Bye-bye, Beckman: Illinois settles one lawsuit, avoids another

Perhaps finally emerging from a prolonged dark period in its history of athletics, the University of Illinois announced Tuesday that it had reached accords with seven former women’s basketball players and with former head football coach Tim Beckman.

The school will pay a total of $375,000 to settle the federal lawsuit brought by the seven former basketball players, who had accused coach Matt Bollant and his staff of creating a racially hostile environment. Bollant remains as coach.

“While the university sincerely apologizes for the events that resulted in the filing of this lawsuit, the settlement of this matter in no way constitutes an admission of wrongdoing on the part of the university,” read an official statement released by the school. “The university maintains that independent investigations concluded the evidence did not support the student-athletes’ grievances.”

Also, a $250,000 payment will go to Beckman, who was fired last summer after an investigation concluded that he had acted inappropriately in medical matters concerning his players. The school called the payment a “negotiated resolution of potential legal claims.”

In short, Illinois settled one lawsuit and avoided another.

“The university and Coach Beckman seek to avoid protracted and costly litigation that would by necessity require the involvement of a number of current and former student-athletes, as well as coaches, staff, trainers and team physicians,” a statement read. “This resolution allows the university to avoid the distraction of pending litigation and to focus instead on the well-being of student-athletes in the program.”

Illinois has tried — repeatedly — to pull itself out of the dark period over the nearly eight months since Beckman was fired.

In November of 2015, the school first terminated its relationship with controversial athletic director Mike Thomas and then, three weeks later, promoted interim coach Bill Cubit to head coach and gave him a two-year contract.

A few months later, however, Josh Whitman was hired as athletic director. In a move few saw coming, Whitman fired Cubit, only to hand the reins of the program to former longtime Bears coach Lovie Smith. The hiring of Smith drew instant, widespread acclaim.

Whitman since has given multiple public votes of confidence to basketball coach John Groce, whose teams have missed three consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

But closing the books on Beckman and the seven former women’s basketball players represents, if nothing else, something of a fresh start for the school’s athletic department.

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Email: sgreenberg@suntimes.com