NCAA to Get Document in MacLean Inquiry

The NCAA this week will receive a copy of a handwritten account by the high school coach of UCLA basketball player Don MacLean that states Bruin Coach Jim Harrick met with MacLean when face-to-face contact with recruits was prohibited by NCAA rules, officials said Saturday.

The account by former Simi Valley High Coach Bob Hawking, written three years ago when he considered legal action against UCLA because he was not hired as an assistant coach, was made public last month by The Times. The article also reported allegations that three high-ranking administrators in the UCLA chancellor’s office attempted to cover up the visit, which allegedly took place in April of 1988--when MacLean had narrowed his choices to UCLA and Georgia Tech.

Jack Hirsch, Walt Hazzard’s chief assistant when they coached the Bruins from 1984-88, sent the NCAA a copy of Hawking’s account Saturday. Hirsch said Thursday that he was interviewed by David Didion, an NCAA enforcement representative, for the second time this year.

The NCAA and Pacific 10 Conference have been interviewing witnesses since February in what has been called an informal inquiry into allegations that Harrick went to MacLean’s house and persuaded him to sign a letter of intent during a so-called “dead period” less than a month after Harrick became Bruin coach. The rule, which does not allow personal contact between recruits and coaches for 48 hours, is designed to allow recruits a chance to reflect upon their futures without the pressures of outside influences.

MacLean has been a three-year starter for UCLA and was the team’s leading scorer each season. He, Harrick and MacLean’s mother, Pat Coyne, have denied the allegations outlined in March of 1990 in the book “Raw Recruits,” by Alexander Wolff and Armen Keteyian.

Didion and David Price, associate commissioner of the Pac-10, have spearheaded their third inquiry into the charges. The latest, however, has been the most expansive.