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the day of the UCLA/Florida title game Wetzel came out with a story that got headline news dredging up old accusations and innuendo about the late Sam Gilbert and shady goings on at UCLA while Wooden was the coach. Wetzel claimed that Bill Walton in a 1978 book said that if UCLA were held to the same standards others were, they'd have forfeited 8 titles and been on probation for 100 years. he said Walton said he never wanted for money while at UCLA, implying Gilbert paid him. He implied that the '95 title was the result of rampant cheating by Jim Harrick who was ultimately caught and fired etc.
Millions of UCLA fans emailed the guy trashing the story, and he posted some of the replies on his site and said obviously UCLA fans are just sensitive.
well one of the fans on Bruinzone went to Amazon.com, bought the book by Walton, and read it. Turns out the book isn't by Walton at all, it's by the late Jack Scott, and the forward in the book clearly states Walton never read a single page of it, and the reader should NOT assume that Walton agrees with the opinions in the book, they are in fact his, not Waltons.
then he started discovering one mistake after another. walton didn't make the comment about 100 years probation, Jack Scott did. walton didn't say Sam Gilbert paid him, he said his family was affluent enough that he never felt pressured to leave UCLA for the NBA, his family had enough money he didn't need to. Wetzel even changed the 100 years quote the actual quote said if UCLA were treated the same way Jerry Tarkanian was, not others. The reason for the change? Wetzel just co-wrote a book with Tark where he goes into great detail about how dirty Sam Gilbert was, he apparently figured by removing Tark's name from the comment, people wouldn't detect the bias.
then it gets more interesting. who was Jack Scott? Scott was a former athlete who became a counter culture activist feeling athletes were being exploited and chewed up. When he got a job at Oberlin college heading athletics, he hired Tommie Smith(68 Olympics protest guy) and other notable athletic activists. Scott openly talked about how coaches abused physically and mentally, athletes. he hated Vince Lombardi, he hated Wooden, and he hated boosters like Gilbert that turned college sports into a business in his opinion.
Oh and another interesting fact about Scott, prior to his writing the book on Walton, he spent months writing articles on the SLA, Symbianese Liberation Army, the people who kidnapped Patty Hearst! And, it turns out, Scott was subpoenead in the 70's to a federal grand jury trial in Pennsylvania because he was alleged to have helped drive hearst and other SLA members cross country to hide her from the FBI. Scott wasn't charged, but he did admit that he had in fact helped hide Hearst and other SLA members.
Pretty impressive list of sources for Wetzel, Jerry Tarkanian, and a guy who admitted to a federal crime harboring fugitives in the Patty Hearst case.
now the real shocker. The guy on Bruinzone got a reply from Dan Wetzel, and Wetzel actually conceded there may be some mistakes that need correcting.
And then, almost threatening, he said that he's now thinking there's enough evidence there to write a book detailing what went on at UCLA. Since his article came out rival coaches and 2 ex UCLA players have contacted him with stories about Gilbert, UCLA and Wooden. he didn't outright say it but the tone of the reply was almost, since you damn UCLA fans keep attacking me, I'm going to write a book attacking Wooden.
I emailed some of the stuff to heismanpundit.com since they'd written a piece after the first story came out that basically said people need to know the truth about Wooden's teams. After they saw the actual truth on Wetzel's article, Heismanpundit has a front page article today trashing Wetzel, shoddy journalism, should be ashamed of himself etc.
I got my own reply from Wetzel late last night that conceded that yes he was wrong on many points including his claims about the '95 title team. the probation related to Harrick came on violations committed AFTER that title, involving a recruiting dinner with the Collins twins. He also conceded that UCLA had alread gone on probation for Sam Gilbert, after larry Brown left in early 80's UCLA went on probation for violations that Brown committed, and several that dated back to Wooden, involving Sam Gilbert. One of the mandates from the NCAA was UCLA had to immediately sever all ties Gilbert had with the school. So to say UCLA got away with it is wrong since they were already punished for it.
I guess we'll see what his book looks like, Wetzel is the guy who wrote Glory Road which is now a movie about Don Haskins Texas Western team.
Millions of UCLA fans emailed the guy trashing the story, and he posted some of the replies on his site and said obviously UCLA fans are just sensitive.
well one of the fans on Bruinzone went to Amazon.com, bought the book by Walton, and read it. Turns out the book isn't by Walton at all, it's by the late Jack Scott, and the forward in the book clearly states Walton never read a single page of it, and the reader should NOT assume that Walton agrees with the opinions in the book, they are in fact his, not Waltons.
then he started discovering one mistake after another. walton didn't make the comment about 100 years probation, Jack Scott did. walton didn't say Sam Gilbert paid him, he said his family was affluent enough that he never felt pressured to leave UCLA for the NBA, his family had enough money he didn't need to. Wetzel even changed the 100 years quote the actual quote said if UCLA were treated the same way Jerry Tarkanian was, not others. The reason for the change? Wetzel just co-wrote a book with Tark where he goes into great detail about how dirty Sam Gilbert was, he apparently figured by removing Tark's name from the comment, people wouldn't detect the bias.
then it gets more interesting. who was Jack Scott? Scott was a former athlete who became a counter culture activist feeling athletes were being exploited and chewed up. When he got a job at Oberlin college heading athletics, he hired Tommie Smith(68 Olympics protest guy) and other notable athletic activists. Scott openly talked about how coaches abused physically and mentally, athletes. he hated Vince Lombardi, he hated Wooden, and he hated boosters like Gilbert that turned college sports into a business in his opinion.
Oh and another interesting fact about Scott, prior to his writing the book on Walton, he spent months writing articles on the SLA, Symbianese Liberation Army, the people who kidnapped Patty Hearst! And, it turns out, Scott was subpoenead in the 70's to a federal grand jury trial in Pennsylvania because he was alleged to have helped drive hearst and other SLA members cross country to hide her from the FBI. Scott wasn't charged, but he did admit that he had in fact helped hide Hearst and other SLA members.
Pretty impressive list of sources for Wetzel, Jerry Tarkanian, and a guy who admitted to a federal crime harboring fugitives in the Patty Hearst case.
now the real shocker. The guy on Bruinzone got a reply from Dan Wetzel, and Wetzel actually conceded there may be some mistakes that need correcting.
And then, almost threatening, he said that he's now thinking there's enough evidence there to write a book detailing what went on at UCLA. Since his article came out rival coaches and 2 ex UCLA players have contacted him with stories about Gilbert, UCLA and Wooden. he didn't outright say it but the tone of the reply was almost, since you damn UCLA fans keep attacking me, I'm going to write a book attacking Wooden.
I emailed some of the stuff to heismanpundit.com since they'd written a piece after the first story came out that basically said people need to know the truth about Wooden's teams. After they saw the actual truth on Wetzel's article, Heismanpundit has a front page article today trashing Wetzel, shoddy journalism, should be ashamed of himself etc.
I got my own reply from Wetzel late last night that conceded that yes he was wrong on many points including his claims about the '95 title team. the probation related to Harrick came on violations committed AFTER that title, involving a recruiting dinner with the Collins twins. He also conceded that UCLA had alread gone on probation for Sam Gilbert, after larry Brown left in early 80's UCLA went on probation for violations that Brown committed, and several that dated back to Wooden, involving Sam Gilbert. One of the mandates from the NCAA was UCLA had to immediately sever all ties Gilbert had with the school. So to say UCLA got away with it is wrong since they were already punished for it.
I guess we'll see what his book looks like, Wetzel is the guy who wrote Glory Road which is now a movie about Don Haskins Texas Western team.
