Switzer Admits Giving Gifts to Holieway

Former Oklahoma football Coach Barry Switzer admitted that he gave Jamelle Holieway a pigskin briefcase as a graduation present, and that he “probably” bought Holieway a beer sometime during the quarterback’s years with the Sooners, according to a published report.

Switzer said he had received the briefcase as a gift, and that he had given away other “freebies” such as shirts to athletes and non-athletes during his 16 years as the Sooners’ head coach.

“There’s no telling how many golf bags I’ve given away to friends,” he told The Daily Oklahoman in Sunday’s editions. “Jamelle is not the only kid I’ve ever given a shirt or a sweater to. Kids that didn’t have a shirt, I said ‘Here, take this one.’ But I also gave them to kids who were not athletes.”

In a story in The Times on Friday, Holieway said Switzer had bought him drinks and given him a leather sports bag.

Switzer said Holieway had seen the briefcase and said he would like to have it. Switzer said he had promised it to him if he would get his degree, and said that while Holieway is a correspondence course short of graduation, he gave the briefcase to him when he left the school earlier this year.

An athlete is prohibited from receiving a gift after completion of his eligibility if it is in recognition of his athletic accomplishments, but NCAA rules provide only that he could no longer participate in athletics. Holieway had used up his eligibility.

In reference to Holieway’s claim that Switzer bought him drinks, the former coach said, “I probably bought him a beer, not a mixed drink, sometime in a restaurant in the off-season.”

“I’m sure that happened. I’ve done that for other kids in my years at Oklahoma, after a bowl game was over, never during the season and just in a social setting. I’ve bought a beer for cheerleaders before, just trying to be a gentleman.”