Sports of The Times; The Coach Who Phoned Himself In (Published 1994)
- ️https://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/columns/harveyaraton/
- ️Thu Mar 10 1994
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
- March 10, 1994
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
THE telephone rang in Stephen Vest's home on a Friday night in mid-February. A familiar voice said, "Get your pen, I've got a few things to say."
The sports editor of The Myrtle Beach Sun News felt his heart begin to race. This was a journalist's dream, an exclusive that had dialed him. He reached for a notebook as the coach said, "I just came back from seeing this movie, 'Blue Chips,' and. . . ."
The coach proceeded to talk a blue streak, his own statement on the state of big-time college sports.
Russ Bergman's Division I Coastal Carolina program was under investigation by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for alleged recruiting violations. Now the coach, with 6 Big South Conference titles in the last 10 seasons and more than 300 victories in his 19 years at the Conway, S.C., school, told Vest, "I understand the rules and I understand that I broke the rules."
Bergman said he was motivated to call after seeing "Blue Chips," in which Nick Nolte's guilt-ridden Pete Bell character tells a group of reporters following his biggest victory in years that his team of heralded freshmen was bought by alumni, with his consent. Then Bell quits, and walks off into the California night, to teach playground kids the rudiments of the game.
"Awesome, babee!" is how Dick Vitale, one of the actors on loan to "Blue Chips" from the genuine N.C.A.A. stage, might critique the film's predictably rousing finish. But even Vitale would have to admit that when tournament and television revenue are at stake, don't hold your breath waiting for life to imitate art.