I was Just Watching

[soonerchuck]

I agree and it isn't even factual that Clinton screwed Monica. She reportedly performed oral sex on him.

 

[35TangoTango]

So a president of the united states screwing his assistant is not grounds for impeachment? And you think Kim Mulkey is bad!

If that was grounds for impeachment, we'd have lost half our Presidents.

 

[MsProudSooner]

If that was grounds for impeachment, we'd have lost half our Presidents.

And two thirds of Congress!

 

[YCN]

And 95% of the lobbyists. Why haven't we thought about this before????

 

[sybarite]

Are we assuming that nobody will have sex with a Supreme Court Justice?

 

[NMSooner'80]

Nothing like that happened during his tenure at OU. He was, in fact, fired because of lack of wins. But what happened in Baylor tells you how he would have reacted at OU had something as terrible as that had happened.

Bliss wasn't fired at OU. He left for SMU for a bigger paycheck and for the chance to recruit in a major metro area that was just starting to get good in prep basketball.

The thing at Baylor involving Bliss was over 20 years after he left OU. Apparently he had a darker side that no one really expected to see, and that includes me. I did some work in the OU men's basketball office that final semester he was at OU (spring of '80), and it was a situation he offered to create so it would help me build a resume (I got college credit and some great job references out of it). I also got to know Billy Tubbs somewhat well in those last couple of months before I graduated, FWIW, and that's why I also bristle when I hear people badmouth Billy.

If you ever knew any of the OU players from that era - guys like John McCullough, Al Beal, Terry Stott and Aaron Curry, like I did, you would have also assumed Bliss was at least a decent role model at that point in time. I've heard that Stotts has really been complimentary about that time in his life, and now he's an NBA coach for a playoff bound team.

I DO NOT CONDONE or excuse what happened in Waco. So don't assume that I do. But I also know there are a few idiots back in Albuquerque who still feast on it - most notably a former player Bliss inherited from the Charmin-soft Gary Colson. This guy is 47 years old, and still carried a major grudge about how he was handled - and people I know who knew this ex-Lobo swear he'd have hated any coach who actually expected him to follow any rules. Any time this joker can take shots at Bliss, there's at least one reporter in Albuquerque who'll call him for an inflammatory quote.

And that newspaper still has writers and editors who condone one of the biggest crooks in college basketball history, Norm Ellenberger, who recruited a convicted rapist, let others run amok all over town, allowed players to get freebies all over town, and also got players eligible by having an assistant coach bribe a guy from an "extension" school to issue bogus academic credits to JC transfers to get them eligible. UNM almost got the death-penalty back in '80, and the media in town still adored him.

I also remember asking Bliss for a photo to take to a family whose youngest child was battling cancer, as sort of a get-well card back in '93, when I was going to their daughter's graduation. Bliss personalized the autograph and also asked me for their address. I found out from this kid's folks that he wrote to them to see how their son was doing. There was another coach in-state, the surly jerk from NMSU, who I'm sure would have never done anything of the sort.

I also don't blame Baylor for that bizarre end to Bliss' career. But I do wonder why they don't seem to care about cheap shots (football and women's basketball) and obnoxious behavior (especially in women's basketball, but I also saw some garbage from their football payers in Norman this past fall), as long as they're winning lately.

I also know that another church-affiliated school, the one that Sherri and Jan Ross both attended, that would fire a coach for a lot less. Although to be fair, OCC did have some problems in men's basketball that caused a major house-cleaning to take place in 1983 before Dan Hays got the job and cleaned up the mess.

People who just assume we don't like Mulkey and Briles because they've been winning against us are sadly mistaken. It's like when we started losing to CU in football - they won with no class, and that had to do more with the dislike than the games themselves.

 

[sybarite]

From what I remember, Bliss left OU under less support than he would have liked. If he got more money out of SMU, so be it. I think there was some dissatisfaction with him in Norman, although I don't know what it was. We weren't good enough yet to think better than Bliss at the time.

 

[35TangoTango]

Bliss (who was my neighbor when he was here) was unhappy with the level of support for the program by the athletic department. He left for SMU, and his successor (Billy) was given those things necessary to build a winning program.

 

[AustinTXSooner]

This is not a political board, but the President at Baylor is the one and only Ken Starr, who led the charge to impeach Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair.

You're right. This isn't a political board. But then you decided to add your political slant to it.

FACT: Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Paula Jones lawsuit.

Yes, the perjury was related to questions about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. But he was not impeached for having an affair. He was impeached for lying under oath in a court of law.