Flip Flop: UNLV Backers Can't Imagine Runnin' Rebels Program With a Beard

SMU bench boss Larry Brown began his nomadic head coaching career by resigning following only a couple of months at Davidson's helm in 1969. Brown reportedly departed primarily because the Wildcats didn't increase their recruiting budget and lower high academic requirements for prospective recruits. He was also annoyed about the school's summer basketball camp and receiving bills for his temporary residence and carpeting he ordered for his office.

Reducing academic standards has triggered an abundance of exceptions - scholastically challenged "prize prospects" who don't meet a school's usual admission standards but gain entry because of their special athletic talent. In other words, a classless institution of lower learning "looks the other way" when being more attracted to someone adept at throwing a no-look pass than exhibiting a citadel of higher learning focusing more on authentic students infinitely more capable of passing a genuine college class.

But Brown Out has competition for the most unusual tale for walking away from a new coaching position. Chris Beard, after a mere couple of weeks coaching UNLV's eroding program, departed Sin City to return to Texas Tech, where he previously served as an assistant for more than a decade.

A tragic tale unfolded in Evansville's initial season at the NCAA Division I level in 1977-78 when coach Bobby Watson and 13 members of his Purple Aces squad perished in a plane crash moments after taking off en route to their fifth game of the season. Watson, a Vietnam veteran with five Purple Hearts, was hired after former UE All-American Jerry Sloan, who went on to a distinguished coaching career with the NBA's Utah Jazz, had been named coach of the Purple Aces before abruptly changing his mind.

Davidson was also shunned by Dartmouth's Gary Walters in 1976. Following is an alphabetical list of coaches such as Beard who had a change of heart and reneged on deals for a variety of reasons: