August 18, 2003

Patrick Dennehy's murder, already one of the most sordid stories in collegiate athletics, got worse over the weekend with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram report of audiotapes where Dave Bliss, his coach, plotted to smear Dennehy's name to save his ass. "Dennehy is never going to refute what we say," Bliss told assistant coach Abar Rouse, who had begun taping their meetings after being threatened with his job if he didn't participate in the scheme.

posted by rcade to basketball at 11:52 AM - 9 comments

If there's any justice, Dave Bliss' name will forever be synonymous with the win-at-all-costs mentality in college sports. I can't imagine that any program on the planet would be willing to hire the guy, but I'm probably wrong.

posted by rcade at 11:56 AM on August 18, 2003

This is brilliant! Brilliant! Good on that asst. coach. Good job!

posted by worldcup2002 at 12:01 PM on August 18, 2003

I think I'm going to send my diploma back to Waco. They can keep it. All in all, I hope there's one more job casualty in this. President Sloan has begun running the academic side of the Uni into the ground preferring less experienced but more willing to bring religion into the classroom professors to more experienced neutral profs. It's pissing off a lot of tenured faculty, alumni, and students. I'm not sure it would be 'fair' for him to go down for this as well, but whatever it takes is fine by me.

posted by Ufez Jones at 12:33 PM on August 18, 2003

Its nice to see Guinn's dad taking care of his son's interests. And its a sad twist that Dotson is off his rocker. Absolutely despicable on Bliss's part.

posted by garfield at 12:40 PM on August 18, 2003

The idea that Rouse violated "the code" of protection between coaches is preposterous. I could see the point if it was something less serious, maybe even as big as academic fraud - but this? Bliss was trying to smear the name of a murdered student. At what point does the code stop? The people saying Rouse will have a hard time finding work need to take a look in the mirror.

posted by dusted at 02:10 PM on August 18, 2003

This is some sick shit. A condemnation of the whole college athletics program. I can't stand it. 18 year old kids are abused, corrupted and thrown away like garbage - and the administration fuels it. I thought these places were supposed to be schools. What's this whole system going to look like 20 years down the road? Maybe I'm overreacting, but I seriously can't stand college athletics because of this crap. Except March Madness. That can stay.

posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 03:09 PM on August 18, 2003

This whole thing is coming to a high school near you. The madness and greed cannot be stopped.

posted by worldcup2002 at 03:46 PM on August 18, 2003

This is Dave Bliss. This is not college athletics. Posters are right in that the win-at-all-costs mentality causes Baylor to higher a low-rent outlaw like Dave Bliss, who then gets busy with his scumbag recruiting techniques. Surely, we all realize that this is an extraordinary confluence of unstable personalities and vile ethics. And if that is so, I don't think you can blithely indict college athletics over it. I'm totally disgusted though.

posted by pastepotpete at 10:54 AM on August 21, 2003

This is Dave Bliss. This is not college athletics. There is some truth in your fiction, and some fiction in your truth.

posted by garfield at 12:08 PM on August 21, 2003

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