A longtime friend of Bernie Fine, George Hicker said the former Syracuse University men’s basketball associate head coach was “elated” that no charges will be filed after a nearly 12-month-long investigation into sexual abuse allegations. Hicker spoke to Fine on the phone on Friday morning.

“One can only imagine what he’s had to go through in the last 12 months,” said Hicker, who played on SU’s basketball team in the 1960s and was also a former trustee. “I know he’s happy and he’ll let this sink in.”

Hicker said he believes, in retrospect, that Fine should have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation, instead of being fired from the university.

“He should have been put on administrative leave until the findings were complete,” he said. “I think the circumstances, in retrospect, dictated that, but that’s a real tough call.”

Hicker resigned from the Board of Trustees about a month after Fine was fired from the university on Nov. 27, 2011. He said, at the time, that the position was more demanding than he expected.

Fine, who most recently worked with an Israeli basketball team, has spent the last year trying to clear his name, Hicker said. Two of Fine’s four accusers, Floyd VanHooser and Zach Tomaselli, have since recanted. Tomaselli is also serving a more than three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy.

Hicker said Fine’s contributions to SU basketball history are second to only head coach Jim Boeheim. He hasn’t spoken with Fine about returning to SU, but if it were up to Hicker, Fine would be involved with SU’s basketball program.

“If it was me, he would be within the basketball program,” Hicker said. “That’s what he dedicated his whole life to. That’s what was taken from him.”

Fine has denied all wrongdoing and has not been charged.

Published on November 9, 2012 at 2:46 pm

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