LAFAYETTE, La.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is appealing a jury decision that the university must pay fired football coach Jerry Baldwin $2 million in damages after the panel determined race was among the reasons for his 2001 dismissal.
Baldwin was the first Black head football coach at a major Louisiana university. A district court jury decided 10-2 in October that he was owed damages for discrimination, emotional distress and breach of contract.
ULL’s attorney, Larry Marino, took the case to the state’s First Circuit Court of Appeal on Wednesday after District Judge Don Johnson denied Marino’s request for a retrial.
“On appeal, it’s going to come out very clearly that we had a confused, runaway jury,” Marino said. He added that “there was an inappropriate member on that jury: a woman who had an unresolved claim of discrimination by her White supervisor and yet the judge let her stay on the jury.”
“UL’s got a long and proud history of diversity, racial diversity, not least of which was hiring Coach Baldwin in the first place,” Marino said. “After a 6-27 record, we let him go, and there was not a stitch of evidence that his race was a reason that he was fired.”
Marino argued Wednesday that, in addition to Baldwin’s losing record, other reasons for his dismissal included poor attendance at his last few home games and a lack of community support for the football program.
