College Track Coach Clears Summary Judgment Hurdle on Slander Claims

Southwestern Christian College fired its track coach after he allowed two ineligible athletes to run in a meet.  Later, when the college’s track program got audited, the athletic director chose not to respond and accepted a ban from that year’s national championship, because the penalty for running ineligible athletes would have been worse than the penalty for failing to respond to an audit request.  The athletic director then told the track team that the reason they could not compete in the national championship meet was because the coach ran ineligible athletes.  The coach disputed that explanation.  He claimed that the audit and resulting ban were due to the athletic director’s failure to submit certain forms.

The coach sued the college, the athletic director, and the college’s president, alleging, among other things, that the athletic director and college president had made slanderous statements that tarnished his reputation in the track and field community and prevented him from getting another job.  The trial court granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment and dismissed all of the coach’s claims.  The Court of Appeals, however, reversed the trial court’s dismissal of the coach’s slander claims against the college and the athletic director, finding that the coach had raised a material fact issue as to the truth of the athletic director’s statements to the track team.

Porter v. Southwestern Christian College, No. 05-12-01737-CV