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He took the University of Central Florida to the Division II Final Four in 1978. RIP.
The founding father of UCF basketball, Eugene “Torchy” Clark, died at 80 on Wednesday.
Clark was responsible for starting the men’s basketball program in 1969. He served many additional years in the university’s College of Education.
Clark’s first team in 1969-70 played its first game before the squad even had a nickname. He would go on to extend his career through the 1983 season, compiling a record of 274-89 (.754). Clark guided UCF to the Division II Final Four in 1978.
Saban, who was a distant relative of Nick Saban, had a history of never liking to stay long at University or pro team he worked for. Ask the University of Cincinnati, where Saban was AD for 19 days before taking the Miami Hurricane head coaching job.
I remember him mainly for his two year tenure at the University of Miami. Army was looking for a new head coach and wanted to talk to one of Saban’s assistants. Instead Saban said he was interested in the job. His abrupt departure from Coral Gables had some local sportswriters predicting doom for the Hurricanes.(Saban was 3-8 and 6-5 in his two years at Miami) Four years later, Howard Schnellenberger took the Hurricanes to a National Championship, where as Saban would spend the rest of his coaching days at places like Peru State and the Arena Football league. RIP Lou.
Lou Saban, who coached O.J. Simpson in the NFL and ran the New York Yankees for George Steinbrenner during a well-traveled career that spanned five decades, died Sunday. He was 87.
Saban died around 4 a.m. at his home in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., his wife, Joyce, said. He had heart problems for years and recently suffered a fall that required hospitalization, she said.
Saban played football at Indiana University and for the Cleveland Browns of the NFL before embarking on an unmatched head coaching career that included stops with the Boston Patriots and Buffalo Bills of the old American Football League and the NFL’s Denver Broncos, along with college jobs at Miami, Army, Northwestern and Maryland.
Saban, who was 95-99-7 in 16 seasons of pro football, also was president of the New York Yankees from 1981-82 and coached high school football from 1987-89.
“He has been my friend and mentor for over 50 years, and one of the people who helped shape my life,” Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. “Lou was tough and disciplined, and he earned all the respect and recognition that came his way. He spent a lifetime leading, teaching and inspiring, and took great satisfaction in making the lives around him better. This is a tremendous loss to me personally.”
Saban shared the last name of another prominent football coach, Alabama’s Nick Saban. Joyce Saban said the two men might have been second cousins, but said the families weren’t exactly sure whether they were related.
Louis Henry Saban was born in Brookfield, Ill. in 1921 and was a 1940 graduate of Lyons Township High School. After starring at Indiana, Saban played for the Browns from 1946-49 and the next year accepted his first head coaching position — at Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland.
In 1955, he took over at Northwestern for a year, then moved to Western Illinois until entering the pro ranks in 1960 to coach the Boston Patriots of the newly formed AFL.
From there, Saban went to the Bills in 1962 and guided them to AFL championships in 1964 and 1965, the only championships the Bills have ever won. After a stint with the Broncos, Saban returned to Buffalo. During his second stint with the Bills from 1972-76, he oversaw O.J. Simpson’s record-breaking, 2,003-yard rushing season in 1973.
“He was like a father to me,” former Bills defensive back Booker Edgerson said. “He steered me in the right direction. He gave me advice. Some of it, I didn’t like, but isn’t that what a father does?”
Edgerson, who also played for Saban at Western Illinois and with the Broncos, said he last saw Saban in October at a Western Illinois banquet honoring the coach.
“Lou Saban was a great teacher,” Edgerson said. “He knew how to build football programs. He could have built any program — football, baseball, basketball, whatever. Even though his patience was short-tempered, he allowed players to let out their anxieties and frustrations.”
After quitting the Bills in midseason of 1976, Saban spent two years as athletic director at Miami, where he recruited future Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly.
Saban later became known for how quickly he changed jobs. He coached Army in 1979, was AD at Miami and spent 19 days as athletic director at Cincinnati. He went on to coach high schools, colleges and in the Arena Football League.
Saban spent the 1990s starting or rebuilding programs at places like Peru State, Canton Tech and Alfred State, where he left before the team played its first game. He coached Central Florida in 1983-84.
“I’ve coached at all levels, covered the gamut, and I’ve never really seen any difference,” Saban said after being hired to coach Alfred in upstate New York in 1994. “My coaching techniques are pretty much the same, with some adjustments for what younger players can and can’t do.”
Saban spent five years at Canton Tech in northern New York — the longest stint of his career — before leaving after the 2000 season. In one of his last jobs, he coached Division III Chowan State in North Carolina, leaving in 2002 after the team went 0-10.
“He was an original,” Joyce Saban said. “He was one of a kind.”
Funeral arrangements were incomplete. Joyce Saban said the family would have a mass at Our Lady of the Sea Catholic Church in North Myrtle Beach on Saturday.
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Jay Bergman was an institution at UCF where he had been baseball coach for 28 years. From the Orlando Sentinel-
The University of Central Florida fired baseball coach Jay Bergman because he was accused of sexually harassing a team equipment manager, a university source has confirmed.
Bergman used a bat to simulate raping equipment manager Chris Rhyce in early March, said the university source and two other sources with knowledge of the allegation. The university source asked for anonymity because he is not authorized to speak for UCF.
The three sources said Rhyce told the university in a written complaint that he was held down on the field, fully clothed, by a baseball staff member before a March 7 game while the players watched. Bergman was said to have grabbed a bat and shoved it toward Rhyce’s buttocks.
Bergman coached for almost 26 years at UCF.
File this under embarrassing ways to taint or destroy a long career. The UCF Baseball field is named for Bergman.
I’m inclined to believe the allegations. Bergman was suspended for one game in 2006 for inappropriate behavior towards one of his players. The lawyer for Bergman is denying what happened (of course), and the school is clamming up. (of course) Go to the link and read the Orlando Sentinel article to form your own opinion.
Players and coaches are telling entirely different stories as to how Ereck Plancher died last month. From the Orlando Sentinel-
Ereck Plancher, a 19-year-old receiver from Naples, was taken to a hospital March 18 and was pronounced dead about an hour after the workout, known as a “mat drill.”
A preliminary autopsy was inconclusive. Further tests are under way to determine the cause of Plancher’s death.
The UCF players, who asked for anonymity because they fear retribution from football coaches, said Plancher’s final practice was more intense than the basic-conditioning workout described by UCF officials.
Students on scholarship have a great deal to lose by speaking up. Whereas government officials want annonymity for a myriad of reasons when they leak which is often done for their egos, I’m more inclined to believe these students.
In an interview with the Sentinel, UCF coach George O’Leary and his football staff disputed the four players’ account of Plancher’s final practice.
“I did not see him struggle on the field,” O’Leary said of the morning Plancher died. “From my professional opinion, what should have been done for his care was being done.”
O’Leary’s professional opinion included puffing up his resume which when discovered caused him to resign as head coach of Notre Dame. This coach has lied when its suited his purposes in the past. Is he lying now?
The next part of the article is interesting.
The players said they decided to talk to Sentinel reporters because they were upset about the school’s portrayal of a “10-minute, 26-second” workout that included a “weights component” described by UCF Athletic Director Keith Tribble in a news conference the afternoon of Plancher’s death. UCF Executive Associate Athletic Director David Chambers a week later clarified Tribble’s statement, saying the workout lasted about 20 minutes. UCF spokesman Grant Heston said Thursday that officials were relaying what they thought was accurate information.
“We were acting on the best information we had available in the hours immediately after Ereck’s death,” Heston said. “Subsequently, we learned that the workout was lengthier than we originally believed.”
The school is backtracking already. UCF coaches had to know what drills were conducted. How or why misleading information was given out, I think we all can take a guess at that.
I’m putting the rest of the Sentinel article beneath the fold. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. George O’Leary may soon be out of work again. UCF gave this disgraced coach a second chance. If O”Leary is found to be lying, he should be fired. Football isn’t worth dying for.
Players said the March 18 workout included:
*Multiple agility work stations that lasted five minutes each.
*Two runs on a 200-yard obstacle course.
*Two timed sprints from sideline to sideline.
They said those drills, conducted in the Knights’ indoor fieldhouse, came after players lifted weights for an hour, also a supervised activity.
“Everybody was struggling at times,” one player said. “. . . But he [Ereck] was running, and I could tell something wasn’t right. His eyes got real dark, and he was squinting like he was blinded by the sun. He was making this moaning noise, trying to breathe real hard.”
The four players said Plancher fell during the final sprint and members of the UCF coaching staff yelled at him to finish the drill.
“Ereck took off running about 5 yards and fell; the coaches were yelling at him to get up, and of course he came in last,” one player said.
O’Leary said he didn’t see Plancher fall but did see him get up during one of the two runs.
Offensive coordinator Tim Salem said he saw no signs that Plancher was having problems during the workout.
“When he was coming through my station, he actually was passing people. He was not struggling at that time. He was working harder than other kids.”
After the workout, the team huddled in the middle of the field, where O’Leary singled out Plancher and cursed at him for lack of effort during the final sprint, the four players said.
All four players recall that O’Leary said to Plancher, “That’s a bunch of [expletive] out of you, son,” in the huddle. O’Leary denied cursing at Plancher but recalled telling people around him, “He’s better than that.”
“Ereck was in the back when O’Leary was yelling at him, but Ereck couldn’t even look at him,” one of the players said. “He was trying to catch his breath the whole time, and he never could.”
Plancher was noticeably woozy and staggering as he tried to participate in the final jumping-jacks drill, the players said. The team finished those exercises, then huddled one final time. Plancher collapsed while walking away from the huddle, the players said.
Salem confirmed that the post-weightlifting workout involved mat drills, a series of strenuous agility drills that are considered to be among the most difficult football conditioning drills.
The four players interviewed by the Sentinel said several players vomited during the workout.
“It wasn’t just Ereck that was hurting. It was six or seven other people,” one of the players said.
The players said they did not see Plancher vomit. O’Leary said he only saw one player vomit, and that player “throws up all the time.”
O’Leary reiterated his March 20 comment that the workout was not taxing.
“I always look at the kids, at their sweat,” he said. “They had little rings of sweat around their neck and a little under their armpits. That’s how I just know whether it was a taxing workout.”
One of the four players who spoke with the Sentinel, a veteran, disagreed, saying: “It was the toughest workout since I’ve been here. It definitely was not a light workout.”
O’Leary said that when the players got to the huddle after the drills, “I told them what time practice was tomorrow. I talked about academics. I basically said what the dress was for the next day. Then players went for their cool-down and jumping jacks.”
O’Leary said he broke the huddle, and “the next thing I saw, I turned, I saw the trainer with Ereck. Robert Jackson was the trainer there. I went over, and Ereck was just taking a knee. I asked, ‘Did you have breakfast?’ ”
Plancher “was already not responding,” said one player who participated in the workout.
O’Leary said the trainer and the receivers coach were trying to give Plancher water. Players carried Plancher outside and waited for an ambulance to arrive while UCF athletic trainers began rescue breathing and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, called 911 and attached an automated external defibrillator.
UCF police officers arrived at 10:52 a.m. to find Plancher unconscious and lying on a bench. Plancher was taken to Florida Hospital East and pronounced dead at 11:51 a.m.
Chris Metzger, Plancher’s football coach at Lely High in Naples, said Plancher told him in late March or early April of 2007 that he collapsed during a workout at UCF. Several of Plancher’s relatives and friends also said the player told them he collapsed during a UCF workout.
“He told me he was having a hard time with the workouts and had even passed out once,” Metzger said. “That was unusual for him because he was in great shape. I asked him if the team had checked him out, and he said they did. He said they told him everything was fine, so I told him to keep working at it and everything would be OK.”
Ereck’s father, Enock, said he had never heard of his son having health problems at UCF.
“He was in perfect health,” Enock Plancher said. “He never even got sick or had a cold.”
Ereck’s mother declined to talk to reporters.
UCF officials said they have no knowledge of Plancher, a freshman who was 5 feet 10 inches and 180 pounds, having any medical problems. Officials said there was a note in Plancher’s medical file about him needing liquids during a summer workout in 2007.
Tribble said March 18 that Plancher passed an NCAA-mandated physical. Coaches and team trainers later said Plancher had a spotless medical record.
“We have no record of Ereck requiring any medical attention . . . while at UCF,” Tribble said in a statement.
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Not enough teams may get the six wins needed for a bowl game berth. From the Orlando Sentinel-
The Conference USA bowl scenario is going to get interesting over the last three weeks of the regular season.
Entering the week, UCF is one of four C-USA teams now eligible for bowl berths.
While Knights Coach George O’Leary was safe not to say his club was definitely going bowling by just reaching the necessary six victories Saturday with its win over Marshall, there doesn’t appear to be any scenario in which UCF will be left out of the postseason. Especially with UCF’s remaining opponents boasting a combined 7-20 record.
But C-USA is actually in danger of not qualifying enough teams to fill its six tie-ins this season. UCF, East Carolina, Houston and Tulsa all have six wins. But it may come down to the wire to get two more teams there.
The East Division’s bubble teams are Southern Miss (5-4) and Memphis (4-5).
The West’s only remaining candidate is UTEP, which is 4-5.
The Golden Eagles should be safe to get one more win with remaining games against Memphis on Saturday, followed by a trip to UTEP and a finale against Arkansas State (4-5).
UTEP will be favored Saturday at Tulane (2-7) but will have to upset either Southern Miss or win at UCF to get its sixth win of the year.
Memphis has it a little easier, hosting UAB (2-7) and SMU (1-8) after traveling to Hattiesburg.
I think the moral of the story is- There are too many darn bowl games. Outside of Oklahoma and Oregon, Who would watch a Oregon St-Tulsa game?(I’m making up a bowl match up)Does a 6-6 deserve a trip? I can remember Florida State getting no bowl bid after going 8-3 in 1978.
From the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
ORLANDO, Fla. — The University of Central Florida extended football coach George O’Leary’s contract through 2015 Thursday, perhaps sewing up the 59-year-old until retirement.
In two years, O’Leary has helped transform UCF from one of the country’s worst NCAA Division I-A programs to one of its most promising. The Golden Knights carried the nation’s longest losing streak into last season, but ended up playing in the school’s first conference championship and bowl games on the way to an 8-5 record.
The deal delivers $1 million in the first year, with gradual increases to $1.55 million in 2015 and $500,000 in possible incentives each season. It also includes a buyout capped at $5 million, or $1 million for each remaining year on the contract, if O’Leary or UCF breaks it.
“Believe me, we have a lot of work to do. Every dollar will be surely worked,” O’Leary said.
O’Leary returned to college football at UCF in December 2003 after two years as defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings. He made national headlines in 2001 after resigning the head coaching job at Notre Dame when it was discovered parts of his resume, compiled long ago, had been falsified.
O’Leary was head coach at Georgia Tech from 1994 to 2001, amassing a 52-33 record and earning 2000’s national coach of the year award. He was nominated for the award again after UCF’s finish last season.
Will the next headline be- University President arrested for kidnapping.
Good for O’Leary. He has redeemed himself from the Notre Dame/resume debacle. UCF had a short lived nobody college program and he’s brought them to two straight bowl games. That’s quite a turnaround.
I’ll say this- O’Leary will never finish this contract. UCF is deluding itself. The buyout clause is expensive, but these can be overcome. If O’Leary continues to be sucessful, other programs will get interested. O’Leary’s transgressions are minor in the world of college sports. Soon they will be all forgiven and a thing of the past.
I give O’Leary and UCF 3 years or less. Five is the worst scenario I see.
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