Coach: Didn’t Know What Was Going On

While growing up in Murchison, Tex., a town with a population of about 400, Ned Fowler said gambling was not something he ever thought about.

It just wasn’t part of the East Texas experience, he said, certainly not anything like the common pursuits of trying to coax crops to grow in the red clay or, say, shelling pecans or even traveling the 30 miles to Tyler, known as the rose capital of the state.

Nevertheless, it was Fowler who got caught up in one of the thorniest college basketball scandals of the 1980s when, as the coach of Tulane, three of his players admitted guilt in a point-shaving conspiracy during the 1984-85 season that led to the shutdown of the school’s basketball program.

“It devastated my career,” Fowler said. “The point-shaving thing was something that never entered my mind as even a possibility of going on. I’m not a guy who has ever been associated with gambling. Never have, never thought about it.”

Fowler was forced to resign by Tulane President Eamon Kelly after additional charges of cash payments to players, in violation of NCAA rules, were raised. Fowler admits he gave $100 to one of his players, John (Hot Rod) Williams, after a fire had destroyed Williams’ trailer house.

These days, Fowler is not a coach. He teaches physical education at a junior high school in Tyler and scouts college basketball games for a service called Bertka Views, operated by Solveig Bertka, wife of Laker assistant coach Bill Bertka.

An assistant at Auburn for 2 1/2 years after his resignation at the end of his four seasons in Tulane, Fowler tried for the head coaching job when Sonny Smith left after last season, but lost out to Tommy Joe Eagles of Louisiana Tech. So Fowler, 45, went back to Texas.

“Looking back, it’s ridiculous what’s happened to me,” Fowler said. “I don’t know if another opportunity will ever come along.

“Unfortunately, there’s a mark on me because I just happened to be the coach of a major college team whose program was dropped, even though it was not my doing in any shape, form or fashion. It is a situation of guilt by association.

“I don’t think there’s any question but what (point-shaving) occurred, but it certainly never entered my mind that that was even a possibility. Yeah, guys miss shots, you don’t suspicion that.”

Fowler’s only recent contact with Tulane occurred during the summer when he unexpectedly ran into Perry Clark, his successor, at a basketball camp. Fowler said he turned suddenly and found himself staring in the face of someone wearing a Tulane basketball shirt.

“That kind of rocked me,” Fowler said. “But I wished him well and he assured me he was very excited about his situation at Tulane. I’m happy for him.”

In the meantime, Fowler isn’t too thrilled about his own prospects. He believes that the Auburn job would have been his, were it not for his past, which may also keep him from returning to the coaching profession in the future.

“I’m a coach without a team,” Fowler said. “You have to play the cards that’s dealt you and I’m holding a real bad hand.”