Bartow Out as Pan Am Coach

Gene Bartow, former UCLA basketball coach who is now at Alabama-Birmingham, resigned today as head coach of the Puerto Rican men’s team at the Pan Am Games for health reasons.

But Joaquin Martinez Rousset, press officer for the Puerto Rican delegation, said Bartow was fired. “I just don’t feel good,” Bartow said from Birmingham, Ala. “I’ve had a touch of the flu. I told them that Sunday and I had told them that after the Brazil game and they told me just get through the week.” Puerto Rico had won four of five games here and Bartow was asked after the quarterfinal victory over Panama if he would have trouble coaching against the United States. “This is a basketball game, not a war,” Bartow said. “As far as this game is concerned, I am with Puerto Rico.”