1. Mark Downs Jr.
A thousand Bobby Knights coaching for a thousand years couldn’t pile up enough dark deeds to touch the devilry this T-ball coach—that’s right, T-ball—conjured one afternoon in Dunbar, Pennsylvania. On that 2005 day, 27-year-old Mark Downs Jr. offered one of his Falcons a cash bonus to injure a player on his own team. Downs instructed 8-year-old Keith Reese Jr. to use the pregame warm-up to bean 9-year-old Harry Bowers, who was autistic and visually impaired, so he couldn’t take the field in a crucial playoff game. Explains Keith: “Mark told me that if I hit Harry in the face with the ball, he’d pay me $25 and then Harry would be out of the game.” When his first attempt nailed his teammate in the groin, Downs told Keith to “try hitting him harder.” The next ball struck Harry’s ear, drawing blood and sending him to the hospital. Downs, father of four (including two girls who played for the Falcons), was charged with criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault. Harry’s mom says the incident left her son scared of sports. Final score: Evil 1, Humanity 0.
5, 4, 3. George Gibney, Frank McCann, Derry O’Rourke
For those serial sexual predators in Ireland who never received the calling to become priests, there was another vocation that provided unchecked authority over defenseless young people: swim coach! First came George Gibney, leader of the Irish national and Olympic team, who was arrested in 1993 and charged with raping seven young swimmers (boys and girls both). In the same month Gibney was charged, his friend and colleague Frank McCann was himself arrested for the murder of his wife and foster child. McCann had set his house ablaze with his family inside to prevent his wife from learning that he had fathered a child with one of his teenage swim students. And yet neither Gibney, who was later acquitted, nor McCann can lay claim to being Ireland’s vilest swim coach: That honor belongs to Gibney’s successor, Derry O’Rourke, a two-time Olympic coach who pleaded guilty in 1997 to the sexual assault and rape of twelve girls, eleven of them under the age of 15.
15. Micah Grimes
During his fourth year as coach of the Covenant School girls’ basketball team, Micah Grimes told his team that their main goal was to “love each other.” Apparently, loving thy neighbor was not part of the program. Last January the Lady Knights handed Dallas Academy, a school for students with “learning differences,” the drubbing of the millennium—a 100–0 defeat. Parents and an assistant coach reportedly cheered wildly as the blowout approached triple digits. Grimes was fired, but he’ll be okay. “Gloating tormentor of the meek” is an alluring qualification to list on any job application.
19 and 18. Bob Farley and Shaun Farr
A few summers back, in Bountiful, Utah, two PONY-league baseball teams, made up of 9- and 10-year-olds, met in the championship game. The Yankees, coached by Farley and Farr, led by a run in the bottom of the last inning. There were two outs and a runner on third. The Red Sox’s best hitter was at the plate. On deck was Romney Oaks, a scrawny kid who was a notoriously weak batter. His team tended to forgive his lousy play, since Romney had a pretty good excuse: From the age of 4, he had undergone treatment for a malignant brain tumor, and the toxic doses of radiation had left him frail. Assessing the game situation, coach Farley consulted with assistant coach Farr, then strode to the mound and told his pitcher to intentionally walk the slugger and pitch to the sick boy. Parents were stunned. Romney’s 8-year-old sister cried. Romney fought back tears himself, then struck out on three pitches. The Yankees win, THEEEEEEE YANKEES WIN!
11. Dave Bliss
As Baylor’s head basketball coach, Bliss committed acts of moral depravity so mind-boggling they actually overshadowed A MURDERER! ON HIS TEAM!! WHO KILLED A TEAMMATE!!! In June 2003, one of Bliss’s players, forward Patrick Dennehy, was found dead. A teammate, Carlton Dotson, eventually admitted to killing Dennehy, but not before Bliss ordered his staff and players to slander the deceased by spreading rumors that he’d been dealing drugs to pay for school. Bliss was vainly attempting to mask the fact that he had improperly paid the tuition—a major NCAA no-no—of two players, including Dennehy.
http://www.gq.com/sports/lists/200909/meanest-coaches-belichick-isiah-thomas-bob-knight-despicable-slideshow#slide=2A lot of these stories were well reported at the time.
I have coached and refereed basketball, coached and umpired softball, and umpired LL baseball. I don't believe that players should be babied or taught not to try. However, I also believe that part of sportsmanship is recognizing when you have passed the bounds of fair play no matter what the rules say.
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