Kirk said. "And Coach Lang told me that Mr. Young said, 'Here's my telephone number and I like the plan, but I want you to get your own vehicles.' "Coach Lang came back to me and asked what that meant, and I told him 'That means he's going to deal with you in cash because he doesn't want a paper trail.'" Efforts to reach Young for comment were unsuccessful. Kirk testified he requested to be transferred from Trezevant in August 2000 because he could no longer work with Lang, and told principal Ben Greene what he and Lang had done. School board president Barbara Prescott then asked if that meant Greene knew of Lang's behavior five months before the story became public, and Kirk said he did. As a result, personnel director Ricks Mason said Greene will be questioned about his knowledge of the incident. Meanwhile, the Means case is also being investigated by the FBI, the NCAA, the Southeastern Conference and a federal grand jury in Memphis. After the hearing, Kirk said, "They made their decision, and I'll just have to go with it." Kirk and Lang are among three coaches to lose their jobs over a recruiting scandal. Last month Melrose coach Tim Thompson was suspended for three years without pay after an internal investigation by the University of Kentucky revealed its former recruiter had sent Thompson $1,400 in money orders, presumably to steer players to Kentucky.
| |||||||||||||||||||
