Hazzard and UCLA Agree to Settlement

Walt Hazzard, former UCLA basketball coach, has reached an agreement with the school over settlement of his contract.

Hazzard, who was fired by the Bruins in March, 1988, after four years as coach, had two years left on the contract.

Hazzard will work as a development officer at UCLA under the supervision of Vice Chancellor Winston Doby. He will be involved in the university’s Young Black Scholars Program, which helps academically gifted high school students, and with a special development program on the elementary school level.

Hazzard was in Maryland Friday and unavailable for comment but he released a statement that said:

“I believe America’s greatest natural resource is our youth and I am committed to helping the young people of our country and especially those of Los Angeles.

“We have to change all their negative directions to positive, and I will spend all my energies to help accomplish that goal. I am obviously delighted to be doing this work in association with UCLA.”

Although details of the settlement were not revealed, Hazzard’s attorney, Jerry Roth, said, “UCLA met all its obligations (under terms of the original contract).

“When I was working with (UCLA counsel) Patricia Jasper, we worked on the assumption that we were going to get this thing resolved in a way that would be positive both for the university and for Walt. We all feel that that was accomplished with this settlement.

“Walt has had an association with the university since he was an undergraduate, and so much of his identity comes from UCLA.

“I think the school appreciates that he ran his program with integrity, whatever the reasons why he was dismissed.”