Ohio University football coach Brian Smith was fired because the university says he engaged in extramarital affairs including one with an undergraduate student.
A Dec. 12 letter from Ohio University President Lori Stewart Gonzalez that WOSU received after a public records request said Smith's conduct violates his employment agreement with the university.
That agreement says a coach can be terminated for participating in an act that in the University's judgement "brings the Head Coach into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule."
"This includes your participation in extramarital affairs, including one with an undergraduate student, to which you have admitted," Gonzalez's letter stated.
"This brings on the very disrepute, scandal, and ridicule in issue in this Section," Gonzalez's letter read. The letter does identify the student.
The letter also mentioned an earlier reprimand for Smith using alcohol in his office, and said "it has been reported to the University that you participated in a public appearance during which you smelled strongly of alcohol and were intoxicated in your demeanor."
In response, a Dec. 16 letter to Gonzalez from Smith's lawyer, Rex Elliott, said: "It is truly unfortunate that OU has elected...in reaching an erroneous conclusion that will undoubtedly irreparably harm Coach Smith's career."
"Indeed, due to these false allegations, and the University's tacit support of the allegations it is likely he can never come back from this and his career may well be over," Elliot's letter said.
Elliott's letter to Gonzalez said Smith's due process rights have been ignored, "and you have not even spoken with Coach Smith to learn the true facts relating to your claimed grounds for terminating him as OU's Head Football Coach."
The letter says Smith didn't participate in an extramarital affair. It says that Smith and his now ex-wife were separated earlier this year and that divorce proceedings have begun.
"Coach Smith did not hide the relationship and even his now ex-wife didn't accuse him of engaging in an extramarital affair," Elliott's letter said.
The letter also said that Smith did not know the woman he dated was an OU student when he met her, and that Smith ended the four-month relationship in November.
"Coach Smith met her at an establishment in Athens and when he met her he had no idea she was an OU student," Elliott's letter said. "She was not a member of the athletic department and Coach Smith could not impact her status in any way as Head Coach."
"The relationship occurred among consenting adults," Elliott's letter said.
"OU has no policy preventing any employee from dating a student." Elliott's letter said.
The Dec. 12 letter from Gonzalez to Smith said Smith appeared to admit to Ohio University's athletic director that "you carried on an affair in part on campus at the Ohio University Inn."
Elliott responded that the university's claim that Smith carried on an affair is misleading because Smith was living there following his separation and divorce. Elliott also said that Smith never told the athletic director he had an affair at the inn.
"Rather he told the AD that he ran into the parents while there with a 41-year-old woman he spent time with after he broke off the relationship with the OU student," Elliott's letter said.
Ohio University said Wednesday it fired Smith for cause after placing him on leave two weeks ago without an explanation.
This year was Smith's first season as the Bobcats' head coach. He led the football team to an 8-4 record.
Ohio University will play in the Frisco Bowl against the University of Nevada Las Vegas on Dec. 23.
The team will be coached by interim head coach and defensive coordinator John Hauser.
