I’m going to assume many of you aren’t terribly familiar with UNLV football — Ron Meyer was the coach before he went to SMU and then the NFL, the team once forfeited an entire season, Randall Cunningham and Ickey Woods are all-timers — and that tends to happen when a team from the left side of the country doesn’t make it into the national polls or news very often and has never been on the same field as WVU.
You might recognize the coach, however, as Bobby Hauck, who was wildly successful for seven years at Montana in the FCS, but who was also perhaps just as well-known for feuding with that school’s student newspaper last year.
Chris Jones is a feature writer for Esquire and ESPN Magazine and a UM visiting journalism professor who has been advising the Kaimin this semester. Jones began his career covering professional sports for the National Post in Toronto, and says that Hauck’s attitude toward the press would not be tolerated in a larger market.
Sure, reporters and sources get in disputes, Jones said. What’s different is when a person of authority begins telling others not to talk, too.
“There is definitely a code of silence over the team,” he said. “Bobby Hauck is mad because of good reporting and the Kaimin should not apologize for good reporting.”
The school newspaper published a news story a month ago about an alleged assault outside a fraternity earlier this year by two Griz football players on a UM student, who required medical attention. While the incident went unreported to local authorities, some UM officials were made aware of the situation, including Hauck, who punished the athletes internally and contacted the victim’s father.
When asking Hauck questions about the alleged incident, the student journalist was met with harsh words from the coach, who swore and attempted to cover up the tape recorder. Hauck later apologized for cursing at the student, but that hardly proved the end of things.
Hauck’s standoff — of was is the players’ standoff? — garnered more attention than what his Grizzlies ever did on the field in his time there and he was assailed, virtually unanimously, for either organizing or condoning the behavior. About a week after the story went national and gathered momentum, Hauck put it to rest.
And you thought Bill Stewart was sharp last week?
