UNLV Told to Pay Legal Fees for Tarkanian’s Fight With NCAA

Nevada Las Vegas has been ordered to pay $196,000 in legal fees incurred by former basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian in his long, bitter battle with the NCAA.

State District Court Judge Jack Lehman issued the order Thursday, closing another chapter of a legal battle that began in 1977 when the NCAA placed the school on two years probation and ordered Tarkanian suspended for two years.

The school served the probation and attempted to suspend Tarkanian. But the coach went to court to preserve his job.

The late District Judge Paul Goldman told the NCAA to pay 90% of Tarkanian’s legal costs and UNLV 10%.

The NCAA appealed the Goldman ruling all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it won on a 5-4 vote in 1988.

The 1991-92 UNLV team was banned from TV and postseason play as a final resolution of the Tarkanian-NCAA case.

Tarkanian resigned at the end of the season, and is head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.

The Tarkanian settlement isn’t the end of the legal fees for the university.

School legal counsel Brad Booke projected earlier this year that UNLV could pay as much as $750,000 in legal fees amassed by coaches and others involved in ongoing legal battles between UNLV and the NCAA.