GLENDALE, AZ - JANUARY 01: Head coach George O'Leary (R) of the UCF Knights shakes hands with head coach Art Briles of the Baylor Bears after the Knights defeated the Bears 52 to 42 during the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium on January 1, 2014 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
O'Leary - Flickr/Riana
Villanova’s assistant men’s basketball coach Doug Martin resigned yesterday after it was revealed that he lied about his collegiate playing career. Martin had claimed to play college basketball at UW-Green Bay, but his lie was exposed after no former players or coaches could corroborate his story.
Sadly, Martin isn’t the only coach who has lied on his resume. There have been a few more notable cases; some at smaller schools, and one at a major university.
Back in 2004, Glynn Cyprien was hired as head coach for UL-Lafayette after serving as an assistant coach at numerous schools throughout the nation. Cyprien’s resume claimed he’d graduated from Texas-San Antonio, but it was later revealed that he hadn’t gotten the necessary credits needed to complete his degree. Since UL-Lafayette had a requirement that head coaches have a bachelor’s degree, Cyprien was forced out before he even got to coach one game.
In 2011, Yale’s head football coach Tom Williams was caught lying about being a Rhodes Scholarship finalist. His quarterback, Patrick Witt, was deciding whether to play his final game against Harvard or go for his Rhodes Scholarship interview (he ultimately played the game) and Williams was giving him advice. Problem is, Williams’ advice was phony, as he’d never actually applied for a Rhodes Scholarship at all. After an internal investigation into the matter (and a poor overall record), Williams resigned this past offseason.
The most famous case is that of George O’Leary, the current head coach at UCF and former head coach at Notre Dame (for a few days). In 2001, O’Leary was hired away from Georgia Tech, where he’d coached since 1994 and led the Yellow Jackets to multiple ACC championships and bowl victories. But just a few days after he was hired, it was discovered that O’Leary had numerous fabrications on his resume, including attending/graduating from a school that doesn’t exist (NYU-Stony Brook) and lettering for a football program (New Hampshire) that had no record of him whatsoever. Needless to say, O’Leary was dismissed from his new position, embarrassed by the whole situation.
While resume padding isn’t anything new, it’s always shocking when someone gets caught.
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