And If Kobe Isn't Available....

It may be a stretch in SapperWorld (that strange and wonderful place where great ideas are born) to bring Kobe Bryant to Amarillo until he's 40-41 years old. He may not be able to leave CO until then. So, where can Amarillo turn for an equivalent to Pete Rose as a role model for its youth? I have a modest suggestion. Dave Bliss — former Baylor University men's basketball coach — will have plenty of time on his hands for a fund-raising speaking engagement. This article in Sports Illustrated really lets Bliss off the hook. He has left a trail of slime from Norman to Dallas to Albuquerque to Waco. Amarillo College dropped intercollegiate basketball (men's and women's) in the latter 1980s. It disappeared without leaving a ripple. However, before AC basketball was tossed in the trashcan (where it belonged), a succession of Dave Bliss equivalents left their own trails of slime through Amarillo. Gary Cardinal came to Amarillo College from the New Mexico Military Institute (alma mater of Roger Staubach). Cardinal brought a collection of outlaws that would cause Wyatt Earp to blanch. Cardinal left the College in an abrupt career change: selling church construction bonds to little old widows. Cardinal was succeeded by Jim Calvin. It was like Jesse James was followed by John Dillinger. Calvin arrived from a stint in Kentucky and he brought a half-dozen parolees from the Kentucky state prison system with him. The whole sorry affair made Sports Illustrated with a condemnation of the president of Amarillo College who came off as the heavy. Calvin, of course, characterized himself as a man on a mission to redeem misguided young men (who could also slam dunk). As it turned out, all but one of the ex-cons disappeared. The lone former convict who stayed and played was John Luster (sentenced to 50 years for armed robbery and manslaughter) at 6'9''. Luster set a single season rebounding record at Amarillo College. After one year, he sought to transfer (because he had spent his freshman year at the University of Cincinnati and the robbery business occurred in the offseason). Luster went on a campus visit to a smallish state university in Wichita Falls, TX. Midwestern University — where John Tower taught political science before his election to the U. S. Senate — invited Luster and put him up in a freshman dorm. After his workout with the Midwestern team, later that night, a coed reported an attempted rape in her room. The assailant was described as a tall, black male. The sole African-American in the dorm that night was John Luster. Suffice it to say that Luster did not matriculate in Wichita Falls. He transferred to Penn State-Erie (a branch of the real Pennsylvnia State University). A year later, I was in the office of the registrar at Amarillo College and he tossed a letter at me and said, Remember this guy? A judge in Pennsylvania was seeking John Luster's transcript. Luster had been convicted of rape and assault in Erie, PA. The judge was making a sentencing determination. However, he wrote that it was a fomality because Luster was a three-time loser (another earlier conviction) and was going to prison for life. Calvin left Amarillo College (and was coaching the Kuwaiti Men's Olympic Team at the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait) and his trail of slime was continued by Mark Nixon. Nixon likewise brought a parade of thugs and lowlifes to grace the Amarillo College campus. This stuff could go on and on. I am getting sick to my stomach thinking about it. So, Dave Bliss is part of a grand fraternity. Too much money. Too much power. Baylor sold its soul to win in Big 12 men's basketball. That is why Dave Bliss would be the logical choice to follow Peter Rose as an inspirational speaker in Amarillo. If this be (fair & balanced) treason, make the most of it.

[x Sports Illustrated]

Baylor coach Dave Bliss's reliance on juco transfers and troubled castoffs helped cost him his job

By George Dohrmann

Dave Bliss was always cast as a reformer. While coaching basketball at four universities over 28 years, he was known for improving teams and trying to improve the fortunes of wayward players. Often when one of his athletes got into trouble, Bliss spoke as if the young man were a soul that had drifted away from his congregation. "All of the preaching may not inhibit the action," he said, "but that doesn't keep us from preaching."

At a press conference last week at Baylor it was Bliss, 59, who appeared to need guidance. Worn from months of turmoil, he resigned the day after the funeral of slain player Patrick Dennehy. Athletic director Tom Stanton also quit. Their departures came after a school investigation found that Bliss had been involved in "serious or major" NCAA rules violations (including improper financial aid payments to two players) and that athletic department officials hadn't taken action after learning of drug use by athletes.

"We've made mistakes," Bliss admitted only 11 days after he had declared that the Bears' program was clean, "but we own up to them from this point forth." The university imposed two years' probation on the program, but it would also be wise to reflect on why it hired Bliss, in 1999. There was abundant evidence that he ran his teams more like Jerry Tarkanian than like the man who gave him his first college coaching job, Bob Knight.

At Oklahoma ('75-80), SMU ('80-88) and New Mexico ('88-99), Bliss won by stocking his rosters with junior college transfers and players who had left four-year schools. At New Mexico, where he achieved his greatest success (246 victories and seven NCAA tournament appearances), Bliss coached about two dozen transfers. Some of those players, and others he recruited, caused the school embarrassment -- as did Bliss himself.

In 1994 after Lobos star Charles Smith and teammate Cornelius Ausborne were caught stealing $2,500 in property from a dorm, Bliss condoned a deal under which the players made restitution and campus police did not forward felony charges to the D.A.'s office. Only after the incident was reported and Bliss was criticized in the press did he suspend the players -- for one game.

In 1998 another Lobo, Clayton Shields, was detained by police after a gun belonging to a companion was fired in the air from a car they were riding in while Shields entertained a high school recruit. Shields was not charged with a crime, and Bliss did not suspend him. "If every basketball player ... that had a gun gave up his eligibility, we'd have fewer players," Bliss told TheAlbuquerque Tribune.

The NCAA investigated allegations of violations involving New Mexico players during Bliss's tenure, but the probe stalled because some players refused to cooperate. And the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Bliss left SMU months after the NCAA uncovered evidence of major violations, including booster payments to a player. (Bliss could not be reached for comment.)

Baylor, the nation's largest Baptist university, nearly doubled Bliss's salary (to a reported $600,000) to lure him to Waco, hoping he could turn around a team that had just gone 6-24 (0-16 in the Big 12). His five recruiting classes included 21 transfers, among them Dennehy (who had been kicked off the New Mexico team) and Carlton Dotson, who has been charged with Dennehy's murder. A few of the players Bliss brought to Waco carried guns, and marijuana use on the team was said to be rampant.

That Bliss could not turn Baylor into a winner (his record was 61-57 overall, 19-45 in the Big 12) underscores the school's athletic plight. University officials say they are committed to the conference, but this scandal -- the third at Baylor since 1986 to result in sanctions -- leaves them facing a hard question: At what point does the effort to succeed in big-time athletics derail the school's stated mission to promote "spiritual maturity, strength of character and moral virtue"?

Copyright © 2003 Sports Illustrated