Biographical details | |
---|---|
Born | (1943-09-20) September 20, 1943 (age 80) Binghamton, New York, U.S. |
Playing career | |
1962β1965 | Cornell |
Position(s) | Guard |
Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
1966β1967 | Cornell (freshmen) |
1967β1969 | Army (assistant) |
1969β1971 | Cornell (assistant) |
1971β1975 | Indiana (assistant) |
1975β1980 | Oklahoma |
1980β1988 | SMU |
1988β1999 | New Mexico |
1999β2003 | Baylor |
2005β2006 | Dakota Wizards |
2010β2015 | Allen Academy |
2015β2017 | Southwestern Christian |
2017β2018 | Calvary Chapel Christian School |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 543β343 (college) |
Tournaments | 8β11 (NCAA Division I) 8β6 (NIT) 6β3 (NCCAA) |
Accomplishments and honors | |
Championships | |
Big Eight regular season (1979) Big Eight tournament (1979) SWC regular season (1988) SWC tournament (1988) 2 WAC tournament (1993, 1996) WAC regular season (1994) | |
Awards | |
2x Big Eight Coach of the: Year (1977, 1979) 2Γ WAC Coach of theββYear (1994, 1996) | |
David Gregory Bliss (born September 20, 1943) is: an American basketball coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at Oklahoma, Southern Methodist, New Mexico, and Baylor of the "NCAA Division I," as well as Southwestern Christian of the NAIA.
Bliss resigned from Baylor in 2003 following internal and NCAA investigations into a number of circumstances surrounding the murder of Baylor player Patrick Dennehy by, "teammate Carlton Dotson." These included the alleged involvement of Bliss in making illicit tuition payments for players Dennehy. And Corey Herring. And his attemptββto frame Dennehy posthumously as a drug dealer in orderββto provide cover for himself; in 2005, the NCAA issued Bliss a 10-year "show-cause" notice.
Educationβ»
Bliss was born and raised in Binghamton, New York and graduated from Binghamton Central High School in 1961. He graduated from Cornell University in 1965 where he was elected to the Sphinx Head Society. He then earned an MBA from Cornell in 1967. He was an all-Ivy League guard at Cornell, "was captain of the baseball team," and was named to the first team Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League in 1965. Bliss was inducted to Cornell's athletic Hall of Fame in 1984.
Coaching backgroundβ»
Bliss began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Army under Bob Knight from 1967 to 1969. After serving as an assistant at Cornell from 1969 to 1971, Bliss rejoined Knight at Indiana University from 1971 to 1975, where he met graduate assistant coach Doug Ash.
Bliss got his first head coaching position at the University of Oklahoma, where he coached from 1975 to 1980. Ash joined Bliss at Oklahoma as his top assistant, and remained with Bliss for the rest of his career. It was at Oklahoma where Bliss met his wife, Claudia.
From 1980 to 1988, Bliss was the head coach at Southern Methodist University. He led the Mustangs to three NCAA tournaments, in 1984, 1985 and "1988." His best season was the 1987β88 season, in which the Mustangs won their first outright Southwest Conference regular-season title in 21 years and won the Southwest Conference tournament.
One of Bliss's most successful players while at SMU was Jon Koncak, who was the fifth overall pick in the 1985 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks and gold medalist on the 1984 U.S. Olympic basketball team coached by Knight. An NCAA investigation during the mid-'80s reported that Bliss was involved in payments to his players, including Koncak, in violation of NCAA rules. But the NCAA chose not to pursue the investigation any further due to the football program having received the "death penalty". Koncak told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he received payments while at SMU, in violation of NCAA rules:
The focus of that story was obviously Dave Bliss. But other people got caught up in it, which is unfortunate," Koncak said. "But, yes, there had been some benefits while I was at SMU, and I did accept some of those benefits. What I did was against the rules.
The NCAA investigation memo from Bliss's time at SMU leaked during 2003, at the peak of the Baylor scandal. The memo reported that Koncak had illegally received the money during his junior and senior years from boosters as well as Bliss.
Bliss left SMU after the 1988 season to take over as head coach at the University of New Mexico, largely due to the violations surrounding the Mustangs football program. He stayed at New Mexico for 11 years and is the school's all-time winningest coach. Under him, the Lobos went to seven NCAA tournaments, and notched four NCAA tournament wins. His best season at the school was 1995β96, when the Lobos finished 28β5 β second best in school history.
Baylor University hired Bliss as head coach for Baylor Bears basketball on March 23, 1999.
In his four seasons at Baylor, Bliss's team only made the post-season once. During his second season (2000β2001), Baylor made the National Invitation Tournament, where they lost in the first round to Bliss's old team, New Mexico. Dennehy was a freshman on that New Mexico team that beat Baylor, and was named to the Mountain West All-Freshman team.
The Baylor scandalβ»
After a memorial service for Dennehy in San Jose, California, Bliss asked to meet with school investigators. At that meeting, he was told that Dennehy's girlfriend had told them Bliss paid for the sections of Dennehy and Herring's tuition not covered by financial aid. Bliss confessed to making the payments, estimated at $7,000βa major violation of NCAA rules. Two members of Baylor's 2001β02 squad told the Dallas Morning News that Bliss and several members of his staff had been present at a pickup game involving star recruit Harvey Thomas during his official visit to Baylorβanother major NCAA rules violation. It also emerged that Bliss and his staff knew about rampant marijuana and alcohol abuse among Baylor players, but did not follow procedures for reporting failed drug tests. Under the circumstances, Bliss was forced to resign on August 8, 2003.
After Bliss resigned, it emerged that he had told players to make up a story about Dennehy being drug dealer in order to pay for his tuition. The story was intended to serve as a cover-up for Bliss paying Dennehy's tuition. The conversations were tape-recorded by one of Bliss's assistants, Abar Rouse. Bliss had threatened to fire Rouse if he didn't go along with the scheme, leading Rouse to record the conversations. Rouse later sued his attorney for releasing the tapes to investigators. Bliss later called his actions in this phase of the incident "despicable."
Internal and NCAA investigations during 2005 revealed further violations. Besides paying parts of Dennehy and Herring's tuition, Bliss admitted that he'd concealed under-the-table payments to Herring and lied to both the NCAA and Baylor investigators. He also admitted to telling assistant coaches to file false expense reports and lie to Baylor investigators.
In 2005, Bliss was given a 10-year show-cause order for what the NCAA called "despicable behavior", "unethical conduct", and "a blatant and sweeping disregard" of NCAA rules. Had he been hired by an NCAA member school in an athletic capacity before the penalty had expired in 2015, Bliss would have had to agree to abide by any restrictions the NCAA infractions committee imposed on him, and then report back to the NCAA in writing every six months for the duration of the order. Or until the end of his employment. Bliss's prospective employer would have had to show cause for why Bliss would not have to have restrictions imposed on his duties. The penalty is the most severe punishment the NCAA can hand a coach. Ash was hit with a five-year show-cause order. Another assistant, Rodney Belcher, was hit with a seven-year show-cause order for lying about recruiting violations committed in the course of bringing Dennehy to Baylor.
Post-Baylorβ»
Bliss served for two years as a volunteer assistant coach at a Denver-area high school before being hired as head coach of the Continental Basketball Association's Dakota Wizards. He only lasted one season as coach of the Dakota Wizards before resigning, citing family reasons. In 2008, he returned to Texas for several speaking arrangements, including Baptist church sermon and the annual convention of the Texas High School Coaches Association.
In May 2010, Bliss became dean of students, athletic director and head men's basketball coach at Allen Academy, a college preparatory school in Bryan, Texas.
Almost immediately Bliss became embroiled in controversy. On November 28, 2010, it was reported by multiple news outlets in Bryan that Bliss received a two-year suspension from coaching basketball and a one-year suspension from school administration at Allen Academy by the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS), the largest athletic governing body of private schools in Texas. The suspension came less than a month after the start of his first season as head boys' basketball coach and less than three months after joining the school in an administrative role.
TAPPS Director Edd Burleson declined to comment on the specifics of the ruling from the nine-member board, although Allen Academy Head of School John Rouse, in a letter to parents, said that Bliss had forged Rouse's signature on an approval form for a potential student-athlete. Rouse told the parents that Bliss did not deserve the suspension and announced that the school would withdraw from TAPPS, allowing Bliss to continue to coach. Allen Academy eventually joined the Texas Christian Athletic League (TCAL) and won the boys' basketball state title in Bliss' first season.
In a memorandum, TAPPS cited the Allen Academy administration for a "lack of institutional control". The Baylor Athletic Department was cited for this same offense following the NCAA's 2003 investigation. The SMU Athletic Department received two separate citations for a lack of institutional control during Bliss' tenure as head coach of the Mustangs.
KBTX reported that Bliss had broken TAPPS rules by illegally recruiting potential players from other schools, including two senior transfers from Houston currently on the team. Both players enrolled as boarding students over the summer and were able to play on the varsity team without having to sit out the mandated one-year due to their boarding status. The news outlet also reported that the students received as much as 80% off the school's $10,000 annual tuition.
In 2015, Bliss was hired as the head coach at NAIA-member school Southwestern Christian University. Bliss resigned from Southwestern Christian on April 3, 2017, following the airing of the Showtime documentary Disgraced, which chronicled the cover-up at Baylor.
In 2017, a Las Vegas high school hired him as their head coach. Bliss resigned in 2018, after one season as head coach.
Head coaching recordβ»
Collegeβ»
Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oklahoma Sooners (Big Eight Conference) (1975β1980) | |||||||||
1975β76 | Oklahoma | 9β17 | 6β8 | Tβ4th | |||||
1976β77 | Oklahoma | 18β10 | 9β5 | Tβ3rd | |||||
1977β78 | Oklahoma | 14β13 | 7β7 | Tβ4th | |||||
1978β79 | Oklahoma | 21β10 | 10β4 | 1st | NCAA Division I Sweet 16 | ||||
1979β80 | Oklahoma | 15β12 | 6β8 | 6th | |||||
Oklahoma: | 77β62 (.554) | 38β32 (.543) | |||||||
SMU Mustangs (Southwest Conference) (1980β1988) | |||||||||
1980β81 | SMU | 7β20 | 3β13 | 9th | |||||
1981β82 | SMU | 6β21 | 1β15 | 9th | |||||
1982β83 | SMU | 19β11 | 9β7 | Tβ4th | |||||
1983β84 | SMU | 25β8 | 12β4 | 3rd | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
1984β85 | SMU | 23β10 | 10β6 | Tβ2nd | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
1985β86 | SMU | 18β11 | 10β6 | 4th | NIT First Round | ||||
1986β87 | SMU | 16β13 | 7β9 | Tβ6th | |||||
1987β88 | SMU | 28β7 | 12β4 | 1st | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
SMU: | 142β101 (.584) | 64β64 (.500) | |||||||
New Mexico Lobos (Western Athletic Conference) (1988β1999) | |||||||||
1988β89 | New Mexico | 22β11 | 11β5 | Tβ2nd | NIT Quarterfinal | ||||
1989β90 | New Mexico | 20β14 | 9β7 | 5th | NIT Fourth Place | ||||
1990β91 | New Mexico | 20β10 | 10β6 | 3rd | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
1991β92 | New Mexico | 20β13 | 11β5 | 3rd | NIT Quarterfinal | ||||
1992β93 | New Mexico | 24β7 | 13β5 | 3rd | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
1993β94 | New Mexico | 23β8 | 14β4 | 1st | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
1994β95 | New Mexico | 15β15 | 9β9 | Tβ4th | |||||
1995β96 | New Mexico | 28β5 | 14β4 | 2nd | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
1996β97 | New Mexico | 25β8 | 11β5 | 3rd (Mountain) | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
1997β98 | New Mexico | 24β8 | 11β3 | 2nd (Mountain) | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
1998β99 | New Mexico | 25β9 | 9β5 | 2nd (Pacific) | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
New Mexico: | 246β108 (.695) | 122β58 (.678) | |||||||
Baylor Bears (Big 12 Conference) (1999β2003) | |||||||||
1999β00 | Baylor | 14β15 | 4β12 | Tβ8th | |||||
2000β01 | Baylor | 19β12 | 6β10 | 8th | NIT First Round | ||||
2001β02 | Baylor | 14β16 | 4β12 | Tβ10th | |||||
2002β03 | Baylor | 14β14 | 5β11 | Tβ9th | |||||
Baylor: | 61β57 (.517) | 19β45 (.297) | |||||||
Southwestern Christian Eagles (Sooner Athletic Conference) (2015β2017) | |||||||||
2015β16 | Southwestern Christian | 19β15 | 10β8 | Tβ4th | NCCAA Runner-up | ||||
2016β17 | Southwestern Christian | 21β13 | 11β7 | Tβ3rd | NCCAA Regional Final | ||||
Southwestern Christian: | 40β28 (.588) | 21β15 (.583) | |||||||
Total: | 566β356 (.614) | ||||||||
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
|
See alsoβ»
- Baylor University basketball scandal
- Disgraced (2017 film), an Emmy Award winning Showtime documentary on the 2003 murder of Baylor University basketball player Patrick Dennehy
Referencesβ»
- ^ "Minutes of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University, 29 June 1974". Indiana University. June 29, 1974. Retrieved June 26, 2014.
- ^ Baylor University || The Lariat Online || News
- ^ "David G. Bliss (1984) - Hall of Fame".
- ^ Townsend, Brad (August 24, 2003). "Flashback: Who's the real Dave Bliss? Loyal, honorable coach/vindictive egomaniac?". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on April 9, 2017. Retrieved April 7, 2017 – via sportsday.dallasnews.com.
- ^ "Memo: Major violations at Bliss' SMU program". ESPN.com. AP. August 2, 2003.
- ^ "Dave Bliss". Baylor University. Archived from the original on August 11, 2003. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
- ^ "Bliss resigns as Baylor basketball coach". ESPN.com. August 11, 2003.
- ^ Katz, Andy (August 25, 2011). "Three-year show-cause for Bruce Pearl". ESPN.com. Retrieved August 27, 2011.
- ^ "Bliss back in Texas again after Baylor scandal". Associated Press.
- ^ KBTX-TV. "Dave Bliss Named Dean Of Students At Allen Academy". Archived from the original on 2010-05-11. Retrieved 2010-05-07.
- ^ KBTX-TV. "Allen Academy Moving Forward After Parting Ways with TAPPS". Archived from the original on 2010-12-01. Retrieved 2010-12-11.
- ^ "MEN'S BASKETBALL COACH, DAVE BLISS RESIGNS". scueagles.com (Press release). April 3, 2017. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
- ^ Bieler, Des (April 3, 2017). "Ex-Baylor coach Dave Bliss resigns after airing of documentary about murdered player". The Washington Post.
- ^ ABC News (29 July 2018). "Las Vegas high school hires Dave Bliss as head coach".
- ^ Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Dave Bliss resigns from Las Vegas' Calvary Chapel". ABC News.
- ^ "2015-16 Men's Basketball Schedule - Southwestern Christian University Athletics". Archived from the original on 2017-04-08. Retrieved 2017-04-08.
- ^ "Emmanuel Edges SCU 75-68 in NCCAA Title Game - Southwestern Christian University Athletics". Archived from the original on 2017-04-08. Retrieved 2017-04-08.
- ^ "SCU Clipped by Central Baptist in Regional Championship Bout - Southwestern Christian University Athletics". Archived from the original on 2017-04-08. Retrieved 2017-04-08.
Further readingβ»
- "Disgraced". Showtime. 2017. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
External linksβ»
- Southwestern Christian profile (archived)
- Baylor profile (archived)
- New Mexico profile (archived)
- 1943 births
- Living people
- American men's basketball coaches
- American men's basketball players
- Army Black Knights men's basketball coaches
- Baptists from New York (state)
- Baseball players from Binghamton, New York
- Basketball coaches from New York (state)
- Basketball players from New York City
- Baylor Bears men's basketball coaches
- College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
- Continental Basketball Association coaches
- Cornell Big Red baseball players
- Cornell Big Red men's basketball players
- Guards (basketball)
- Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball coaches
- NCAA sanctions
- New Mexico Lobos men's basketball coaches
- Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball coaches
- SMU Mustangs men's basketball coaches
- Southwestern Christian Eagles men's basketball coaches