Colleges -- Report: Ex-UCLA Coach Feared Life Was In Danger

LOS ANGELES - Former UCLA basketball coach Gene Bartow believed his life might have been in danger had the NCAA delved too deeply into the activities of the late Sam Gilbert, once a prominent Bruin booster, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Bartow, who succeeded John Wooden in 1975, acknowledged what he believed to be a life-threatening situation in a letter to an NCAA official. Bartow coached UCLA for two years before leaving to start the basketball program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

"I want to say `thank you' for possibly saving my life," Bartow, currently the basketball coach and athletic director at UAB, wrote in a Nov. 1, 1991, letter to David Berst, NCAA assistant executive director for enforcement, the Times said.

Bartow's feelings toward Gilbert were part of a five-page letter in which Bartow called on the NCAA's top enforcement official to investigate the basketball program at Alabama, UAB's chief recruiting rival.

Gilbert, a Los Angeles contractor who died in 1987, reportedly had a long history of providing improper gifts to UCLA basketball players, particularly the stars of the Wooden era.

The letter contradicts public statements made by Bartow, who has said he did not fear Gilbert.

In offering his "thank you" to Berst, Bartow wrote that he had just read "Undue Process," a book that was critical of the NCAA's enforcement practices.

He noted that the book indicated that an NCAA investigator had wanted to scrutinize the UCLA program during Bartow's first season at the school, but had been taken off the case.

PURDUE COACH SUED

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Former Purdue football player Ryan Harmon sued the university, claiming that head coach Jim Colletto physically and mentally abused him.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court 2 of Morgan County by Martinsville attorney John Boren, claims that while Harmon was on the team, "he was physically hit, punched, kicked and shoved with regularity" by Colletto.

The lawsuit also claims that Harmon was called a variety of vulgar names by Colletto.

Harmon, an honorable mention all-state player at Martinsville High School, was an offensive lineman at Purdue who redshirted as a freshman during the 1991 season.

He left Purdue after the '92 fall semester and enrolled at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis for the spring '93 semester.

Because of his treatment, the lawsuit claims Harmon "experienced thoughts of suicide, abuse of alcohol, deterioration of social relationships, and adverse effects on his academic endeavors and depression."

Besides Colletto, the suit lists the Purdue football coaching staff, athletic director and president Steven Beering as defendants.

Colletto, in Chicago for a Big Ten coaches meeting, was unavailable for comment.

Athletic Director Morgan Burke issued a statement in which he said: "Jim Colletto is a fine coach and a man of exceptional integrity. I am convinced that his actions with his players have been appropriate, and he has my full support.

"We intend to defend our position vigorously in court."

Burke said he hadn't seen the lawsuit and wouldn't comment.

NOTES

-- Dick Ellis was hired as athletic director at Baylor University, moving up from deputy AD. He replaces Grant Teaff, who resigned to become executive director of the American Football Coaches Association.

-- Fred Martinelli, the Ashland (Ohio) University football coach with the second highest victory total (208-117-12) among active NCAA Division II coaches, will retire after this season.

-- Charlie Taaffe, Citadel football coach, faces a magistrate's court hearing this week on a drunken-driving charge. Taaffe was stopped July 22 after a trooper allegedly saw Taaffe driving erratically below the minimum speed limit of 45 and was charged with driving under the influence.

-- Clemson senior wide receiver Dwayne Bryant was suspended by the university for the fall term for academic reasons but will be allowed to come back in January, the Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail reported.

-- Oldsmobile is breaking state law by leaving dealer tags on 36 cars it lends to the NCAA for staff use, according to the Department of Revenue.

Compiled from Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and Lafayette Journal and Courier.