AP Wire

Judge to rule on former football coach’s suit against UL

by The Associated Press

Jerry Baldwin, who was UL Lafayette's first black head football coach, compiled a record of six wins and 27 losses in three seasons.

An attorney for UL Lafayette has asked a Baton Rouge judge to dismiss former head football coach Jerry Baldwin's claim that the school fired him in 2001 because he is black.

But Baldwin's lawyer, who wants another trial, argued that just because one East Baton Rouge Parish jury couldn't reach a decision doesn't mean a different jury can't come to a conclusion on his racial discrimination claim.

The Advocate reports state District Judge Todd Hernandez, who presided over the March jury trial of Baldwin's claim, said he will consider the oral arguments presented to him Thursday, as well as written arguments filed in the case.

Baldwin, who was UL Lafayette's first black head football coach, compiled a record of six wins and 27 losses in three seasons.

Larry Marino, one of the university's attorneys, told Hernandez that Baldwin's record was the worst in school history.

"This record was just terrible," he argued, adding that season ticket sales plummeted as a result. "The stands were increasingly empty, particularly in his final year."

Marino also said donors were refusing to give donations to the football program.

"Community support for the program was evaporating," he said.

Former UL President Ray Authement, who hired and fired Baldwin, "just didn't have another year to give him," Marino argued.

There is no evidence, he said, that Baldwin was fired because of the color of his skin.

"There's no connection at all," Marino told the judge. "Nothing ties this to race."

Baldwin's attorney, former UL football player Karl Bernard, countered that while there was no evidence of racial slurs or epithets in the case, the jury "could not agree on what actually happened."

"The jury has already spoken," Bernard argued. "Maybe we have to do a better job in presenting our evidence."

Bernard contends Baldwin inherited a bad team and was not expected to immediately turn the struggling program around.