Longtime Sooners baseball coach resigns following racial slur
May 2, 2005

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Longtime Oklahoma baseball coach Larry Cochell resigned Sunday, five days after using a racial slur during off-camera interviews with ESPN.

Cochell submitted a letter of resignation to school president David Boren, who had met hours earlier with athletic director Joe Castiglione and members of the university's black community.

"A good and caring man has made a terrible mistake for which he must assume responsibility,'' Boren said in a statement.

ESPN said Friday that Cochell, who is white, used a slur after praising a freshman outfielder, who is black, during two pre-broadcast interviews Tuesday.

Assistant coach Sunny Golloway was named interim coach.

Cochell, who was 511-336-1 in 14 seasons at Oklahoma and led the Sooners to the College World Series title in 1994, apologized Friday and in his resignation letter.

"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 the letter released by the school. "Those words also created an impression contrary to my own personal values and my respect for all people. ... I do not want to be the cause of any person having a mistaken impression about our university.''

Two ESPN commentators preparing for the Sooners' game against Wichita State on Tuesday held separate off-camera interviews with the coach in which he made similar remarks, but weren't aware of that until discussing it a few days later, ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said.

ESPN then reported the story Friday.

"We recognize that stories of this nature could have significant repercussions and we took great pains to bring the appropriate sensitivity and balance to our reporting,'' Krulewitz said Sunday.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaabb/news;_yl ... &type=lgns

cool. he should of been fired.

He shouldn't have quit.

What a load of shit. Anyone that uses the "n" word so freely and in the context he used it in has a seed of racism in them that clearly shows what their "personal values and respect for all people" are really about.

why is it that black people use the "n word" so freely if they hate it so much?

He should have done what I do, when I feel like saying the N word I say "Canadian" instead.

hahaha my friends and I say the same thing (say canadien)

The coach left out of respect to OU. It's a shame that a mistake costs a man his career, but by resigning and allowing the black eye to fall on him and not OU shows that he's pretty high character IMO.

what exactly did he say?

He said the kid had no nigger in him.

He also said.... there are white people and there are honkies...there are black people and there are n...rs. (whoever he was referring to) is a black man.

Of course this is not a direct quote, just what I could remember off the top of my head.

sounds familiar

that's actually pretty funny... i wish people could get over the whole racism thing... i mean, i've had a coach in the past tell some of my teammates that they had white-man's disease (cause they couldnt jump)... that's a pretty blatant racist statement... using the n-word is unacceptable, but if he had said they have no black in them it probably would've still pissed people off

Exactly, so he shouldnt have said anything along those lines to begin with, let alone use the "n" word.

i'm glad he's gone. however, this was his last season anyway, so it's not like he is making a huge sacrifice. he'd have been fired had he not resigned.

why not just say he's a stand up kid, A great guy, an excellent student and ballplayer?

scholar and a gentleman?

My sentiments exactly. I would LOVE to have a conversation about this with Dave Chappelle.

I love to use the term "White Man's Disease"...It totally explains my own lack of jumping ability, and I think other people find it pretty funny.

i think anyone with a brain can understand why people would want to rob such words of any bite. that doesn't mean they're succesful.

http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorn.htm

The next time any of the black dudes that play ball at the playground say "White mans disease" or anything like that I'm gonna act all serious and say "what the fuck does that mean? thats racist man! I can't believe you would say some racist shit like that!"