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"Credibility," Part Two
UHND.com - Alan Tieuli - Used courtesy of IrishEyes.com
12/24/2001
George O’Leary told ESPN, in an interview aired
Sunday night on the network’s “Sunday Night Conversation” that he was asked
to resign by Notre Dame after inaccuracies were uncovered in his rsum. O’Leary, however, went on to say that he was
“not going to fight” the resignation request and held no animosity toward Notre
Dame or his boss of five days, Athletic Director Kevin White.
In related news, ESPN also
reported Sunday night that Notre Dame has offered current University of Washington head
coach Rick Neuheisel a deal worth more than $2 million
annually to come to South Bend and coach the Fighting Irish. Neuheisel continues to say he has no plans to
leave Washington but also hedged with the classic “None of us have a crystal ball and
knows what the future holds.”
Here is the complete transcript of the ESPN interview between O’Leary and ESPN reporter Mike Tirico.
GEORGE O’LEARY: It was a job you had basically
coached all your life and all of a sudden it’s taken from you. I don’t know if there is much room left on
the dartboard after this week. I think I’m
very sorry for that, not correcting what I should have corrected. I think I’m paying a dear price for it.
MIKE
TIRICO: Did you know as you were going
through the last five, six years of your coaching career here at Georgia Tech that your
playing record said you were a letterman and played for a couple of years at New Hampshire
when you hadn’t.
GO: Yes, I did. It was something I did 22 years ago. After I was working at Syracuse, it was in a press
guide, was not on a rsum. I did attend the
University of New Hampshire, went through pre-season, was ineligible that year and decided
not to play football. That’s something I
am wrong with and shouldn’t have done.
MT: How
did the NYU Masters in Education part become a part of your rsum as you went through these
stops?
GO: I went back with counsel tried to
check on the records at Georgia Tech, and in 1987, in the spring guide, it’s not
there. And there’s no paper trail on it
either. In the fall press guide of 1987 it
appears. Obviously it had to come from me, from speaking with somebody, but there’s
no paper trail on it at all in 1987.
MT: There’s
been stories about documentation of a rsum that was put into your file when you came back
to Georgia Tech to be the head coach here. That
rsum includes the playing situation and, more importantly, the Masters. Did you write or type a rsum that you handed to
the folks at Georgia Tech that said ‘I have a Masters’?
GO: No,
that’s one thing that is a gray area. I’m
pretty aware of what would happen. I was made
an interim head coach with three games left that year and then soon after was named head
coach and was never asked for a rsum. One
thing, in 1987, there was never any paper work on anything.
But in 1994 there was a piece of paper that was a rsum and I don’t know
how that got there. Obviously I either had it
done, but I don’t know why I had it done, since nobody asked for it. So that’s the only thing that shows up in any
type of rsum.
MT: That rsum that ended up in your
file at Georgia Tech, you didn’t write it or type it yourself?
GO: No, I can’t type. I’m awful at that. Obviously someone did, but more important it was
taken more out of what was in the press guide already.
MT: You had both the football
situation and the Masters, the basic question everyone comes back to, and you rehash
yourself, Why did you lie about those two things?
GO: Really at that time to puff my
bio. It really didn’t matter because I
had the job, it was insignificant as far as why people hired me. How that appeared in my Masters at Georgia
Tech was probably by word of mouth in 1987 from myself.
It was something I should have cleaned up, Mike, there’s no question
about that. In my mind it had no significance
to what I was being hired for. Not one thing
I put down on paper ever got me a job. I
mean, not one time did I ever turn in a rsum, not one time did I ever use that stuff to
advance me, I already had the jobs. There
were just things that just trailed with me in a bio that; My mistake is I should have
gotten rid of them. I should have done the
right thing. I basically didn’t do it.
MT: So,
in the back of your mind, as you are discussing issues with them that might come up, the
Notre Dame job which takes on a life of its own, you are not thinking in the back of your
head, ‘I got to tell them something about New Hampshire or NYU’?
GO: No, because it’s never been a
factor in any conversation I had with anybody, with any Athletic Director, administrator. It’s something that probably at one time I
realized something was going to have to be done. It
was immaterial to me at the time because it wasn’t why I was sitting in that room
interviewing for a job.
MT: When did you first get wind that
something might be up regarding your playing background?
GO: Wednesday night (Dec. 12), the SID
(Sports Information Director John Heisler) came to me and said ‘Coach,
I’m getting a call from somebody in Manchester (NH) about your background in New
Hampshire. It’s no big deal,’ he
says, ‘We’ll work through it.’ Then
that Thursday, I was recruiting in Washington and I got a call that AP (Associated Press)
had something on it, not playing at New Hampshire, and I went through that with the fellow
who called me, Lou Nanni (Notre Dame spokesperson), and I
said ‘That’s right.’ They had
prepared, I guess, a release on it. At that
time he had asked, ‘Is there anything else?’
I said, ‘Yes, there is. There’s
a Masters in there. I have a Bachelor’s
plus so many hours.’ That’s the way I filled out the application at Notre Dame,
the Bachelor’s plus so many hours.
MT: So the application you filled out
at Notre Dame did not say Masters at NYU?
GO: No, in fact I didn’t fill it
out until Wednesday after I took the job on Sunday.
MT: Now the phone call comes when you
are in Washington and now, as with Notre Dame situation, the media cycle spins really
fast. When did you realize that your job was
in trouble?
GO: I got a call from the Athletic
Director Kevin White and he went over things, saying
basically the credibility as far as the efficiency that you have to be able to do this job
with, it was major damage with the credibility and honesty that took place. At that time I
told Kevin, I said ‘Kevin, listen the first thing I don’t want to do is
embarrass Notre Dame, the credibility of Notre Dame, and the job he has done in trying to
secure a coach. If there is something that
can’t be controlled I will tender my resignation.’ And he said, ‘I’ll get back to you in 10
minutes.’ When he called in 10 minutes I
had a pretty good idea there was a problem.
MT: In your terms, did they force you
to resign or did you resign?
GO: I was asked for my resignation,
which I wasn’t going to fight that. Kevin
was very sick over it, and we didn’t spend much time on the phone discussing it. I don’t hold any animosity toward Notre Dame
at all. They did what they had to do, based
on the facts they had, based on the facts that I had some untruths in my bio.
MT: Your son, who is part of the
current Georgia Tech football team, and he’s had an odd-year plus of Dad’s the
head coach, but I’m one of the teammates. Now
he’s got this to deal with. How’s
he doing?
GO: Probably the best
news I heard over the past week was when my other son told me there’s a little column
saying that Marty was walking around with his head up, practicing hard, and just being
what I thought he would be. That’s when I sort of picked myself up a little bit.
MT: Coaches have their record, coaches
have their respect. You’ll always have
your record. You were Coach of the Year last
year, nationally. Can you get the respect back, ever.
GO: I think so. I think coaches are always judged by what they do
on the field, what they do with their program, what they do with their players. I don’t think you’ll ever live this
done. They’ll always be you know him,
but. But I’m very proud of the fact that
whatever I’ve done, I’ve done with sincerity and integrity as far as the
coaching of any football team is concerned. I
can’t control yesterday or tomorrow, but I can control today and that’s what I’m
trying to do.
MT: Can you coach again?
GO: I need to coach again. I don’t know when. I’m not one to sit around and say poor, old
me. I think I made a mistake, a mistake I’m
paying very dearly for. But I need to coach
and I think that’s the way I want to leave my legacy.
This article used courtesy of Irisheyes.com. Click here for more of their articles.