Why is Lon Kruger honoring Dave Bliss?

I love when programs take the time to honor teams and players from the past.

Alumni games, retired jerseys, honorary assistant coaches, everything. I think that it not only is entertaining for the fans -- and hopefully the players -- but its also a terrific recruiting tool. "Once you're part of our program you'll always be a part of our program." Its not a hard sell.

That said, when a program decides to hold these honorary events, they need to make sure that people people involved are worthy. Exhibit A: Oklahoma. From the AP:

More than 100 former players turned out for a reunion weekend that featured a Legends Alumni Game on Saturday. Price and White, the backcourt tandem from the Sooners' 2002 Final Four run, played - albeit on opposite teams - and Griffin came out as a spectator.

Two of Kruger's predecessors, Kelvin Sampson and Dave Bliss, served as opposing coaches in a game that had to be decided in sudden-death overtime.

You read that right.

At an alumni game held to honor the likes of Hollis Price and Quannas White -- the two stars of Oklahoma's last Final Four team -- as well as Blake Griffin, Kruger invited back two coaches that have effectively been black-listed by the NCAA. For Sampson, calling him a persona-non-grata on the Norman campus is not necessarily fair. He got into trouble with the NCAA for making too many phone calls, a rule that was just as silly then as it is now and will not be a violation for that much longer.

Sampson I can understand.

Bliss, I cannot.

Because he is as epic of a scumbag as you will ever come across. I mention this quite a bit, but I always assume everyone knows what Bliss did. For those that don't know, back in 2003 Carlton Dotson shot and killed Patrick Dennehy, teammates on a Baylor team coached by Bliss. In an effort to try and cover-up recruiting violations he had committed -- including paying around $7,000 that wasn't paid for by Dennehy's scholarship -- Bliss tried to get his team and his coaching staff to tell investigators that Dennehy had been selling drugs to get the cash to pay for school. They also failed to tell investigators that two of Dennehy's teammates had threatened him just days before the murder.

Yeah.

That's who Lon Kruger brought in for Oklahoma's alumni game.

If it was me, I would want people to forget that Bliss had been a part of the Oklahoma program.
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Dave Bliss, still a dirtbag

You remember Dave Bliss, right?

How could you forget him?

He's the former Baylor head coach that tried to cover up his illicit payments to recruits and players by attempting to frame Patrick Dennehy -- a player murdered by his teammate Carlton Dotson -- as a drug dealer.

Scumbag-tastic, amirite? (I shouldn't be joking or snarky. What Bliss did is sickening to the umpteenth degree.)


Well, Bliss is back at it. Last summer, he was hired by Allen Academy, a small private school in Texas, to be their basketball coach and athletic director. It was championed as Bliss' chance at redemption, but that notion took less than a year to dissolve.

Last November, the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools ruled that two of the numerous players that Bliss recruited to Allen Academy received "improper inducement". In other words, they didn't have to pay the full $10,000 tuition to go to school there. Bliss also forged the signature of the school's headmaster for a player that did not end up enrolling at the school.

The punishment? A year suspension for Bliss and two years probation for the school. Instead of succumbing to those sanctions, Allen Academy opted to switch affiliations to the lesser Texas Christian Athletic League. They also downplayed the wrongdoing. From the AP:

Bliss has been admonished by the school for signing Rouse's name without authorization on the transfer form, but school officials downplay the matter.

"It's not like he forged his name and cashed a check for $100,000," said Jerry Bullin, who chairs the school's board of trustees.

Bliss said he signed the headmaster's name on the form because he was facing a deadline. There was no intent to deceive, he said.

"I have my scarlet letter, and I understand that," he said. "The only thing about it is, from this point forward, I am trying to do the right thing."

Others don't see it that way, however. One man is quoted in the AP story as saying that this scandal wasn't like opening a can of worms, it was a "can of snakes".

Bliss has spent the past eight years trying to rebuild his image. Part of his getting this job was to prove that he has seen the light, that he realized the err of his ways and to receive some kind of redemption.

Instead, he cheated -- again -- and is trying to cover it up and run from it -- again.

Good thing this guy is allowed to work with kids still.

h/t Lost Lettermen
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