SALON

Wednesday, Dec 5, 2012 3:30 AM UTC

Tulsa fires athletic director over gambling probe

By

Topics: From the Wires,

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Tulsa athletic director Ross Parmley was fired Tuesday, a week after he was named in a federal investigation of a man accused of running a gambling operation in Oklahoma City.

Tulsa President Steadman Upham released a letter to students and faculty of the private university Tuesday night, saying Parmley “admitted he had not been truthful” about his role in the mess when he told him in October 2011 that he was cooperating in an FBI investigation.

Parmley was publicly linked last month with the investigation into Teddy Mitchell. In recently unsealed court documents, Parmley is described as an “admitted gambler with Mitchell.”

Mitchell is scheduled for trial in April.

Upham said Parmley told him last year he wasn’t personally involved in the root of the investigation.

“At that time, Ross told me that his involvement was solely due to a family connection to the person being investigated,” Upham said in the letter.

That conversation took place when Parmley was still interim athletic director. He became athletic director in January despite the investigation, which has since drawn the attention of the NCAA.

The university says it is cooperating with the NCAA probe.

A lawyer for Parmley didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press seeking comment. After Parmley was placed on leave, his attorney, Derek Chance, said Parmley was cooperating with investigators and that he wasn’t a target of the FBI.

Upham says he discussed with Parmley the scope of his involvement in any gambling.

“For obvious reasons, I specifically asked Ross if he had ever gambled on college or professional sports. He told me that friendly wagers during personal golf games constituted the extent of his betting activities. I took Ross at his word, as I had no reason to believe there had been any acts of impropriety or non-compliance,” Upham said.

The 39-year-old Parmley was placed on administrative leave Nov. 27.

“On Tuesday, Nov. 27, while I was out of the country, Ross admitted he had not been truthful in our 2011 conversation,” Parmley said. “He was immediately put on administrative leave and, at my direction, TU notified the NCAA. We subsequently launched our own internal investigation.”

Upham said the school is “cooperating fully with officials from the NCAA to comprehensively investigate this matter and bring it to a fair and proper conclusion. This a difficult time for TU and we realize that our reputation is at stake. We are determined to uncover the whole truth in every aspect of this case.”

Upham noted that he and his wife are on a trip through South America, but pledged to remain in close contact with administrators, university trustees and the NCAA.

Upham served as Tulsa’s president for eight years before retiring June 30 and accepting a teaching position at the university. He retook the helm in October after trustees fired Geoffrey Orsak.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
209 points210 points | 7 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
155 points156 points | comment
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
96 points97 points | 28 comments
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
48 points49 points | 8 comments
vote
With the help of Photoshop, artist Yao Lu has made shanshui — traditional ink paintings — of China's landfills
24 points25 points | 1 comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations