Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy has been under plenty of fire this week after he wore an OAN shirt, took criticism for it from players, and offered an apology that many thought fell short. But an new development there has people re-examining allegations that Gundy directed racial slurs at Colorado Buffaloes players during a 1989 game (Gundy was a senior quarterback for Oklahoma State then), a story that former Colorado player Alfred Williams (who’s now a radio host at KOA in Denver) reiterated this week. Here’s a photo of a 1989 St. Louis Post-Dispatch story on that (including the paper spelling out the n-word, Williams and others making that claim, and Gundy denying those allegations):
Mike Gundy refuted using the n-word following a 41-17 loss to Colorado.
Here's the story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Tuesday Nov. 14, 1989. pic.twitter.com/RKSZib4IkT
— RJ Young (@RJ_Young) June 17, 2020
Fox Sports’ Shannon Sharpe brought this up on Undisputed Wednesday (where he also offered further criticisms of Gundy’s apology statement) and talked about speaking to Williams (who Sharpe played with with the Denver Broncos), and having Williams restate his comments from the time of Gundy calling him and other Colorado players the n-word during the game:
.@ShannonSharpe discusses his call with Alfred Williams, who was reportedly on the receiving end of a racial comment made by Mike Gundy when they were both college players in 1989 pic.twitter.com/EFIPxVrjdi
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) June 17, 2020
And Williams mentioned that on his KOA show Wednesday, as Mike Florio relays at Pro Football Talk:
“I couldn’t believe it,” Williams said. “There’s no walking that back. This story’s been out there for 31 years.”
Williams added that it’s the only time that ever happened to him, in his life.
“I didn’t back down then,” Williams said, “I don’t back down now. . . . Every time I see him, I just want to run through him. Every time I see his face, every time I look at him, I want to run through him. . . . I’m 51 years old; why in the world do I need to lie about that?”
As illustrated in the above Post-Dispatch story, Gundy denied this back in 1989, saying “It’s not true” and “They were the ones doing the talking.” We’ll see if he addresses it again.
[Pro Football Talk; Williams photo from KDVR]