Posted on 05/02/2005 8:49:38 PM PDT by kingattax
NORMAN, Okla. - The University of Oklahoma will wait until after the season to begin seeking a replacement for baseball coach Larry Cochell, who resigned for using a racial slur while praising a black player.
Sunny Golloway, an assistant under Cochell, will act as interim head coach, associate athletic director Kenny Mossman said Monday.
ESPN reported Friday that before a Tuesday telecast of the Oklahoma-Wichita State game, Cochell, in describing a freshman outfielder, said "There's no n----- in him." It also reported that he said in a separate interview, "There are honkies and white people and there are n------ and black people. (My player) is a good black kid."
Both interviews, held with separate announcers who were preparing for the broadcast, were off-camera.
Cochell, who coached the Sooners for 14 years, submitted a letter of resignation Sunday to school president David Boren, who had met with athletic director Joe Castiglione and members of the university's black community.
"As I have said in a public statement, I deeply regret that I carelessly used language that is clearly contrary to the basic values of our university," Cochell said in his resignation letter. "Those words also created an impression contrary to my own personal values and my respect for all people."
On campus Monday, students criticized the coach's use of the word.
"There are some things you just don't say and that's one of them," said sophomore Jesse Greadington III.
Robert Chamberlain, a junior, said it was disturbing that Cochell would repeat the epithet in two interviews. "It wasn't a one-time thing. He said it twice. It makes you wonder what he'd say when he was just around his peers.
racist? probably not. Ignorant dumbass..yea.
And then there are dumbasses. You, sir, are a dumbass.
You're a baseball coach not a professor of Native American studies for crying out loud.
You've got to be extremely stupid in this day and time to use the "n word" in any context. But I will give him this much. When I was growing up, the "n word" was often used to describe not all blacks but the ones who were lazy and disrespectful. In that context, I understand what the coach meant. Still, I just can't fathom anyone who represents a major university using such language and not knowing that saying it would land him in hot water. He must have led a very insular lifestyle not to know what the reaction would be.
He also must not have had to give many talks to the basketball or football teams.
have you ever listened to average black people having a casual conversation and seemingly use the "N WORD" at least once every other sentence ?
and also why is there nothing ever said about ANY racial epithets referring to caucasians ?
people need to have a thicker skin..no matter what color it is .
Yeah, but when you feed from the gubmint trough, you better either steer clear of controversial language or go undefeated - one or the other.
i reckon
ping
He forgot he wasn't in the late fifties early sixties anymore, hehe.
At least he has an opportunity to coach some small school in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi (and possibly Louisiana). LOL
And if her were a black man saying that what would the media say? "Oh, he shouldn't have used the word Honkie!! That's a racial term, fire him now!!", I don't think so.
I kinda wonder if Cochell's health problems contributed to his complete lack of judgment. I dunno, just a thought. ( Not that it matters...)
That being said....if Cochell would have just used the word Honkies...or said the BS-word, or the GD-word..or the F'ing-word...
Or said he was a going to have an operation to become a woman, and would now start dressing like a woman. Or called the people that died at the WTC's "little Eichmanns"...Nothing would have happened to him.
FWIW-
Geez, he sounds just like a certain WV senator.
It's an old Southern saying: "There's good white people and there's white trash; there's good black people and there's n-----s. I don't like white trash and n-----s." Cochell was just very stupid to repeat this 50's-era saying where he could be overheard.
By Larry Stein
SuperTalk 930 WKY
OU baseball coach Larry Cochell is forced to leave his head coaching job because he used the N-word in an "OFF CAMERA" comment.
No excuse for use of the N-word for me, but what really bothers me is the way the story came up. It’s wrong to use the word, but remember what Cochell was trying to say: Judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
A couple of pretty-boy ESPN TV reporters Kyle Peterson and Gary Thorne compared notes off camera and found Cochell used the N-word to explain the character of some of his players.
This is important. It wasn't on-camera that Cochell said those words, Cochell thought it was off the record because it was off camera. Here’s the problem: TV reporters and especially sports TV reporters might not be real journalists. By real, I mean they are former jocks who got jobs in sports TV because they know the sport. They probably don’t know squat about journalism. There is an ethical concern about using this off camera interview to slam Cochell.
Just so you’ll know - nothing is off the record when you talk to a reporter. If you don’t want to see your words on the evening news don’t say them, shut your mouth and be quiet. Words of warning that are too late for Cochell. If the pair of TV pretty boys wanted to investigate Cochell about the use of the N-word and then report later about inappropriate use of the word that's one thing. But for the pair of ESPN pretty boys to spring this story about off camera remarks from Cochell is a scandal.
What's also a scandal is that OU President David Boren has ignored racial scandals in the past. He never said a thing about his former colleague Sen. Robert Byrd's use of the N-word and membership in the KKK.
What a double standard.
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