He Waves White Flag After Winning Battle

Jerry Tarkanian is getting $2.5 million but no apologies from the NCAA, which ended its 26-year battle with the former Nevada Las Vegas coach by agreeing to the largest settlement or court-ordered award in NCAA history.

About $750,000 to $1 million of the settlement will go toward Tarkanian’s legal costs in the 1992 suit, which alleged that the NCAA unfairly conspired to force him out of college coaching.

“I took ‘em on and got beat up so many times,” said Tarkanian, 68, now the coach at Fresno State.

Though he feels vindicated, Tarkanian said he can never be compensated for the anger, pain and disappointment of his many clashes with the NCAA, an organization that he believes had a vendetta against him.

“If I had it to do over again,” he said, “I would never have upset them.

“I hope I never have another problem with them again. . . . I want to be their friend. I don’t want to be their enemy anymore.”

Unable to secure a change of venue from Las Vegas for a trial scheduled to begin next month and concerned about the results of its own mock trials, the NCAA settled the suit and issued a carefully worded statement addressing “regrets,” but nothing close to an apology or admission of error.

“The NCAA regrets the 26-year ongoing disputes with Jerry Tarkanian and looks forward to putting this matter to rest,” Cedric Dempsey, executive director of the NCAA, wrote in a statement negotiated in the settlement.

“While the process has been difficult, all sides have hopefully become wiser, and more understanding of one another’s positions.”

Asked if the settlement means the NCAA has no objections to conduct surrounding Tarkanian’s programs at UNLV and at Cal State Long Beach in the late 1970s, Dempsey said: “No, it does not.”

Asked if the settlement means the NCAA admits it made mistakes in its enforcement procedures, Dempsey responded the same way.

“No, it does not.”

However, Dempsey and Tarkanian agree that their dispute led to improvements in the organization’s investigation and enforcement procedures.

“If you would have gone to some of those hearings with us, you would have sworn this was not America,” said Tarkanian, claiming the NCAA manufactured evidence and would reject sworn statements in favor of its investigators’ recollections.

Among the improvements Dempsey cited:

* Enforcement procedures are now published in the NCAA Manual.

* Coaches and their legal counsel have access to the hearings of the committee on infractions.

* Investigators now tape-record their interviews.

Tarkanian’s victory came on the heels of a tumultuous season at Fresno State marked by player conduct problems--and on the same day that former Fresno player Avondre Jones and recruit Kenny Brunner were formally charged with making terrorist threats, assaulting and robbing a man with a gun and samurai swords.

“We had some problems this past year that certainly we’re not proud of,” Tarkanian said. “We had a couple of guys that really let us down. Our biggest problem was we had a bunch of guys on marijuana.”

But Tarkanian said he wants to continue coaching until Fresno State has success.

“I just want to win big, one time,” he said. “Just to have a really good team. One the university can be proud of.”