University of Oklahoma assistant head football coach Cale Gundy stepped down after repeatedly saying a ‘racially charged’ term to his players during a movie session and never over a single, mistaken utterance of the word, head coach Brent Venables has revealed.
Venables made his clarification on Monday after Gundy, a longtime Sooners assistant, announced his resignation for admittedly using ‘shameful’ language along with his players.
‘Coach Gundy resigned from this system because he knows what he did was improper,’ Venables said in his second statement on Gundy’s exit. ‘He selected to read aloud to his players, not once but multiple times, a racially charged word that’s objectionable to everyone, and doesn’t reflect the attitude and values of our university or our football program.
‘This is just not acceptable. Period. Coach Gundy did the suitable thing in resigning.’
Gundy, the brother of Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy, announced his resignation in a social media post, insisting that the offending word ‘was not malicious; it wasn’t it even intentional.’ The word Gundy used has not been revealed.
The incident took place during a recent film session when the assistant coach found one player distracted and searching at his iPad, Cale Gundy said in his statement. He then picked up the device and skim a word off the screen that he now acknowledges he ‘should never – under any circumstance – have uttered.’
Cale Gundy said he was ‘horrified’ upon realizing what he had said.
Nevertheless, Venables is now claiming that Cale said the word multiple times.
‘The unlucky reality is that somebody in my position may cause harm without ever intending to achieve this. In that circumstance, a person of character accepts accountability,’ Gundy said. ‘I take responsibility for my mistake. I apologize.’
Oklahoma assistant head football coach and former Sooners quarterback Cale Gundy (left) resigned Sunday after admitting to using ‘shameful’ language during a movie session last week. University of Oklahoma assistant head football coach Cale Gundy stepped down after repeatedly saying a ‘racially charged’ term to his players during a movie session and never over a single, mistaken utterance of the word, head coach Brent Venables (right) has revealed
Venables made his clarification on Monday after Gundy, a longtime Sooners assistant, announced his resignation after admittedly using ‘shameful’ language along with his players
Gundy was the Sooners’ quarterback from 1990 until 1993, ending with greater than 6,000 passing yards and 35 touchdowns. He’s also worked as an assistant coach on the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Now-former Sooners coach Bob Stoops hired Gundy to educate the team’s running backs in 1998 and he’s been with this system ever since.
Venables released an initial statement on Sunday, saying anyone connected with this system is ‘accountable’ for his or her actions.
‘It’s with sadness that I accept coach Gundy’s resignation,’ Venables said. ‘He’s dedicated greater than half his life to Oklahoma football and has served our program and university well. We’re thankful for that commitment.
‘The culture we’re constructing in our program relies on mutual respect. Our staff is here to develop successful student-athletes, but in addition young men of character. Because the leader of this program, it’s essential that we hold ourselves to the best standards as we model to our players the sort of men we would like them to grow to be.’
Gundy did get support from former Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon, who’s currently a starter for the Cincinnati Bengals.
‘… Coach Gundy is just not, and I repeat is just not a racist in any way nor has a racist bone in his body, mind or soul,’ Mixon wrote in an announcement posted on social media. ‘I grew up within the Bay area and went to highschool obviously in Oklahoma. I do know racists and have witnessed each obvious and discreet types of racism and have known and detested much more actual racist (sic). Coach Gundy is the farthest thing from one of these person.’
Gundy was the Sooners’ quarterback from 1990 until 1993, ending with greater than 6,000 passing yards and 35 touchdowns. He’s also worked as an assistant coach on the University of Alabama-Birmingham. He stepped down as an assistant coach in an announcement on Sunday (right)
Bengals running back and former Oklahoma star Joe Mixon defended Gundy in an announcement
Mixon defended Gundy in an announcement, saying his former coach is just not a racist
Offensive coordinator Cale Gundy of the Oklahoma Sooners greets his brother, head coach Mike Gundy of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, before their game at Boone Pickens Stadium on November 27, 2021 in Stillwater, Oklahoma
The Gundy family is accustomed to controversy.
Mike, who was the quarterback at rival Oklahoma State before becoming the Cowboys coach in 2005, was accused of directing the n-word at an African-American Colorado player in 1989.
Alfred Williams, a former star linebacker at Colorado and NFL player, retold the story to The Oklahoman in 2020, adding that he would really like an apology and hopes to see ‘some growth’ from Mike Gundy.
‘I keep in mind that it was the primary time that the University of Colorado beat Oklahoma State while I used to be there,’ Williams told The Oklahoman on Wednesday night. ‘It was an enormous win. It really was an enormous win.
‘And I remember Mike Gundy called me the N-word. That is what I remember.’
Because the accusations against Gundy resurfaced, so too did his denial from after the 41-17 loss
Alfred Williams, a former star linebacker at Colorado and NFL player, retold the story to The Oklahoman, adding that he would really like an apology and hopes to see ‘some growth’ from Gundy, whom he doesn’t need to be fired
Picture of then-OSU quarterback Mike Gundy (right) and teammate Hart Lee Dykes in 1988
An Oklahoma State athletic department spokesman told the Day by day Mail that Gundy wouldn’t comment on the accusation.
Williams’s allegations were corroborated by several teammates and himself following Colorado’s 41-17 win over the Cowboys in Stillwater, Oklahoma on November 12, 1989.
‘He said it to me and a few other guys on the sector,’ linebacker Kanavis McGhee told The Oklahoman on the time. ‘It got me real upset.
‘Here’s a man within the highlight on a regular basis, to say something like that is just not cool in any respect. All it did was fire us up.’
Williams, Bruce Young and Okland Salavea also reported the allegation to the media on the time.
Gundy denied it to reporters after the sport.
‘I didn’t say it,’ Gundy said. ‘It’s just not true. I have been here 4 years, and well over half of my friends are black.
‘I just didn’t say that; I would not say something like that.’
In keeping with a St. Louis Dispatch article from the sport, Gundy denied the accusations and told reporters that the Buffaloes players initiated the trash talking. He went on to inform the media to read a Sports Illustrated article about Colorado’s disciplinary problems throughout the football program.
In keeping with a St. Louis Dispatch article from the sport (left), Gundy denied the accusations and told reporters that the Buffaloes players initiated the trash talking. He went on to inform the media to read a Sports Illustrated article about Colorado’s disciplinary problems throughout the football program. Buffaloes teammates Alfred Williams, Kanavis McGhee Bruce Young and Okland Salavea reported the allegation to the media on the time, as seen on this 1989 article from The Oklahoman (right)
Speaking with the Oklahoman in 2020, Williams said he had not seen Gundy’s denial until this week.
‘If he denies that he said (that), I even have no less than 20 individuals who will vouch for what happened that day.
‘I’m a bit upset, because after 31 years I finally saw the story published in your papers out in Oklahoma,’ he continued, referring to The Oklahoman’s game story from 1989. ‘That was the primary time I saw among the responses to what I said.
‘Within the St. Louis Dispatch he said, ”Have a look at the University of Colorado and its players. They got rapists.”’
Williams, who played nine NFL seasons, is just not mentioned within the SI article and was not accused of any crime at Colorado.
Gundy became Oklahoma State’s offensive coordinator in 2001 and was promoted to the top coaching job at his alma mater in 2005. He has one Big 12 title and was named conference Coach of the 12 months in 2010.
