How could a man who has made a career out of mentoring young men, who has made a career out of growing and maturing young men into real life, who has made a career out of teaching young men not to lack any ounce of common sense or decency? I still cannot fathom it today. The closest I could come to was accepting what he did as fact. For the last five years, I have tried to fathom what Bliss did I really have. As a role model, Dave Bliss makes post-Clemson Woody Hayes look saintly. Dave Bliss ordered his students to lie about their ex-teammate, in the middle of all their grief, because he was concerned about his own career. Dave Bliss ordered, not told or suggested like many media outlets have translated the story to convey, but ordered his players and an assistant coach to say that Dennehy had paid for his education through dealing drugs if approached by the media. It wasn't until after his resignation, on August 16th, that it was made public just what he asked his players and an assistant coach to do. Finally, on August 8th, 2003, one day after Dennehy was buried, Bliss admitted to giving Dennehy money and resigned. Rumors started flying that these players had received money, but Bliss denied it. He provided money to Dennehy and Corey Herring to cover costs not paid for by financial aid. The truth? Dennehy paid for his education through a scholarship provided by Dave Bliss that was in excess to the twelve that the school was allowed to give for men's basketball. Bliss was the man who on July 30th ordered his players and an assistant coach to lie to the media and say that Dennehy paid for his education through dealing drugs. Sure, he cannot coach again in collegiate athletics until 2013, and I would be almost as shocked as I would be horrified if any institution that claims to provide higher learning would bring him in as a basketball coach. To this day, Dave Bliss remains a free man, at least in terms of the law. Nearly five years after the murder, the other criminal walks free. Nearly two years after the murder, on June 5th, 2005, Carlton Dotson pleaded guilty to charges of murdering Patrick Dennehy and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. On July 30th, an autopsy confirmed that it was likely a homicide. The body was found decomposing outside of Waco on July 25th, two days after Dotson was charged with the murder. Somewhere during this time, Dotson told his cousin that he had murdered Dennehy. A further two days was all that was needed to find his car. Four days later, an affidavit was filed for a search warrant for Dennehy's computer. On June 19th, a report was filed with the Waco police that Dennehy was missing. The fact that he could not get through to his son or to anyone who knew where his son was troubled him further. Dennehy's step-father noticed something was not right when his son did not contact him on Father's Day. Somehow, that was not the cruelest part of the story. He then drove Dennehy's car up to Virginia, abandoned it, and returned home to Hurlock, Md. ![]() Dave Bliss was the head coach Sometime on either June 14th or 15th, Dotson murdered Dennehy with a bullet to the head outside of Waco. If you have chosen to forget it, and trust me again when I say that is the only way to forget it, Patrick Dennehy was a rising junior on the Baylor men's basketball team Carlton Dotson a rising senior, although he had lost his scholarship. Nothing extraordinary happened in the story on July 10th, 2003, and that is exactly why it is the best day to remember it: To pick any of the other days would be to single out one event as the central point of what became the worst scandal in American collegiate athletics history. Finally, I could have waited until July 30th, August 8th, or August 16th, all dates referring to Baylor men's head basketball coach Dave Bliss.
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