{{Short description|American basketball coach}} {{pp-move}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}} {{Infobox college coach | name = Bernie Fine | image = Bernie Fine in 2010.jpg | alt = | caption = Fine in 2010 | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1945|12|23}} | birth_place = Brooklyn, New York | death_date = | death_place = | alma_mater = Syracuse (1967) | coach_years1 = 1970–1971 | coach_team1 = Lincoln Junior HS | coach_years2 = 1971–1976 | coach_team2 = Henninger HS (junior varsity) | coach_years3 = 1976–2011 | coach_team3 = Syracuse (associate HC) | overall_record = | bowl_record = | tournament_record = | championships = | awards = | coaching_records = }} '''Bernard Arthur Fine''' (born December 23, 1945) is a former associate head basketball coach for the Syracuse Orange men's basketball team and founding member of the Jewish Coaches Association.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bernie Fine fired amid abuse allegations|url=https://www.espn.com/new-york/story/_/id/7288286/bernie-fine-fired-syracuse-orange-amid-molestation-allegations|access-date=28 November 2011|publisher=ESPN New York|date=11 November 2011}}</ref>
In 2011, Fine was fired after being accused of sexual abuse of 2 former Syracuse ballboys, both of whom were stepbrothers, while according to other reports at the time, Fine had also allegedly molested two other boys in the years following the first two reports.
==Early coaching career== Fine started his coaching career as a student-manager in 1963, when Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim played at SU with NBA Hall-of-Famer Dave Bing. Fine graduated from Syracuse University in 1967 with a B.S. in personnel and industrial relations, and went into business.
In 1970, he assumed the basketball and football coaching positions at Lincoln Junior High School. The following year, he went to Henninger High School in Syracuse, New York, as the junior varsity basketball coach from 1971 to 1974, before taking over as varsity coach. When Boeheim became head coach at Syracuse University in 1976, he hired Fine and Rick Pitino as assistants.<ref name="suthathletics"/>
==College coaching career== During his coaching career, Fine was named the president of the Central New York Kidney Foundation; a faculty adviser for a social fraternity, Sigma Alpha Mu; an adviser for an honor society, Phi Kappa Alpha; and has been involved with the Boys Club and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/uwire/022206aaz.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524205402/http://www.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/uwire/022206aaz.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 24, 2011 |title=Bernie Fine has spent 30 seasons building bonds with SU players |publisher=Cstv.com |date= |accessdate=2012-03-07}}</ref>
Fine was responsible for coaching Syracuse's forwards and centers, including Rony Seikaly, Etan Thomas and John Wallace. In 2000, Fine was promoted to associate head coach. In the 2001–02 season, he assumed head coaching responsibilities for three games when Boeheim had health problems.<ref name=suthathletics>{{cite web|url=http://suathletics.com/coaches.aspx?rc=406&path=mbasket |title=Bernie Fine |publisher=Syracuse University|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111124133657/http://suathletics.com/coaches.aspx?rc=406&path=mbasket|archivedate=November 24, 2011 |date= |accessdate=2012-03-07}}</ref>
Fine also coached U.S. Maccabiah team to a silver medal at the 1993 World Maccabiah Games in Israel. In 2002, he participated in The Blackfeet Native Skill-Builder Hoop Clinic, a basketball seminar conducted on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana.<ref name=suthathletics />
At the time of Fine's dismissal from Syracuse in 2011, after a 36-year career he led all active Division I assistant coaches in tenure at their schools.<ref>[http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/bernie_fines_firing_marks_the.html Bernie Fine's firing marks the end of more than 35 years as an assistant | syracuse.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
==Sexual abuse allegations and termination== Two step-brothers and two others alleged that Fine had molested them years earlier. The two others later recanted and admitted that they had fabricated their stories. In 2012, after an investigation federal prosecutors announced Fine would not be charged.<ref name=autogenerated1>[http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/fine.html "Bernie Fine investigation ends with no charges against fired SU coach" | syracuse.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
In November 2011 two step-brothers who were former Syracuse University ball boys alleged on ESPN's ''Outside the Lines'' program that they had been molested by Fine from the late 1970s to the 1990s.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> Fine and head men's basketball coach Boeheim denied the charges. Because the incidents occurred over 10 years prior, District Attorney William Fitzpatrick indicated that the statute of limitations would probably bar any prosecution.<ref>{{cite web|author=Mike McAndrew / The Post-Standard |url=http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/bernie_fine.html |title=Syracuse University assistant coach Bernie Fine accused of sexual abuse; university places him on leave |publisher=syracuse.com |date= 18 November 2011|accessdate=2012-03-07}}</ref> Syracuse University placed Fine on administrative leave and said it would cooperate fully with the investigation.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/syracuse-chancellors-letter-to-alumni/2011/11/19/gIQAf08bbN_blog.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=Syracuse chancellor's letter to alumni | date=November 19, 2011 | first=Valerie | last=Strauss}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/7248184/syracuse-police-investigating-bernie-fine-molesting-boy-1980s |title=Syracuse police investigating Bernie Fine about molesting boy in 1980s |publisher=ESPN|date=2011-11-18 |access-date=2012-03-07}}</ref>
Subsequently, a third and then a fourth person claimed to have been molested by Fine in 2002 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The United States Secret Service searched Fine's house and seized file cabinets, computers, and other potential evidence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/third_accuser_says_su_coach_be.html |title=Third accuser says Syracuse coach Bernie Fine sexually abused him as child |publisher=syracuse.com |date= 27 November 2011|accessdate=2012-03-07}}</ref> The investigation included more than 150 interviews with 130 witnesses, and a review of more than 100,000 pages of documents that included emails, travel records, financial records, computer records, and phone records.<ref name=autogenerated1 />
On November 27, 2011, Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor fired Fine in response to the allegations.<ref name=cnn112711>{{cite news | url=http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/27/justice/syracuse-coach-allegations/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 |title=Syracuse basketball coach fired amid sex abuse investigation |publisher=CNN |date=November 27, 2011 |accessdate=November 27, 2011}}</ref> Cantor said she made her decision after ESPN released a tape of a 2002 phone conversation between one of the former ballboys, Bobby Davis, and Fine's wife Laurie. In the tape, Laurie claimed she knew about her husband's behavior, but felt powerless to stop it.<ref name=cnn112711 /> In response to a ''USA Today'' editorial calling for an explanation for why it kept Fine on the job in 2005, Cantor said that had Syracuse known about the tape at any point prior to November 27, Fine would have been fired on the spot.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/story/2011-11-30/Syracuse-tape-Nancy-Cantor/51513396/1 |title=Syracuse chancellor: We didn't know of the tape until Sunday|author=Cantor, Nancy |publisher=USA Today |date=30 November 2011 |accessdate=30 November 2011}}</ref>
On April 13, 2012, one of Fine's accusers said he "fabricated everything" and had never even met Fine.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/13/justice/new-york-zach-tomaselli/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 |title=Man says his allegations about Bernie Fine sex abuse were lies |work=CNN |first=Ronni |last=Berke |date=April 13, 2012 |accessdate=April 14, 2012}}</ref>
Ultimately, two of his accusers, Zach Tomaselli (who was serving a 39-month prison sentence for molesting a teenage boy, and who admitted he lied about Fine partly as payback for SU beating Tomaselli's favorite team, Kansas, for the national title in 2003) and Floyd Van Hooser (who was serving 17 years to life in state prison for repeated robberies), admitted that they lied when they made child-molesting claims against Fine.<ref name=autogenerated1 /><ref>[http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/bernie_fine_fourth_accuser_floyd_vanhooser_recants.html "Bernie Fine's fourth accuser, Floyd VanHooser, recants: 'I told a lot of lies'" | syracuse.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
On November 9, 2012, federal prosecutors announced Fine would not be charged regarding the criminal investigation of child molesting accusations.<ref>{{cite web|title=Former Syracuse basketball coach Bernie Fine won't be charged|date=9 November 2012 |url=http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/former_syracuse_basketball_coa.html|publisher=The Post Standard|accessdate=9 November 2012}}</ref> Nevertheless, the case cost Fine his job, turned him into a recluse, and forced him to put his house up for sale.<ref name=autogenerated1 />
It was announced on March 29, 2013, that Fine intended to file a defamation of character suit against ESPN in regard to how it handled the story.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/29/justice/new-york-former-coach-suing-espn | work=CNN | title=Ex-Syracuse coach to sue ESPN | date=March 29, 2013}}</ref> During the lawsuit, it was discovered that two ESPN executives (including the editor-in-chief of ESPN) "criticized the network's reporting on the story and said it went against ESPN's internal guidelines" in publicizing uncharged claims.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2015/11/19/espn-executives-said-network-lowered-the-bar-in-bernie-fine-reporting/ "ESPN executives said network 'lowered the bar' in Bernie Fine reporting" – The Washington Post<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In March 2016, a federal judge dismissed a libel lawsuit filed by Fine's wife, Laurie, against ESPN over the television network's reporting.<ref>{{cite news|last1=O'Brien|first1=John|title=Bernie Fine case done: His wife's libel lawsuit against ESPN is dismissed|url=http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/03/bernie_fine_case_done_his_wifes_libel_lawsuit_against_espn_is_dismissed.html|accessdate=28 March 2016|publisher=Syracuse.com|date=26 March 2016}}</ref>
==After Syracuse == In August 2015 Syracuse and Boeheim settled a slander lawsuit brought by the former ball boys, regarding the coach's statement that the step-brothers were lying and were out for money by exploiting the Penn State sex abuse scandal.<ref>{{cite news|title=Syracuse, Jim Boeheim settle slander lawsuit brought by former ball boys|url=https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/13389798/syracuse-jim-boeheim-settle-defamation-lawsuit-brought-bernie-fine-accusers-bobby-davis-mike-lang|access-date=28 March 2016|agency=Associated Press|publisher=ESPN|date=6 August 2015}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{2003 Syracuse Orangemen basketball navbox}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fine, Bernie}} Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:Basketball coaches from New York (state) Category:American men's basketball players Category:Basketball players from New York City Category:College basketball controversies in the United States Category:High school basketball coaches in New York (state) Category:High school football coaches in New York (state) Category:Jewish American basketball coaches Category:Sports coaches from Brooklyn Category:Syracuse Orange men's basketball coaches Category:Child sexual abuse in the United States Category:Syracuse University alumni Category:Jews from New York (state) Category:20th-century American sportsmen Category:Violence against men in the United States