Former coordinator accuses Central Florida coach George O’Leary of using ‘racial epithets’

Central Florida head coach George O’Leary has been accused of using racist language in a lawsuit filed Monday by former defensive coordinator Paul Ferraro. The suit claims that Central Florida breached its contract with Ferraro when he left the program in Feb. 2014, just months after joining the coaching staff.

Ferraro alleges that O’Leary “created a work environment that was permeated by bullying, threatening behavior, and repeated discriminatory epithets.” In particular, Ferraro claims that O’Leary referred to potential African-American assistant coaches as “coons” and called the NFL “one big ‘Ru-Ru’ tribe.” O’Leary also allegedly said that NFL scouts should “check the [African-American] players to make sure their gums are blue, because they are bigger, faster and stronger than [African-American] players with red gums.” Ferraro further alleges that O’Leary called him a “Guinea,” in reference to his Italian heritage, and made unspecified disparaging remarks about persons of Jewish descent.

Ferraro was hired by Central Florida as defensive coordinator in Dec. 2013, but left the program just two months later. At the time, O’Leary told the press he had resigned “for personal reasons” and would not elaborate further. Ferraro claims that he did not resign, but was fired without cause when he brought these discriminatory remarks and the hostile work environment to the attention of the South Central Florida Athletics human resources department and O’Leary himself.

Ferraro also alleges that O’Leary “micro-managed” the defense, contrary to what he had been promised when he became defensive coordinator in December, and verbally berated him in staff meetings when quizzed about game scenarios. The full text of the legal complaint is available courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel.

Central Florida Vice President of Communications and Marketing Grant Heston denied Ferraro’s allegations against O’Leary and the university, via Bay News 9:

“UCF immediately investigated the allegations Mr. Ferraro made when he abruptly abandoned his job....The university’s Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office found the allegations to be untrue.”

“None of the individuals alleged to have been the subject of, or to have overhead, these supposed statements corroborated Mr. Ferraro’s claims,” Heston said. “In fact, until seeking compensation after abandoning his job, it does not appear he ever discussed this with anyone at UCF.

O’Leary, who led the Knights to a Fiesta Bowl victory in January, just began his 11th season as UCF head coach.