A new year is upon us and with that we have yet another opportunity to turn pages.
We at the Gazette-Mail, of course, enjoy when you turn pages in a literal sense. (It's still better than scrolling, am I correct?)
Yet it's our duty to give you the news - and let you decide whether to turn the pages or not.
Today the subject is former WVU basketball coach Gale Catlett and his legacy. It's a topic because of an expose written by Tim Sullivan for the Louisville Courier-Journal headlined "Confessions of a college hoops 'slimeball.'"
The piece centers on confessions from former Cincinnati assistant Al Hmiel who says he once was a "slimeball" who cheated to land recruits and keep them eligible. Sullivan, a veteran writer of over 35 years, apparently knew Hmiel from his days working at the Cincinnati Enquirer. Oddly perhaps, Hmiel says he was moved to admit cheating "out of empathy for Andre McGee, the former University of Louisville director of basketball operations, and from the concern that McGee may be scapegoated in the U of L sex scandal being investigated by the NCAA."
Within the piece there are a litany of admissions/accusations from Hmiel, from plying recruits with alcohol and cash to arranging flunking grades for athletes to free up scholarships.
It's a lengthy story one can find online if interested. But it's presented here because Hmiel "made a lasting mark as a recruiting specialist under [then-UC] men's basketball coaches Gale Catlett and Ed Badger, first as a student assistant, later as an assistant coach."
The piece ties Catlett, Hmiel and the late Bill Dally, a trucking executive, to questionable activity. It points out that the NCAA handed down sanctions to Cincinnati on Dec. 28, 1978, and says "the anticipated penalties helped persuade Catlett to leave [UC] for West Virginia University during the 1978 Final Four."
When Sullivan reached out to Catlett, the former Mountaineer coach sent this email: "I have reviewed the statement that Al Hmiel made and I have no knowledge of any of these events he described except that he was a graduate assistant at UC on my staff over 40 years ago. Therefore, I have no reason to have any further discussion about this."
Take the piece as you will. Were it published 35 years ago, perhaps it would have made bigger waves. Catlett is now 75 and long since retired.
Again, though, our duty is to keep you informed. Who knows, perhaps you're still trying to consider Catlett's place in WVU's history. Perhaps Sullivan's piece is kindling to consider while smoking out that place.
Catlett has certainly been a complicated character. There was the good, like when he rose from Hedgesville, played for WVU and helped the Mountaineers to two NCAA tournament berths. He joined the coaching ranks and soared, first serving for legends like Lefty Driesell, Ted Owens and Adolph Rupp before lighting up UC as head coach.
There was the bad, like the aforementioned scorched path left when he moved from Cincy to WVU.
There was the good in Morgantown, like the average of 19 wins, eight NCAA tournament trips and 1998 Sweet 16 appearance.
Then there was the bad, like how Catlett bolted from WVU in February of 2002, with the Mountaineers mired in the worst season of his 30-year career.
There was the good, like when Catlett's 1982-83 team downed No. 1 UNLV and when his 1997-98 team defeated Bob Huggins' Cincinnati team in Boise, Idaho, to make the aforementioned Sweet 16.
Then there was the bad, like when the New York Times' Pete Thamel wrote an expose on former WVU player Jonathan Hargett, who claimed he chose Morgantown "because he was offered $20,000." (The newspaper went on to say "payments from West Virginia to Hargett could not be independently verified, and coaches and officials who were at West Virginia at the time deny knowledge of payment. Catlett specifically denied payments to the newspaper.)
There was the good, like when Catlett and former Temple coach John Chaney sparred in the old Atlantic 10 days.
There was the bad, like the wake of Catlett's departure from WVU. Then-coach Dan Dakich was hired after Catlett before abruptly leaving. He told the Times there was a "culture of dishonesty that had been there for a while." WVU, however, conducted an internal review of the program, which went to the NCAA, and no wrongdoing was found on the part of the university.
There was the good, like how Catlett treated his close friends. There was even the funny, like his occasional wild clothing choices. Then there was the bad, like the way he could be cantankerous and dismissive with the media.
You call some coaches pepperpots. Catlett, on the other hand, was a boiling cauldron. You never knew what to expect. You never knew what all was in the stew.
Today, almost 14 years after his departure, stories are still being written that touch upon the former coach. Now, will anything come from the stories and accusations? No. Not now. Maybe one day WVU's administration will quietly take down the "Gale Catlett Drive" sign at the Coliseum. That, however, would be it.
It's almost 2016. Catlett's career 565 victories will stand. All that's left is for history to judge the coach's reign at WVU and beyond. Perhaps in your mind that's still being shaped.
In my mind, though, the page was turned and the book shut on that a long, long time ago.