Alford’s apology sparks reaction by UCLA, Iowa communities

The graphic accompanying this article is an extended version of the one that ran in the print newspaper.

On Nov. 19, 2002, the Iowa men’s basketball team played an exhibition at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes were beginning a season-long battle toward the NCAA tournament, but another battle was taking place outside.

Roughly 120 fans gathered near the building’s south entrance in protest of the University of Iowa and coach Steve Alford’s support of star guard Pierre Pierce amid his sexual assault case.

The protesters chanted, “No means no, Alford must go,” and “Hey hey, ho ho, Pierre Pierce has got to go,” and made several signs calling for Alford’s job.

Now 11 years later, Iowa fans are still incredulous over Alford’s actions, which they say have left a bitter aftertaste.

A 2003 investigation by the University of Iowa found that Alford mishandled the incident, but he did not publicly apologize until questions reemerged about his management of the case once he became head coach of the men’s basketball team at UCLA.

Members of the Iowa community who were around during Alford’s tenure reacted sharply to the apology, which was released last Thursday, in recent interviews. Many said the delay of the apology was somewhat puzzling.

“My first thought was, ‘why 12 or whatever years later?’” said University of Iowa pediatrician Dr. R. Erik Edens, who signed anti-Alford petitions back in 2002. “(Alford) really didn’t seem too concerned about things while he was here. It really seemed more about winning basketball games than it was about anything related to integrity.”

In early October 2002, Pierce had been arrested and charged with third-degree sexual assault, a felony, but because of a plea bargain was able to negotiate a lesser charge of assault causing injury, a misdemeanor. Through the plea deal, he was only required to complete one year of probation and 200 hours of community service before the charge was expunged from his record.

Though Pierce was forced to take a redshirt year in 2002-2003, he remained on scholarship and his coach stood behind him, a move that angered many Iowa fans.

“I think that it being such a high-profile case, it just brought a lot of the issues regarding gender politics and protection of athletes,” said Jill Moffett, a graduate student at the University of Iowa at the time who helped organize the demonstration. “This culture of sports on the university campus can tend to be sort of dismissive of the masculinity that can cause the grounds for these kinds of things.”

In the days following the protest, students, faculty and many others in the Iowa community, including several members of the university’s Women’s Resource and Action Center, presented the interim president of the university with petitions that contained more than 3,000 signatures.

“The petition … expressed disappointment in the way the case had been handled and the way this has happened, pointing out specific statements from coach Alford as sending a chilling message for victims,” said Linda Stewart Kroon, current director of Iowa’s WRAC.

Alford’s rhetoric remained the same in the months following the incident.

In a January 2003 interview with a CBS Chicago radio show, Alford again came to the defense of his then-redshirted guard and said Pierce had “done a tremendous job of handling things.”

Alford officially dismissed his troubled guard from the Iowa basketball team in February 2005, when Pierce again was named the subject of a West Des Moines police investigation.

Alford left Iowa in 2007 to become the head coach of the University of New Mexico, where his handling of the Pierce case did not seem to follow him.

He led the Lobos to three Mountain West Conference regular season championships in six seasons before receiving a call from UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero.

After shirking a question about his handling of the Pierce case during his first press conference as the Bruins’ head coach two weeks ago, many in the UCLA and Iowa communities pressed for an apology. Last week, Alford released a written statement about the case.

“At that time, I instinctively and mistakenly came to (Pierce’s) defense before knowing all the facts,” Alford said in the statement. “This was inappropriate, insensitive and hurtful, especially to the young female victim involved, and I apologize for that.”

Robert Burchfield, a 1972 Iowa alumnus who was among the protesters in 2002, said the apology appeared artificial but was the right move.

“I do not think it was sincere,” Burchfield said. “But even though it’s disingenuous, it’s needed.”