Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Syracuse Coach Fired Over Sex Accusations

FIred From Orange: Longtime Syracuse University basketball assistant Bernie Fine was fired after a new tape surfaced that bolstered child molestation accusations. Image by getty images

Syracuse University basketball coach Bernie Fine was fired Sunday as new details emerged about sex abuse allegations against the longtime assistant.

Fine, a senior assistant to head coach Jim Boeheim and founding member of the Jewish Coaches Association, was dumped after a tape surfaced in which Fine’s wife appeared to back up the claims by a former player that he was molested as a boy, ESPN and other outlets reported.

“Bernie has issues, maybe that he’s not aware of, but he has issues,” Laurie Fine told accuser Bobby Davis in a 2003 call. “And you trusted somebody you shouldn’t have trusted.”

Davis had gone to police about the accusations before but the statute of limitations had expired. Local newspapers got tips about the alleged abuse but were unable to confirm it.

The story heated up again when Davis reiterated the accusations in the wake of the Penn State child abuse scandal this fall.

Boeheim initially stood by Fine strongly, asserting that Davis concocted the accusations for financial gain and that he was “not Joe Paterno,” a reference to the Penn State football coach. He was forced to backtrack from those statements after Fine’s firing, saying that he “deeply regretted” them.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.