Charlie Spoonhour was a great X's and O's coach. I remember him at St. Louis U. and before that at SW Missouri St. he was also a very good ATS coach over the years. In 19 seasons at the Division I level, Spoonhour produced a 373-202 mark, with eight trips to the NCAA Tournament and five more to the NIT. His son, Jay Spoonhour, will serve as interim head coach.
wil.
wil.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by kyhawk:
I hope he is OK. I took racquetball in Juco and he was my instructor in Burlington IA. I never worked so hard for a B. That freaking ball was hard to hit.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I DID NOT KNOW THAT!!
I hope he is OK. I took racquetball in Juco and he was my instructor in Burlington IA. I never worked so hard for a B. That freaking ball was hard to hit.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I DID NOT KNOW THAT!!
They need help, the team is in such shambles. They still get better than average recruits, but man it is such a mess. Maybe they can get Danny Tarkanian to quit his job and come be the coach. He can call up his dad every day to get "advice" (wink wink) and everyone in town except the UNLV brass will be happy a Tarkanian is finally in charge again.
As WildBill said, the UNLV program is in shambles. It's a half ass university to begin with from the top right on down. When Rick Pitino's wife came here for an exploratory trip, there was no one fron UNLV to greet her at the airport. No, I'm not kidding. The school president couldn't find the ground if she fell out of a tree. There's wide distrust of the whole athletic department from prospective recruits. No one goes to the games. They can't give tickets away.
Charlie Spoonhour was brought in mainly because he had always run clean programs and UNLV needed someone that would have credibility with the Gestapo, I mean the NCAA. Over the last decade, a large number of big money boosters have pulled their support. They were mostly the Jerry Tarkanian supporters that helped build UNLV into such a strong national program. The next coach will have to win those people back and stay out of trouble with the NCAA along with dealing with a school administration that doesn't know the first thing about college athletics. It will be a tough task.
Charlie Spoonhour was brought in mainly because he had always run clean programs and UNLV needed someone that would have credibility with the Gestapo, I mean the NCAA. Over the last decade, a large number of big money boosters have pulled their support. They were mostly the Jerry Tarkanian supporters that helped build UNLV into such a strong national program. The next coach will have to win those people back and stay out of trouble with the NCAA along with dealing with a school administration that doesn't know the first thing about college athletics. It will be a tough task.
Sounds like Charlie is going to have to hang it up for health reasons. I really don't know much about what happened to him at UNLV. I do know in his day Charlie Spoonhaur was one of those coaches that could beat yourin with hiisin, and hissin with yourin. The Billkens of St. Louis were always dangerous with Spoon at the helm, as was SW Missou before them.
wil.
wil.
Funniest thing about UNLV in recent years was the Stan Fulton fiasco. I used to work with Stan so what he did doesn't surprise me a bit. Stan founded a company he later sold for about $450 million, but as part of the deal he got to keep Sunland Park in New Mexico, next to El Paso. He lobbied his way into getting 600 slot machines placed there with no gambling competition for 200 miles because Stan donated almost 100k to Texas politicians who saw to it that a competing tribe in El Paso got shut down in the courts.
In the meantime there were few people anywhere as generous with their money for UNLV. For his efforts and MANY millions of dollars he got a building named after him, you can't miss it the Stan Fulton building. Well UNLV's current President pissed Stan off in many ways, from sports to school programs. The final straw was, get this, they had some palm trees in front of the building, Stan drove by and realized his name wasn't clear to see because of these trees. He demanded they come down and the UNLV brass gave him the runaround about having to go through levels of controls to get it done. I mean the guy gave like $50 million over the last 10 years and they say they can't just call up someone and get them moved 20 feet, incredible. Stan thinks it is because the President hates him and so he has a big showdown on local TV talking about the situation. Stan just stumbles along and shoots from the hip, as he always does.
He announces he will pull his money. Next thing you know, New Mexico State gets a donation from Stan Fulton for multi-millions. Stan wouldn't live a day of his life in New Mexico, rest assured of that. Yet New Mexico State probably will easily surpass UNLV in sports thanks to the horrendous state of the UNLV brass chasing off a local donating "whale".
In the meantime there were few people anywhere as generous with their money for UNLV. For his efforts and MANY millions of dollars he got a building named after him, you can't miss it the Stan Fulton building. Well UNLV's current President pissed Stan off in many ways, from sports to school programs. The final straw was, get this, they had some palm trees in front of the building, Stan drove by and realized his name wasn't clear to see because of these trees. He demanded they come down and the UNLV brass gave him the runaround about having to go through levels of controls to get it done. I mean the guy gave like $50 million over the last 10 years and they say they can't just call up someone and get them moved 20 feet, incredible. Stan thinks it is because the President hates him and so he has a big showdown on local TV talking about the situation. Stan just stumbles along and shoots from the hip, as he always does.
He announces he will pull his money. Next thing you know, New Mexico State gets a donation from Stan Fulton for multi-millions. Stan wouldn't live a day of his life in New Mexico, rest assured of that. Yet New Mexico State probably will easily surpass UNLV in sports thanks to the horrendous state of the UNLV brass chasing off a local donating "whale".
