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Bernie Fine

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Bernie Fine
Biographical details
BornDecember 23, 1945
Brooklyn, New York

Bernie Fine (born December 23, 1945) is a former associate head basketball coach for the Syracuse Orange men's basketball team.[1]

Early coaching career

Fine started his coaching career as a student-manager in 1963 when Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim played at SU with NBA Hall-of-Famer Dave Bing. Fine graduated in 1967 with a B.S. in personnel and industrial relations and went into business. In 1970, he assumed the basketball and football coaching positions at Lincoln Junior High. The following year, he went to Henninger High School as the junior varsity basketball coach from 1971-74 before taking over as varsity coach. When Boeheim became head coach in 1976, he hired Fine and Rick Pitino as assistants.[2]

College coaching career

During his coaching career, Fine was named the president of the Central New York Kidney Foundation; a faculty adviser for a social fraternity, Sigma Alpha Mu; an adviser for an honor society, Phi Kappa Alpha; and has been involved with the Boys Club and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.[3]

Fine was responsible for coaching Syracuse's forwards and centers, including Rony Seikaly, Etan Thomas and John Wallace. In 2000, Fine was promoted to associate head coach. In the 2001-02 season, he assumed head coaching responsibilities for three games when Boeheim had health problems.[4]

Fine also coached U.S. Maccabiah team to a silver medal at the 1993 World Maccabiah Games in Israel. In 2002, he participated in The Blackfeet Native Skill-Builder Hoop Clinic, a basketball seminar conducted on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana.[4]

Sexual abuse allegations and termination

In November 2011, in the wake of the Penn State sex abuse scandal, two former Syracuse University ball boys alleged on ESPN's Outside the Lines program that they had been molested by Fine from the late 1970s to the 1990s. Fine and head men's basketball coach Boeheim denied the charges. Because the incidents occurred over 10 years ago, District Attorney William Fitzpatrick indicated that the statute of limitations would probably bar any prosecution.[5] Syracuse University placed Fine on administrative leave and said it would cooperate fully with the investigation.[6][7]

Subsequently, another person claimed to have been molested by Fine in 2002 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The United States Secret Service searched Fine's house and seized file cabinets, computers, and other potential evidence.[8] On November 27, 2011, it was announced that Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor had fired Fine in response to the allegations.[9] Cantor said she made her decision after ESPN released a tape of a 2002 phone conversation between one of the former ballboys, Bobby Davis, and Fine's wife Laurie. In the tape, Laurie said she knew about her husband's behavior, but felt powerless to stop it.[1][9]

In response to a USA Today editorial calling for an explanation for why it kept Fine on the job in 2005, Cantor said that had Syracuse known about the tape at any point prior to November 27, Fine would have been fired on the spot.[10]

On January 31, 2012, The New York Daily News cited an affidavit that claimed the Bernie Fine's wife, Laurie, had engaged in sexual activities with members of the Syracuse basketball team. The affidavit was file by one of the men accusing Bernie Fine of molestation.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b "Bernie Fine fired amid abuse allegations". ESPN. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
  2. ^ http://www.suathletics.com/roster.asp?playerid=1088&sport=176&roster=194
  3. ^ http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/uwire/022206aaz.html
  4. ^ a b http://www.suathletics.com/roster.asp?playerid=1088&sport=176&roster=194
  5. ^ http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/bernie_fine.html
  6. ^ "Syracuse chancellor's letter to alumni". The Washington Post. November 19, 2011.
  7. ^ http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/7248184/syracuse-police-investigating-bernie-fine-molesting-boy-1980s
  8. ^ http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/third_accuser_says_su_coach_be.html
  9. ^ a b "Syracuse basketball coach fired amid sex abuse investigation". CNN. November 27, 2011. Retrieved November 27, 2011.
  10. ^ Nancy Cantor (November 27, 2011). "Syracuse chancellor: We didn't know of the tape until Sunday". USA Today. Retrieved November 27, 2011.
  11. ^ http://www.nydailynews.com/news/fired-syracuse-coach-wife-slept-players-court-papers-article-1.1014415

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