Dave Bliss

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Dave Bliss (born September 20, 1943 in Binghamton, New York^[1]) is a former American college basketball coach. He coached at the University of Oklahoma, Southern Methodist University, the University of New Mexico and Baylor University.

Bliss resigned from Baylor in 2003 following internal and NCAA investigations into a number of circumstances, including his involvement in paying the tuition of two Baylor players, Corey Herring and Patrick Dennehy, discovered after Dennehy was killed by his teammate, Carlton Dotson.

Contents 1 Education 2 Coaching background 3 Post-Baylor 4 References 5 See also

[edit] Education

Bliss grew up in New York City. He graduated from Cornell University in 1965, and earned an MBA from Cornell in 1967. He was an all-Ivy League guard at Cornell, and is a member of the school's athletic Hall of Fame.

[edit] Coaching background

Bliss began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Army under Bob Knight from 1967 to 1969. After serving as an assistant at Cornell from 1969 to 1971, Bliss rejoined Knight at Indiana University from 1971 to 1975, where he met graduate assistant coach Doug Ash.

Bliss got his first head coaching position at the University of Oklahoma, where he coached from 1975-1980. Ash joined Bliss at Oklahoma as his top assistant, and remained with Bliss for the rest of his career. It was at Oklahoma where Bliss met his wife, Claudia; they.

From 1980-88, Bliss was the head coach at Southern Methodist University. He led the Mustangs to three NCAA tournaments, in 1984, 1985 and 1988. His best season was the 1987-88 season, in which the Mustangs won their first outright Southwest Conference regular-season title in 21 years and won the Southwest Conference tournament.

While at SMU, Bliss recruited and received a commitment from Dallas high school legend Larry Johnson. Johnson was illegally represented by Sherwood Blount, a Dallas-area real estate tycoon and SMU alum. Blount gained his first million by the age of 28, and was the primary financial contributor to the SMU football team's "slush fund" during the early 1980s.^[2]

Johnson was denied admission to SMU, and spent two seasons in junior college. Still represented by Blount, Johnson signed with UNLV before the 1989-1990 season and the team would go on to win the national championship that year. In his autobiography, former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian confirmed that Blount illegally represented Johnson.

Bliss' most successful player while at SMU was Jon Koncak, who was the fifth overall pick in the 1985 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks. An NCAA investigation during the mid-80's reported that Bliss was involved in illegal payments to his players, including Koncak. but the NCAA chose not to pursue the investigation any further due to the football program having just landed the "death penalty."^[3]

Koncak told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he received illegal payments while at SMU.

“The focus of that story was obviously Dave Bliss, but other people got caught up in it, which is unfortunate,” Koncak said. “But, yes, there had been some benefits while I was at SMU, and I did accept some of those benefits. What I did was against the rules."

The NCAA investigation memo from Bliss' time at SMU leaked during 2003, at the peak of the Baylor scandal. The memo reported that Koncak had illegally received the money during his junior and senior years from boosters as well as Bliss.

Stevens eventually moved to Crawford, Texas, about 15 minutes from the Baylor campus. Stevens was a prominent contributor to the Baylor basketball program under Bliss, and hosted a postseason team party following Bliss final season (2002-2003). The existence of the party, an NCAA violation, as well as Stevens' involvement with the Baylor program as a booster were uncovered during the summer of 2003.

Bliss left SMU after the 1988 season to take over as head coach at the University of New Mexico, largely due to the violations surrounding the Mustangs. He stayed at New Mexico for 11 years and is the school's all-time winningest coach. Under him, the Lobos went to seven NCAA tournaments, and notched the only four NCAA tournament wins in school history. His best season at the school was 1995-96, when the Lobos finished 28-5--still the best season in school history--and won their first NCAA tournament game ever.

Bliss was hired to as the head coach at Baylor University before the 1999-2000 season. The school paid him $600,000 a year, reported to be twice his salary at New Mexico.

In his four seasons at Baylor, Bliss' team only made the post-season once. During his second season (2000-2001), Baylor made the National Invitation Tournament, where they lost in the first round to Bliss' old team, New Mexico. Dennehy was a freshman on that New Mexico team that beat Baylor, and was named to the Mountain West All-Freshman team.

After a memorial service for Dennehy in San Jose, California; Bliss asked to meet with school investigators. At that meeting, he was told that Dennehy's girlfriend had told them Bliss paid for the sections of Dennehy and Herring's tuition not covered by financial aid. Bliss confessed to making the payments, estimated at $7,000--a major violation of NCAA rules.^[4] Two members of Baylor's 2001-02 squad told the Dallas Morning News that Bliss and several members of his staff had been present at a pickup game involving a star recruit during his official visit to Baylor--another major NCAA rules violation. It also emerged that Bliss and his staff knew about rampant marijuana and alcohol abuse among Baylor players, but did not follow procedures for reporting failed drug tests. Under the circumstances, Bliss was forced to resign on August 8, 2003.^[5]

After Bliss resigned, it emerged that he had told players to make up a story about Dennehy being a drug dealer in order to pay for his tuition. The story was intended to serve as a cover-up for Bliss paying Dennehy's tuition. The conversations were tape-recorded by one of Bliss' assistants, Abar Rouse. Bliss had threatened to fire Rouse if he didn't go along with the scheme, leading Rouse to record the conversations. Rouse later sued his attorney for releasing the tapes to investigators. However, it is well-established that the attorney-client privilege does not apply when an attorney discovers evidence of criminal activity. Bliss was never criminally charged for any activity related to this incident.

After internal and NCAA investigations completed in 2005 revealed further violations, Bliss was slapped with a "show-cause" order for 10 years for "despicable behavior" and "unethical conduct." This means that until 2015, no NCAA member school can hire Bliss in any athletic role without seeking permission from the NCAA infractions committee. Bliss' perspective employer would have to show cause for why Bliss should not have his duties limited by the committee. The penalty is the most severe punishment the NCAA can hand a coach. Combined with the evidence that Bliss engaged in extortion, witness tampering and obstruction of justice, it is highly unlikely that Bliss will ever return as a college coach. Ash and two other assistants were also hit with show-cause orders ranging from five to seven years.

[edit] Post-Baylor

Bliss served for two years as a volunteer assistant coach at a Denver-area high school before being hired as head coach of the Continental Basketball Association's Dakota Wizards. He only lasted one season before resigning, citing family reasons.

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.baylor.edu/Lariat/news.php?action=story&story=13335
2. ^ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/writers/mike_fish/10/27/alexander/index.html
3. ^ http://espn.go.com/ncb/news/2003/0802/1588938.html
4. ^ http://espn.go.com/ncb/news/2003/0808/1592839.html
5. ^ http://espn.go.com/ncb/news/2003/0808/1592839.html

[edit] See also

• Baylor University basketball scandal

Preceded by Joe Ramsey	Oklahoma Head Men's Basketball Coach 1976 – 1980	Succeeded by Billy Tubbs
Preceded by Gary Colson	New Mexico Head Men's Basketball Coach 1988 – 1999	Succeeded by Fran Fraschilla
Preceded by Harry Miller	Baylor Head Men's Basketball Coach 1999 – 2003	Succeeded by Scott Drew