More Price

[50's PONY]

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Posted on Thu, May. 06, 2004



Disgraced coach back in business

By Wendell Barnhouse
Star-Telegram Staff Writer


EL PASO TIMES/VICTOR CALZADA
After an embarrassing fall at Alabama, Mike Price hopes to get UT-El Paso pointed in the right direction.



EL PASO - Bob Stull had just hired Mike Price as UT-El Paso's football coach. It was December and the athletic director was giving his new employee a quick driving tour of his new town.

Give Stull credit for making what he calls a "high risk, high reward" hire -- and for not having a traffic accident when Price posed an innocent question. He asked Stull about what appeared to be an eating establishment named Prince Machiavelli's.

Stull paused, gulped and calmly told Price, "You might want to avoid going there."

There are no innocent questions when you've been convicted in the court of public opinion. Prince Machiavelli's is a former steak house where the only strips ordered now involve women, clothes and dollar bills. Asked recently about his hard-to-believe inquiry, Price grinned ruefully.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that's pretty ironic," he said.

A year ago this week, Price was dismissed as Alabama's coach after four months on the job.

Last April, Price admittedly had too much to drink at a social function the night before a charity golf outing in Pensacola, Fla. He wound up in Arety's Angels, a strip club owned by an Auburn booster. Price said recently that all he did was sit at the bar and talk to the bartender.

A fully dressed Price woke up the next morning feeling like Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend. An Arety's Angels waitress had helped him to his room.

But then a couple of strippers -- one with the apt stage name of "Destiny" -- started telling stories about a wild sex party where Price had supposedly, and infamously, yelled, "It's rolling, baby." Both women have recanted the stories, which were related in a Sports Illustrated article.

The damage, though, was done. Despite support for Price from players and athletic director Mal Moore, Alabama President (and former UT-Arlington president) Robert Witt fired Price on May 3.

"What was reported was so grossly exaggerated," Price said. "What I really did ... I'm looking at coaches that did a hell of a lot worse than I did, guys cheating on their wives.

"But [at Alabama] no one had my back. I was a Northerner. I hadn't signed my contract."

Price, who was dismissed before signing his $10 million Alabama contract, is suing Sports Illustrated for $20 million. A suit against Alabama has been dismissed.

Price, who was 83-77 in 14 seasons at Washington State, is now trying to restore his reputation at UTEP, the Fort Apache of the college sports world.

"We're going to do it here, there's no question about that," said Price, who now works for an athletic department that has made $20 million worth of facilities improvements over the past four years. "This is a great opportunity for me here. I'm going to make the best of this situation.

"It's fun to be wanted."

Another chance

H&H Car Wash and Coffee Shop is to El Paso what Floyd's Barbershop was to Mayberry. Folks come in for breakfast (try the huevos rancheros) at the 10-seat counter while their car is washed. And owner Maynard Haddad will fill you in on the Miners.

"UTEP sports means a lot to this community, it gives us an identity," said Haddad, who along with his brother Ken cooks burgers for postgame tailgate parties for the coaching staff and their families. "[Price] has the town fired up.

"I told him how grateful I was that he messed up [at Alabama]. A lot of us figure that's the only way we could ever hire a coach of his stature."

When Stull, the former coach at UTEP and Missouri, fired Gary Nord after last season, his list of potential replacements included former Arizona coach [deleted] Tomey, former UCLA coach Bob Toledo and five top coordinators. And then there was Mike Price, whom Stull has known for 20 years.

Arizona President Peter Likins didn't even give Price a chance to be interviewed for that school's coaching vacancy. UTEP President Diana Natalicio wasn't dismissive.

"She kind of raised her eyebrows a little bit," Stull said, talking of when he floated Price's name. "She reacted the way any president would react initially."

And when Natalicio met Price for an interview in Phoenix, she asked tough questions.

"I asked him if this baggage was going to get heavier, and if it is, I have a problem," Natalicio said. "I admired how he took responsibility for having done something stupid. I admired that."

Stull investigated Price's one-night transgression and believed much of what was written didn't happen.

"It wasn't his best night, that's for sure," Stull said.

When Stull said he wanted to hire Price, Natalicio supported the decision.

"He was forthcoming about his desire to rebuild his career," she said. "I don't believe one incident in anyone's life ought to condemn them forever.

"We needed an injection of the quality and stature he brings as a coach, and he wanted to redeem himself. It's a really nice fit, a confluence of motivations."

A new man

The 57-year-old Price is a new man. He got in shape, losing 30 pounds. He had LASIK surgery and no longer wears glasses. He received counseling for depression. And he's moved out of his wife's doghouse.

"Oh yeah, oh yeah, she's got one of those," Price chuckled. "She knew what was reported wasn't true, but she didn't like me being in that situation ... and I didn't either."

Whatever the private conversations and admissions between Price and his wife, Joyce, following the Pensacola incident, all is apparently forgiven.

The Prices spent much of last season traveling the country in an RV. Hours alone on an interstate either bonds or breaks. And when you go from buzzing around in Alabama's Learjet to searching for cheap KOA campgrounds, the relationship either dissolves or strengthens.

"We thought we had a close family before, but this has brought us even closer," Price said.

Price spent last season watching and waiting. He was a couch potato football viewer. He polished his résumé and remained optimistic about receiving a second chance. He applied for openings at Army and Duke.

"I'm a pretty positive guy, and I thought I'd get another chance. But the doubt stays in your mind," said Price, who, in home visits to more than 30 recruits, said he has never been asked about his Alabama dismissal. "For me, this is a little bit about redemption.

"I want to make Bob and Dr. Natalicio proud, make them say, 'Yeah, we were right.'"

'A positive role model'

Price hired a staff -- which includes his sons Eric and Aaron -- that has 50 bowl appearances on its collective résumé. That experience gives confidence to a team that has three victories over Division I-A teams over the past three seasons.

As part of the attitude adjustment, Price tried to take advantage of the excitement created by UTEP's basketball team. He had copies made of the newspaper when the Miners won the Western Athletic Conference championship, then added his own inspirational comment -- "This will be us. M.P." Each player has that tacked up in his locker.

"We've all screwed up and seeing his attitude, him understanding this is his second chance, he's a positive role model," said sophomore quarterback Jordan Palmer, the younger brother of Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer. "In the past, we've had individual confidence. Now we've got team confidence."

About 45 minutes before the kickoff of the Miners' spring game on April 24, the Sun Bowl public address system was rolling through its taped rock and roll repertoire. Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama provided yet another ironic milepost in Mike Price's year-long journey.

"I heard that just as I was walking to the field," Price said. "I said to myself, 'Holy crap.' I mean, how ironic was that?"

In the 'Bama Nation, Price is the coach who added yet another embarrassing black eye to a program that has had its immense pride skewered. But in this far West Texas outpost, Price wears a white hat, the new sheriff in town.

"We're just happy and proud that he's here," Haddad said. "He's already a hero to us."

Price's journey

A look at Mike Price's yearlong roller coaster that led him from Washington State to Alabama to UT-El Paso.

Dec. 18, 2002

Hired as coach at Alabama.

Jan 1, 2003

Coaches his final game at Washington State, a 34-14 loss to Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl.

April 25, 2003

Rumors surface in Internet chat rooms about Price's alleged conduct the night before a pro-am golf tournament in Pensacola, Fla., on April 16.

May 3, 2003

Fired as coach at Alabama.

Dec. 21, 2003

Hired as coach at UT-El Paso.


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Wendell Barnhouse, (817) 390-7760 wbarnhouse@star-telegram.com





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