Byers: Tarkanian ‘Beat System’
Former NCAA chief Walter Byers says Nevada Las Vegas basketball Coach Jerry Tarkanian “beat the system” in his 13-year battle with the governing body of college sports.
“He’s a man who worked the system and beat the system,” Byers said in his first interview since retiring as executive director in 1987. “There is a legal bromide about justice delayed is justice denied. The story of this case proves that.”
The NCAA ordered a two-year suspension of Tarkanian in 1977 after an investigation of the UNLV program, but the coach obtained an injunction preventing any action against him. The injunction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988, but the NCAA still hasn’t decided whether to take further action.
UNLV’s recent NCAA championship convinced Byers to rewrite a chapter in his upcoming autobiography that deals with the Tarkanian affair.
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