For those who follow college sports this is related to Arkansas BB coach Nolan Richardson.

For those that care not a whit for sports, this transcends sports and is a fascinating account of a power struggle with racial overtones. This kind of insight does not come along often.

UA chancellor's account of Feb. 28 meeting with Broyles, Richardson

This is a memorandum for the record to document my recollections from a meeting with Coach Nolan Richardson on Feb. 28, 2002. Coach Frank Broyles and I traveled together to Bud Walton Arena and waited in a small conference room in the men's basketball team suite of offices. At approximately 11:30 a.m., Coach Richardson arrived. I suggested that we meet in his office. He agreed, so we walked down the hall and entered his office. Along the way, we met Blake Eddins in the hallway. I greeted Blake and shook his hand.

After some small talk about when he got back from the game the previous evening and a brief time spent rearranging three chairs into a triangular pattern, we sat down and I said to Nolan, "Since we last talked in the dressing room following the Alabama game, a number of things have occurred that caused me to want to meet with you. Last Sunday, when I arrived at the SEC Indoor Track Meet, I was asked by several reporters to comment on your remarks following the Kentucky game. Since I didn't know anything about them, I asked what they were talking about. They said that you stated on three occasions that if we would buy out your contract you would leave tomorrow. I was stunned! I told them that I was as puzzled as they were. Since there had been no discussion of your contract, I could not imagine why you would say such a thing. However, after thinking about it and after reading newspaper reports of your comments, it occurred to me that you did not have a way to quit coaching and receive a buyout. The terms of your contract are such that you will receive a buyout only if your employment is terminated for convenience by the University. Otherwise, you have to continue coaching until your contract expires. I then talked with Coach Broyles about the situation. We agreed to tell you that we are prepared to offer you the buyout provisions in your contract if you retire from the University. By electing to retire, we will also pay the full amount of this year's salary. If you retire, the buyout payments will begin July 1, with $500,00 being paid annually for a period of 6 years. In addition, as a retiree from the University, you will be entitled to receive the benefits that are provided to all University retirees, such as being able to participate in the medical insurance plan.

I then paused and looked at Nolan to assess how well he was following what I had said. He was very attentive and seemed to understand fully what I said. I continued, "After discussing the overall situation with Coach Broyles and after consulting with President Sugg, I must inform you that we have concluded it is time for a change in the leadership of the program." Nolan interrupted and said, "I am not going to resign. You'll have to fire my ass! I can't believe you'd come in here and say these things without even asking me why I said what I did. Your mind is already made up. You haven't given me a chance to explain why I said those things. You don't even care what happened to me and my players that upset me so much." I then asked Nolan, "Why did it happen? What caused you to say those things?"

Nolan responded that Coach Broyles had been trying to fire him for a long time. He said that two years ago Frank tried to fire him and that it hadn't worked. He said he did not know why Frank was trying to run him off and speculated it might have been because he (Nolan) did not stand up and help him get the football games moved from Little Rock. Frank and I looked at each other, both registering surprise from Nolan's outburst and association of his situation with the football games in Little Rock. Nolan continued and claimed that everyone knew Frank was trying to get rid of him (Nolan).

Nolan then said that someone came up to him at the game and said, "You know Coach Broyles has been trying to fire you for two years. Why do you put up with this? Why don't you leave?" Nolan said that he told the person he was not going to give him an exclusive interview on that subject, but would address it at the press conference. Nolan then said, "In the press conference I said there were three people that I report to: Coach Broyles, the Chancellor, and Dr. White." Obviously, he meant to say, "Coach Broyles, Chancellor White and President Sugg." I did not interrupt him and correct him because I knew what he meant to say. In fact, I tried hard to not interrupt him at all during the 90-minute meeting. Nolan went on to say, "I told them that if they (the three people cited) wanted to make a change, then they could buy out my contract and I would leave tomorrow."

At this point, Nolan became quite agitated and said that he could see how we had orchestrated things. He said he could not believe we would release a statement right before his game against Mississippi State. I had no idea what he was talking about; it was obvious that neither did Frank. I asked Nolan, "What are you talking about?" He replied, "The release." I responded, "What release?" He said, "Clay Henry's release!" I responded, "We had no idea about that. It was a shock to us. We had nothing to do with it." Nolan said, "Sure!" I said, "We didn't, Nolan." Nolan laughed and looked at Frank, who responded, "We had nothing to do with that. We denied it." Nolan laughed and said, "Yeah, you denied it. I know how you do these things." I spoke up and said, "No, really, I have no idea how this happened. I want to know who released that information to Clay." Nolan replied, "You will find out when we want you to find out." Nolan went on to talk about the impact the news stories had on Rose and how distraught she was when he returned late that night.

Nolan asked me why we made this decision. He said it could not be because of his won-loss record and it could not be based on just this year. He repeated that we had been trying to fire him for a long time and asked why we were doing this now. He asked what possible reason existed for us to do this. I replied that it was because of the overall state of the program. I told him that I thought irreparable damage had been done to the program by his repeated claims that he would leave tomorrow if we would buy out his contract. Nolan responded that he had clarified that in a press conference; he said that he could not understand how we could fire him over that.

Nolan then reminded me that I had made a statement that had upset several legislators. He asked if I remembered that. I laughed and said I would never forget being summoned to appear before a legislative committee to apologize for my remarks. He looked at me, using the intent look he occasionally uses with basketball officials and said, "They didn't fire you for it, though, did they?"

Frank Broyles spoke up at that time and said that Nolan's remarks were quite different from mine. He said, "In my experience, when a coach makes a statement about buying out his contract, it means the coach has lost confidence in his program and it is time for a coaching change. You said that repeatedly. I think it's time for a change in leadership." Nolan interrupted and said, "Do you now? How would you know?" Frank responded, "I made the change. If I hadn't stopped, I would have been fired. I knew when it was time to stop coaching." Nolan asked, "How long have you been at the University?" Frank responded, "Forty-four years." Nolan said, "That's right and you're still here. When you stopped coaching, they didn't fire you, did they?" Nolan then looked at me and asked, "Are you going to make me the A.D.?" I was surprised and hesitated a moment to think about how to respond to his question. Then I said, "When the position is open, you can be a candidate." Nolan laughed and said, "A candidate! I know what that means. I won't get it."

Nolan looked at Frank and asked, "How long are you going to stay here?" Frank asked, "What do you mean?" Nolan responded, "How many more years are you going to be here?" Frank replied, "I committed to the chancellor that I would stay through the Campaign (for the Twenty-First Century) and serve as a co-chair. That means I will be here for three more years." Nolan retorted, "You're going to be here for another three years?" Nolan asked, "Why don't you just say you are going to resign next month?"

Frank and I looked at each other, neither understanding where this conversation was going. However, it was obvious to me that there exists considerable anger toward Frank from Nolan.

Nolan said that he was going to write a book. Nolan looked at Frank and said quite angrily, "You're going to be in the book. There's going to be a lot in the book about you." Frank responded that he was not surprised. Nolan then said that his legacy was going to be stronger than Frank's legacy. He said, "When I finish telling everything about you, your legacy

Nolan repeated these threats at least three times during the meeting, talking about the tanks, the pickets, and 1957. He said he had decided to quit, but that he had received many phone calls from coaches from all the country asking him to stay on. He said he had not realized how important his remaining here was to so many people. He said, "I am not a quitter. I am a fighter. I have always done it my way and I am going to continue doing it my way. I might go down, but I will go down fighting."

Nolan looked up at the ceiling and smiled. He said, "I know lots of things. You both stay in your white, ivory towers and you have no clue what's going on. I know everything that goes on around here." He looked at me and said, "When it comes out, you are going to be very, very surprised because you have no idea what's going on. A lot of things happened before you came here. You have no idea how bad it was. You don't have a clue about what is happening around here. It's a shame you have to be here when this all comes out. You're a good man, but you're about to find out just how bad things can be."

Nolan then began to enumerate instances of things that had occurred, including the rape case involving three basketball players. He said he and his players were treated differently from others because they were black. He said the University made the players go before the Judicial Board because they were black. He said a 35-year old woman forced herself on the players, but the publicity caused Scottie Thurman to fall several places in the NBA draft and cost him "over $10 million." (He must have meant Todd Day, since Scottie Thurman was not drafted. Again, we did not correct him.)

Nolan then talked about how he was treated differently from the other coaches. He said that he liked John McDonnell and Norm DeBriyn; he said they were good men and they knew he was treated differently than they were. He told us that he had asked them if they would testify to that effect and they said they would. He said that he had nothing against Houston Nutt, but he was not held to the same standard as Nolan. He said that if Houston had a player that got in trouble, he might make him miss a game, but if Nolan's players did something they had to be suspended for a semester. He said that the media treated Houston differently, too. He said if one of Houston's players did something wrong, then Houston was given credit for working with them. But, if one of Nolan's black players did anything wrong, they were labeled by the media as black thugs. He said that he spends a lot of time trying to solve problems for every other coach on campus. He said he was the one they called on and that we had no clue how many problems he had solved. He said we had no clue about how much trouble he was able to prevent. But, he said it would be in his book.

Nolan said, "You don't know how important I am around here and what a difference I have made. Students from all over campus come to see me and ask me to help them solve their problems." He said, "When I came in I had to deal with drug problems on the team. I had nine players on drugs." He looked at me and said, "You didn't know that, did you?" He went on to say, "I have solved more problems than you have any idea of." He looked at me, shook his head, and said, "You have no clue. You have no clue."

He went on to describe two instances of situations involving the women's basketball team. He said when one of the assistant coaches broke one of the player's nose they came running to him, asking him to help solve the problem for them. In disgust, he said, "Gary Blair!" He looked down and shook his head. Then, he told us about one of the women basketball players who had graduated from the University and was working in a retail store, not making much money at all. He said she came to him to get help in finding meaningful employment because she couldn't get any help from the women's basketball program.

During the discussion, Nolan said, "I don't pay players, but I know some who do. This NCAA investigation is going to be a lot worse than you think. Just wait until all the information comes out." Looking at me, he said, "You think it is bad, well it is going to be a lot worse than you think. There is evidence of things that have been going on. They know what is going on. There are people who have tapes that are going to be damaging to the University." He leaned back in his chair, looked up at the ceiling, and smiled.

At one point in the discussion Nolan said, "I knew this was coming. I knew I would be next after you (looking at Frank) let Rick Schaeffer go. Rick is a good man. He did a terrific job and you cut off his balls. You cut off his balls! He worked for you for all those years and you just cut off his balls. I knew if you would do that to him, you would do that to me."

Nolan said he did not think it was right that we fire him over his remarks at the press conference on Monday evening. He said that he had apologized to the fans and to the media. He said that he had been stereotyped all his life and understood the mistake he had made by doing the same thing to the media and to the fans. Nolan then said there were members of the media for whom he had great affection and respect; he cited Paul Eells, Mike Nail, Nate Allen, and Dudley Dawson. He then said that we had wonderful fans and he did not mean to be critical toward all of them, just the one or one-half percent who call in and say bad things about him, his players, and his program.

I responded that our decision was not about the Monday evening press conference, but an accumulation of things that led to us not having confidence in his leadership of the program. I told him that I was interviewed by Bo Mattingly the previous evening; Nolan scoffed when I mentioned Bo's name. I told Nolan that I said on camera that I had reviewed a tape of the entire press conference and realized that the clips shown nationally were taken out of context. I told Bo that the reference Nolan made to "Our deal is that the biggest thing at the University of Arkansas is Nolan Richardson" was his attempt to explain his relationship with the family of the recruit from Springfield, IL. I said that I understood that he was not claiming that he was the biggest thing at the University of Arkansas; his comment was a follow-up to Robby Edwards having read the letter Nolan received from the family. When that small clip went out nationally, it was not interpreted correctly.

During the discussion, Nolan talked about Wally Hall. He said that two years ago, Wally put in his column that Nolan had called the fans redneck SOBs; Nolan claimed that he had called Wally that, not the fans. He then went on to say that Wally had written an article criticizing his recruits. He said that people sent copies of the columns to the recruits and their families. Now, he said, he is having to answer questions about what kind of place Arkansas is and how anyone could write such negative things about young people.

Nolan said he had received a call from J.J.'s father and he was pulling him from the University. He also said that he had heard from the parents of his incoming class of recruits and they were probably going to pull them, too. He said that when he came here, Eddie Sutton had not left him any players. But, he said if we thought the situation was bad then, it was going to be a whole lot worse if he left. He asked Frank how long it took for the University to win a national championship in basketball; before Frank could answer, Nolan said, "150 years?" Frank replied that was about right. Nolan said it would take another 150 years for us to win another one. I responded that he had built a great foundation here and had created a lot of success. I said that the combination of what he and Eddie Sutton had done had created a situation that should be attractive to any number of outstanding coaches. Nolan responded that we might be able to get a good coach to come here and he can recruit very hard, but he was not going to be able to recruit outstanding athletes to come here.

Nolan then began to repeat a number of things he has said in recent press conferences, including the difficulties he has in recruiting black athletes to come to Northwest Arkansas, the "blue light specials," the reasons basketball players don't graduate, and the lack of diversity in Northwest Arkansas. At that point, I interrupted and told him we had made a lot of improvement and reminded him of the people who had joined the University in the past four years. He said, "You have made a lot of improvements and I know you are trying to change things, but there is so much to be done that you will not be able to make it good enough for black athletes."

Nolan told us that no black athlete will return to Fayetteville to complete his degree because of the limited social life in Fayetteville. He said the only ones who would were from Arkansas. Frank asked about Landis Williams and Nolan responded he wasn't from Arkansas -- he was from 90 miles away.

I asked Nolan how Fayetteville was so different from Blacksburg, Va. His puzzled look made me think he didn't know that is where Virginia Tech is located, so I mentioned Oxford, Miss. Nolan responded there were a lot of black towns all around Oxford. I asked about Starkville, Miss., and its social life; he responded it was like Oxford. He said they are in the South and asked me if I didn't know about Southern towns. I mentioned Stillwater, Okla.; he said there was a black women's college nearby. I mentioned State College, PA; he said, "It is different at elite universities. We can't compete with Duke because of the quality of its academic programs." He went on to say, "The University of Arkansas does not have strong academic programs. Athletes only come here to play ball." He ended the discussion with, "Black athletes want to party. They want to go where there are lots of girls."

As least four times during the discussion, Frank spoke up and tried to persuade Nolan to consider what we were offering. He said that he wanted Nolan to remain in the area and to continue being a vital, contributing member of the community. He asked him to help us rebuild the program by helping to unify the fan base. Frank told him the fan base was split and it needed to be brought back together. Each time, Frank's attempts were rebuffed by Nolan.

In one of these instances, Frank told Nolan that he was a hero in Northwest Arkansas. Nolan responded that he was no hero. Frank corrected himself and said he meant to say he was a valuable member of the community. Frank repeated that he wanted Nolan to continue with his golf tournament that benefited charities. He said that he wanted Nolan and Rose to remain in that area. Nolan responded that he did not think that he would want to stay here. However, he said that he and Rose had stayed up all night discussing this and concluded they did not want to stay in Arkansas. He said they were going to sell their farm, "leave, and never come back!"

Nolan cited several things that had happened to him in Fayetteville because of his race: his horse being shot; a horse's mane being cut; and several threatening phone calls. He said he never expected to be in Arkansas, because he grew up being afraid of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and Mississippi. But, he said God brought him here for a reason. He said he knew in whose hands he was being held. He said again that God brought him here for a purpose. For that reason, he had no concerns about his future because he knew that he would be taken care of.

Nolan said he did a lot at Tulsa to improve how blacks are treated and that he has worked hard to improve things at Arkansas. He said that when he first came to the University there was a group called the RazorBlacks or Razorback Blacks, but that he had been able to change that and it no longer existed.

Toward the end of the meeting, Nolan said to me that he was being fired because he lost one of the sponsors for the show. My puzzled reaction must have conveyed my lack of knowledge of the subject because Nolan said, "You don't know anything about the sponsor pulling out because of your comments at the press conference on Monday." Nolan said, "I don't feel like it is my responsibility to get sponsors for my show, it is the athletic director's responsibility to get the sponsors." He went on to say, "As soon as I start winning games again they will be asking to be a sponsor. That's the way they are."

As we approached the end of the meeting, Nolan asked about Mike Anderson and what would be done for him. Frank responded that he would ask Mike to serve as Interim Coach for the remainder of the season. Nolan scoffed, and asked, "Will you name him to replace me? He has been here for seventeen years. If you name him coach, I think you will be able to keep the recruits and players." Frank responded, "He will be given consideration for the job." As soon as Frank said, "candidate" Nolan interrupted and said, "That means he won't get it." Frank responded, "No, no, he will be given strong consideration." Nolan then said, "What's next? After that, what's next?" Frank and I looked at each other, because we didn't know what Nolan meant. Later, as I thought about Nolan's question, it occurred to me that he might have wanted an assurance that Mike would be taken care of either financially or with an employment appointment.

I asked Nolan if there wasn't some way we could get him to consider the retirement option. I asked him if there were any conditions under which he would retire. He said he would not retire unless his lawyer told him to do so. I asked him how he wanted to proceed. He responded that he wanted his lawyer, John Walker, to talk with the University's attorneys. I then took one of my business cards and wrote on it the telephone numbers for Scott Varady and Fred Harrison. I asked him to provide those to his attorney and requested that he contact either Scott or Fred.

At this point, Frank made a last attempt to get Nolan to accept the buyout and retire so that he could leave in style. He told Nolan that we wanted to be able to honor him at the Vanderbilt game. He said he wanted to give the fans a chance to let Nolan know how much they appreciate him, particularly on Senior Day. Nolan said he had no interest in coaching the game and that he was going to cancel his news conference scheduled for Thursday afternoon. He said he didn't need to be talking with the press about the Vanderbilt game since he wouldn't be there.

I asked Frank if he would let Nolan and me meet in private. Frank left Nolan's office. I told Nolan that I just wanted some time with him to let him know, as John White, not Chancellor White, how much I cared for him and respected him. I said that I had told Bo Mattingly and Pete Gilbert that the Nolan Richardson I knew had a heart that was bigger than Bud Walton Arena and that I have seen him at the Pinnacle Golf Course when he had a choice to spend time with Red Hudson, Don Tyson, J.B. Hunt, or some kids -- he always chose the kids. I then prayed for Nolan and Rose. Nolan repeated what he had said several times during the meeting -- that I was a good person and how sorry he was that I had to be here for what was about to happen.

Nolan asked me again about Mike Anderson. I assured him that Mike would get a fair look. He said, "You promise?" I replied, "I promise!" I told Nolan that the search was going to be done by using current and former players, plus others. I told him that Frank would not be making the selection alone. He nodded, suggesting that he believed me.

Finally, I told Nolan that, like him, I believed God had brought me here and I, too, felt that I would be able to handle whatever was going to happen. I laughed and said, "Who knows, maybe I was brought here to deal with you." He smiled, I thanked him again for being such a good friend, and I told him I would continue to be his friend. I said that I knew he had to do what he had to do, and I also had to do what I thought was best for the University of Arkansas. We shook hands and I left his office.

The meeting concluded at approximately 1 p.m. During the time we met with Nolan, he did more than 85 percent of the talking. Frank and I felt that the best approach was to let him talk and not interrupt him. While my memory is not perfect, I believe I have been able to recall accurately most of the conversation that occurred during the meeting.

This article was published on Tuesday, March 19, 2002
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