Jeff Ruland spent nine seasons at Iona as coach. It was also where he spent his collegiate days playing ball. Things hit something of a high point in the 2005-06 season when the team went 23-8. They were even one of those trendy upset picks in the first round, but it wasn't to be. The team lost to LSU.One season later, Ruland's team went 2-28 and he was shown the door with an overall record of 139-135. He'd won 20 games three times and was one season removed from an NCAA Tournament appearance, but he was off to coach in the NBDL and then as an assistant with the Sixers. On the surface it appears to be a pretty simple story, but Ruland absolutely aired out Iona today on WFAN with Mike Francesa. Ruland alleges racism on the part of some at Iona, talked about contract promises that were never met and also discussed the manner in which he was actually let go.
First, let's get to the biggest part of this interview (you can listen to it here) and that's the allegation that race led to Ruland's firing. Now you might be wondering how that's the case when Ruland is white, the Iona president, James A. Liguori, is white, and the athletic director at the time, Shawn Brennan, is also white. Ruland explained:
At that time, my marriage had fallen apart in 2001 and I had separated legally from my wife. About six months later I started dating a lady I'm with today and she happens to be Afro-American. I noticed a change right then how people treated me.
This could absolutely be the case. Perhaps someone was uncomfortable with an interracial couple like Ruland's. But let's add some context here. Ruland had a pretty bad run in the early '00s. 13-17 in 2001-02, 17-12 in 2002-03, 11-18 in 2003-04. And then this happened, once again quoting Ruland:
2004, [I was] called in and [they told me] they're going to fire my whole staff. I told them that if you do this, you're going to ruin my program. We have players in the program. We've probably got a chance to win one more championship, but when they graduate the cupboard is going to be bare. People are going to use this against us, and I honestly believed one of my assistants might file a discrimination suit. One did. He settled it for half a million dollars. I don't know how many people know that, but that's a fact.
The assistant coach Ruland references in this story is Craig Holcomb. No settlement numbers were ever really made public, as far as I can tell. So to answer Ruland's rhetorical question about how many people knew, the answer would be "not many."
The other charges would be scandalous on their own, but probably fall short of the bar set by the alleged racism within the department. Ruland claims he was notified of his firing via e-mail while he was on a cruise. Ruland also alleges that people around the Iona program continue to badmouth the coach to prospective employers. He claims this was the case both with the Knicks and Donnie Walsh and also at NJIT. In case you're wondering, Ruland is at Division II University of the District of Columbia for now.
Ruland said he'd take a lie detector test and put up $100,000 against anyone who says he's lying and when asked how Iona president James A. Liguori would respond to Ruland airing out this information, he dropped this gem: "He's probably up on a roof with a gun right now looking for me, I don't know." That doesn't sound very Christian for a man with this picture on Iona's website, does it?
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