from the New York Times
Quintin Dailey, Gifted but Troubled Player, Dies at 49
By Douglas Martin
Quintin Dailey, a talented but troubled basketball player whose missteps, including a sexual assault conviction, contributed to the University of San Francisco’s decision to drop its storied basketball program for three years, died Monday in Las Vegas. He was 49.
The cause was hypertensive cardiovascular disease, a spokeswoman for the Clark County Coroner’s Office said.
Dailey broke scoring records and earned all-American honors at San Francisco, whose teams, led by the likes of Bill Russell and K. C. Jones, had won two consecutive N.C.A.A. championships and 60 consecutive games from 1954 to 1956 and 15 West Coast Athletic Conference championships.
Dailey, 6 feet 3 and 180 pounds, averaged 20.5 points a game in his three years and 25.2 as a junior. He broke Bill Cartwright’s team record for most points in a season, 717, scoring 755.
But Dailey’s aura was shattered in 1982 when he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a nursing student in a dormitory. The woman said he had been drunk and had threatened her with a weapon but did not rape her. A state court sentenced him to three years’ probation.
A document in the case revealed that Dailey had accepted $1,000 a month from a San Francisco booster for a summer job he did not have to do. The university had already been placed on probation for violating N.C.A.A. rules in the 1979-80 and 1980-81 basketball seasons. For the university, the Dailey revelation “was the last straw,” said Dan Johnson, a lawyer for the university.
In announcing the termination of intercollegiate basketball in July 1982, the Rev. John Lo Schiavo, president of the university, a Jesuit institution, said the program had become perceived as “hypocritical or naïve or inept or duplicitous, or perhaps some combination of these.”
He added, “All the legitimate purposes of an athletic program in an educational institution are being distorted by the athletic program as it developed.”
Basketball returned to the University of San Francisco three years later.
Dailey said he had pleaded guilty to the assault charge mainly to get the matter out of the way before the N.B.A. draft, which was being held three days later. After the Chicago Bulls made him their first draft pick, he told reporters that he had pleaded guilty only to stay out of jail, that he felt no remorse and that he had “forgotten” the whole episode.
The next year, in 1983, he was forced to remember. He settled a suit by the nursing student who had accused him of the assault, Vickie Brick, by paying her $100,000 and publicly apologizing.
Nevertheless, women’s groups protested his arrival in Chicago; anonymous callers threatened his life, apartment complexes turned him down as a resident and fans booed him everywhere.
“I can’t help believing that if Dailey weren’t a basketball player, if he were just another creep off the street, he would still be learning what a chamber of horrors the halls of justice can be,” John Schulian, a columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times, wrote.
Dailey responded by making the N.B.A.’s 1982-83 all-rookie team. Over a 10-year N.B.A. career with four teams, he averaged 14.1 points a game. His most productive year was 1985-86, when he averaged 16.3 points a game for the Bulls. After four seasons with Chicago, he played for the Los Angeles Clippers, the Seattle SuperSonics and the Los Angeles Lakers.
He had problem upon problem, many self-induced. He missed practices and games, gained 30 pounds in a single season, twice violated the league’s drug policy, once attempted suicide and took leaves of absence for psychiatric care.
“I had to learn life by trial and error as I went along,” he said in a 1988 interview with The Los Angeles Times. “I erred a lot.”
Quintin Dailey was born on Jan. 22, 1961, in Baltimore. His parents died within a month of each other when he was teenager. A stellar basketball player in high school, he was recruited by more than 200 colleges. At San Francisco, he majored in communications and was a campus disc jockey.
Dailey’s marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by his daughter, Quinci, and his son, Quinton Jr., who is a guard on the Eastern Michigan University basketball team.
Dailey, whose last job was as a supervisor for the Clark County Parks Department in Nevada, had a penchant for pungent quotes. In 1985, he complained to The Chicago Tribune that Bulls coaches favored Michael Jordan over him.
“I’m a player who likes to shine a little bit myself,” he said.
By Douglas Martin
Quintin Dailey, a talented but troubled basketball player whose missteps, including a sexual assault conviction, contributed to the University of San Francisco’s decision to drop its storied basketball program for three years, died Monday in Las Vegas. He was 49.
The cause was hypertensive cardiovascular disease, a spokeswoman for the Clark County Coroner’s Office said.
Dailey broke scoring records and earned all-American honors at San Francisco, whose teams, led by the likes of Bill Russell and K. C. Jones, had won two consecutive N.C.A.A. championships and 60 consecutive games from 1954 to 1956 and 15 West Coast Athletic Conference championships.
Dailey, 6 feet 3 and 180 pounds, averaged 20.5 points a game in his three years and 25.2 as a junior. He broke Bill Cartwright’s team record for most points in a season, 717, scoring 755.
But Dailey’s aura was shattered in 1982 when he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a nursing student in a dormitory. The woman said he had been drunk and had threatened her with a weapon but did not rape her. A state court sentenced him to three years’ probation.
A document in the case revealed that Dailey had accepted $1,000 a month from a San Francisco booster for a summer job he did not have to do. The university had already been placed on probation for violating N.C.A.A. rules in the 1979-80 and 1980-81 basketball seasons. For the university, the Dailey revelation “was the last straw,” said Dan Johnson, a lawyer for the university.
In announcing the termination of intercollegiate basketball in July 1982, the Rev. John Lo Schiavo, president of the university, a Jesuit institution, said the program had become perceived as “hypocritical or naïve or inept or duplicitous, or perhaps some combination of these.”
He added, “All the legitimate purposes of an athletic program in an educational institution are being distorted by the athletic program as it developed.”
Basketball returned to the University of San Francisco three years later.
Dailey said he had pleaded guilty to the assault charge mainly to get the matter out of the way before the N.B.A. draft, which was being held three days later. After the Chicago Bulls made him their first draft pick, he told reporters that he had pleaded guilty only to stay out of jail, that he felt no remorse and that he had “forgotten” the whole episode.
The next year, in 1983, he was forced to remember. He settled a suit by the nursing student who had accused him of the assault, Vickie Brick, by paying her $100,000 and publicly apologizing.
Nevertheless, women’s groups protested his arrival in Chicago; anonymous callers threatened his life, apartment complexes turned him down as a resident and fans booed him everywhere.
“I can’t help believing that if Dailey weren’t a basketball player, if he were just another creep off the street, he would still be learning what a chamber of horrors the halls of justice can be,” John Schulian, a columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times, wrote.
Dailey responded by making the N.B.A.’s 1982-83 all-rookie team. Over a 10-year N.B.A. career with four teams, he averaged 14.1 points a game. His most productive year was 1985-86, when he averaged 16.3 points a game for the Bulls. After four seasons with Chicago, he played for the Los Angeles Clippers, the Seattle SuperSonics and the Los Angeles Lakers.
He had problem upon problem, many self-induced. He missed practices and games, gained 30 pounds in a single season, twice violated the league’s drug policy, once attempted suicide and took leaves of absence for psychiatric care.
“I had to learn life by trial and error as I went along,” he said in a 1988 interview with The Los Angeles Times. “I erred a lot.”
Quintin Dailey was born on Jan. 22, 1961, in Baltimore. His parents died within a month of each other when he was teenager. A stellar basketball player in high school, he was recruited by more than 200 colleges. At San Francisco, he majored in communications and was a campus disc jockey.
Dailey’s marriage ended in divorce. He is survived by his daughter, Quinci, and his son, Quinton Jr., who is a guard on the Eastern Michigan University basketball team.
Dailey, whose last job was as a supervisor for the Clark County Parks Department in Nevada, had a penchant for pungent quotes. In 1985, he complained to The Chicago Tribune that Bulls coaches favored Michael Jordan over him.
“I’m a player who likes to shine a little bit myself,” he said.
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