Former University of Kansas head football coach David Beaty has hired Dallas law firm Deans & Lyons to pursue litigation against the school’s athletic department on claims that it breached his employment contract and owes him $3 million in unpaid wages.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in a Kansas federal court, Beaty alleges officials with the KU athletic department said in private meetings that they need to find dirt on Beaty, “such as finding a ‘dead hooker in [Coach Beaty’s] close,’ ” so that the school could avoid paying Beaty the severance money.
In an email, KU athletics spokesman Jim Marchiony said that while the school “typically does not comment on pending litigation,” the nature of the lawsuit “warrants further context.”
“The filing is full of false claims and factual misstatements, including that KU’s director of athletics made salacious comments about seeking reasons to withhold payment from Beaty,” Marchiony said. “Simply, that did not happen.”
Beaty, a native Texan, became KU’s head football coach in December 2014 after stints as an assistant coach there, as well as Rice University and Texas A&M University. He was hired to turn around the school’s long-troubled football program, but ended his four-season tenure with a record of 8-40.
According to the lawsuit, KU Athletics Director Jeff Long fired Beaty without cause in November 2018, but confirmed “privately, publicly, orally and in writing” that Beaty would be paid his severance of $3 million per the school’s contractual obligation to do so since Beaty was being terminated without cause. KU also let Beaty finish out the season.
In the following weeks, the lawsuit alleges, Long commented “in the presence of multiple KU and/or Kansas Athletics employees” that they “needed to ‘find something on Coach Beaty’ so that they might avoid having to pay him the contractually owed $3 million.”
On Dec. 13, KU General Counsel Brian White informed Beaty, in a letter, that the school had initiated an investigation into allegations involving one of Beaty’s subordinates on the football staff, therefore KU would withhold Beaty’s severance until its self-initiated investigation is complete and the athletic department determines whether Beaty’s separation would be with or without cause.
Lawyers for Beaty responded to the letter several days later, asserting that “Kansas Athletics was using its self-initiated investigation as a subterfuge to avoid paying money it clearly owed” and that “Coach Beaty would treat the failure to timely pay under the contract as a material breach,” the lawsuit says.
Insisting that he fully cooperated with the investigation, Beaty suggests in the lawsuit that the school has also sabotaged his efforts to move on.
“While Kansas Athletics was unwilling to act with any urgency, it has been more than willing to notify prospective employers that Coach Beaty is the subject of an open NCAA investigation,” the lawsuit says. “Coach Beaty believes this is yet another tactic by Kansas Athletics to pressure Coach Beaty into accepting something less than what is undisputedly owed.”
KU has a much different account of what happened.
Marchiony said in his email that after the football season ended, Kansas Athletics conducted “standard exit interviews” of all football coaches and staff, which led to the discovery of “possible NCAA violations allegedly committed by Beaty.”
KU then contacted the NCAA and Big 12 Conference and began an investigation. When Beaty “refused to cooperate with the KU review,” the NCAA took the lead on the investigation, which is still pending.
“Due to the nature of the allegations, which, if true, would be in violation of the terms of Beaty’s contract, the university has withheld payment of money owed to Beaty pending the outcome of the NCAA investigation,” Marchiony said. “In a show of good faith, the university has placed the full amount owed in escrow.”
“While disappointed in the court filing, the university is committed to seeking the truth and upholding our high standards of ethical conduct,” Marchiony added.
Counsel information for KU was not immediately available.
The Deans & Lyons lawyers representing Beaty are Michael Lyons, Christopher Simmons and Stephen Higdon.
“Ever since the season concluded, Kansas Athletics has moved the goal posts on Coach Beaty,” Lyons said. “Kansas Athletics can’t walk back its decision to terminate Coach Beaty without cause after confirming it publicly, privately, and in writing.”