The fear of game forfeitures has passed, and Art Briles’ legacy seems to be more or less in tact. If the controversial coach doesn’t seem nervous, it’s because he’s been through all of this before.
The year was 1994 and Art Briles was coaching at Stephenville High School. His team was entering a new season after clinching a Class 4A state championship the previous year. Pre-season polls by The Dallas Morning News and the Associated Press had the team ranked at No. 2.
But a letter from an ex-employee threatened to take it all away.
The letter was sent to the University Interscholastic League by an attorney representing C.E. Carmichael, a former Stephenville girls basketball with a career record of 129-33 in his 5 years with the team. Carmichael alleged 10 violations of UIL rules by Briles and his program, including steroid abuse, pressuring teachers to change grades, and a charge that the Stephenville booster club had purchased a truck for Briles. If one or more of the allegations proved true, Stephenville could be stripped of its 1993 state title.
Briles himself remained tight-lipped about the letter and any pending investigations. “The school board has elected the superintendent as our spokesman,” Briles said when approached by The News for a comment on August 21, 1994. “I can’t really say anything else. But I’m looking forward to when I can comment.”
In the days after the letter was made public, Stephenville Independent School District superintendent Ben Gilbert rebuffed the charges in an eight-page letter to the UIL. At the time, University Interscholastic League athletic director Bill Farney seemed reluctant to launch an investigation into the charges. “We believe in the integrity of our school superintendents,” Farney told The News on August 24, 1994. “We have reviewed their responses and, unless additional evidence is submitted as soon as possible, we will not pursue it any further.”
Stephenville officials, however, seemed less confident of the program’s integrity, and asked the District 6-4A executive committee — comprised of representatives from Brownwood, Cleburne, Granbury, Joshua, Mineral Wells and Stephenville — to hold a meeting to address the allegations. Carmichael’s lawyer, Wayne Weaver, expressed his own skepticism about the committee’s intentions, as well as the decision to hold the meeting in Stephenville’s Administration Building. “I’m not sure the District 6-4A committee is really seeking the truth," he told The News the day before the meeting. “And I don’t think they’re going to get the truth in Stephenville.”
The meeting — presided over by Joshua superintendent Glenn Acker — lasted more than eight hours. In the end, Briles and his program received two private reprimands based on Carmichael’s allegations. Per UIL constitutions and contest rules, those reprimands were never made public. A disposition of findings stated that the committee was unable to substantiate the charges of steroid use. Committee members did not comment on the other allegations.
Perhaps worse than a reprimand, “the length of the meeting kept football coach Art Briles from attending practice.”
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