Alma mater, ’tis of thee…
“The doping, the raping and the shooting,” is how he refers to his last few months at Oklahoma, where he was 157-24-1 and won three national championships. He points out with his rebel streak that “the academia, the presidents and the board of regents” always get upset when he describes that time that way, but the descriptions are accurate and efficient, if cold. The people around the library always get a little uncomfortable when the athletic department is unmasked like that and brought out into the light, but Switzer has spent his life around the good and bad of sports. He knows this ugly, beautiful beast. And he cuts to the heart of some issues when he points out that the coach who doesn’t loosen his morals is going to lose to the one who does – or, like [Miami’s Randy] Shannon, lose his job.
“Why did you recruit the guy who shot his roommate with a .22?” he begins. “Well, if I hadn’t, he would have been playing at Notre Dame, Texas or Texas A&M. He was the No. 1 defensive back in the state. Started as a freshman. He was a great player. Did a dumb-ass act, probably because he was on drugs …”
On to the raping …
“The first one, two or three she had sex with, that was OK,” Switzer says. “But the fourth or fifth or sixth, she says, ‘No,’ that becomes rape. She should have never been in the dorms. The guys who brought her in there, they went to prison and served their sentence.”
Switzer loses his place.
“Oh, what was the other one?” he asks.
The doping …
“Oh, Charles Thompson was set up – great player, great QB – in an FBI sting. Talked into doing it with a bunch of buddies, thugs that came from high school. Set him up because they were three-time losers and they had a bug on him. Basically, they were trying to get me and my program. He relented after turning them down a dozen times.”
September 5th, 2011 at 4:02PM
Good old Barry. He and Charles Thompson must have patched things up. Back in 1990, Switzer called Thompson (I am not making this up) “a criminal and a sociopath.”
Pot, call kettle.
September 7th, 2011 at 3:46PM
Paterno on Switzer “I`m not going to give up college football to the Jackie Sherrills and Barry Switzers of the world.” … (1979). Since that time it appears that Paterno has moved towards Switzer’s version of college football.
September 8th, 2011 at 2:23PM
If college football and/or basketball have gotten to the point that everyone acts like Barry, then we should outlaw those sports. Fortunately I don’t believe it has reached that point. Even in the face of Miami I still think good coaches with good schools can run upstanding programs like Penn St. and Duke.
November 12th, 2011 at 10:26AM
Oh, how prescient these comments are.