Majerus Says Remark Was in Jest

Rick Majerus, former Marquette University basketball coach, says he meant no offense with his remark on a Milwaukee radio talk-show about the prevalence of irregular sexual behavior in women’s athletics.

Majerus, now the coach at the University of Utah, had been asked about the pressures of winning because of the money it can produce for a school.

Said Majerus: “I’m for these new rules of moving the season back, publishing graduation rates and dropping it from 28 to 25 games, but the 28-to-25 drop will never occur because of the economics of the situation, just like we’ll never have a return to freshman eligibility. And people don’t realize that what will compound that problem is women’s athletics.

“Men’s athletics are so visible it’s amazing. You know, with women’s athletics, my experience has been that there’s a great deal of, um, and I’ll be frank with you here, there’s a great deal of, uh, irregular sexual behavior, let me say.

“And, you know, that’s never brought to the forefront. If that were that prevalent in men’s athletics, there’d be Sports Illustrated, Time magazine, would have exposes from now ad infinity.”

Majerus, who spent two seasons at Ball State University between his stints at Marquette and Utah, later refused to elaborate.

“I don’t care to get into it any further,” Majerus said. “I meant nothing by it. Everybody knows I’m a flippant guy. I said a hundred things, kidding around. . . . I made a joke about sheep in Wyoming. I said something about passing the microphone and catching a communicable disease. The other night at the roast for Del Harris (coach of the Milwaukee Bucks), I’m talking about Del’s underwear. What does that mean?”