Oklahoma’s Cale Gundy said ‘racially charged word with players MULTIPLE times’

University of Oklahoma assistant head football coach Cale Gundy stepped down after repeatedly saying a ‘racially charged’ term to his players during a film session, Sooners head coach Brent Venables claims. Gundy had insisted that he uttered the offending term inadvertently while reading it aloud off a player’s iPad. 

Venables specified the accusation in a statement on Monday after Gundy, a longtime Sooners assistant, announced his resignation on Sunday for admittedly using ‘shameful’ language with his players. 

‘Coach Gundy resigned from the program because he knows what he did was wrong,’ Venables said in his second statement on Gundy’s exit. ‘He chose to read aloud to his players, not once but multiple times, a racially charged word that is objectionable to everyone, and does not reflect the attitude and values of our university or our football program. 

‘This is not acceptable. Period. Coach Gundy did the right thing in resigning.’ 

Gundy, the brother of Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy, announced his resignation in a social media post, insisting that the offending word ‘was not malicious; it wasn’t it even intentional.’ The word Gundy used has not been revealed. 

The incident took place during a recent film session when the assistant coach found one player distracted and looking at his iPad, Cale Gundy said in his statement. He then picked up the device and read a word off the screen that he now acknowledges he ‘should never – under any circumstance – have uttered.’

Cale Gundy said he was ‘horrified’ upon realizing what he had said.

However, Venables is now claiming that Cale said the word multiple times. 

‘The unfortunate reality is that someone in my position can cause harm without ever meaning to do so. In that circumstance, a man of character accepts accountability,’ Gundy said. ‘I take responsibility for my mistake. I apologize.’

L’Damian Washington has been tapped to replace Gundy as Sooners wide receivers coach on an interim basis.  

Gundy was the Sooners’ quarterback from 1990 until 1993, finishing with more than 6,000 passing yards and 35 touchdowns. He’s also worked as an assistant coach at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Now-former Sooners coach Bob Stoops hired Gundy to coach the team’s running backs in 1998 and he’s been with the program ever since. 

Venables released an initial statement on Sunday, saying anyone connected with the program is ‘accountable’ for his or her actions.

‘It’s with sadness that I accept coach Gundy’s resignation,’ Venables said. ‘He’s dedicated more than half his life to Oklahoma football and has served our program and university well. We’re thankful for that commitment.

‘The culture we’re building in our program is based on mutual respect. Our staff is here to develop successful student-athletes, but also young men of character. As the leader of this program, it’s essential that we hold ourselves to the highest standards as we model to our players the type of men we want them to become.’ 

Gundy did get support from former Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon, who is currently a starter for the Cincinnati Bengals. 

‘… Coach Gundy is not, and I repeat is not a racist in any way nor has a racist bone in his body, mind or soul,’ Mixon wrote in a statement posted on social media. ‘I grew up in the Bay area and went to school obviously in Oklahoma. I know racists and have witnessed both obvious and discreet forms of racism and have known and detested even more actual racist (sic). Coach Gundy is the farthest thing from this type of person.’ 

The Gundy family is accustomed to controversy.

Mike, who was the quarterback at rival Oklahoma State before becoming the Cowboys coach in 2005, was accused of directing the n-word at an African-American Colorado player in 1989.

Alfred Williams, a former star linebacker at Colorado and NFL player, retold the story to The Oklahoman in 2020, adding that he would like an apology and hopes to see ‘some growth’ from Mike Gundy.

‘I remember that it was the first time that the University of Colorado beat Oklahoma State while I was there,’ Williams told The Oklahoman on Wednesday night. ‘It was a big win. It really was a big win.

‘And I remember Mike Gundy called me the N-word. That’s what I remember.’

An Oklahoma State athletic department spokesman told the Daily Mail that Gundy would not comment on the accusation.

Williams’s allegations were corroborated by several teammates and himself following Colorado’s 41-17 win over the Cowboys in Stillwater, Oklahoma on November 12, 1989.

‘He said it to me and a couple of other guys on the field,’ linebacker Kanavis McGhee told The Oklahoman at the time. ‘It got me real upset.

‘Here’s a guy in the spotlight all the time, to say something like that is not cool at all. All it did was fire us up.’

Williams, Bruce Young and Okland Salavea also reported the allegation to the media at the time.

Gundy denied it to reporters after the game.

‘I didn’t say it,’ Gundy said. ‘It’s just not true. I’ve been here four years, and well over half of my friends are black.

‘I just did not say that; I wouldn’t say something like that.’

According to a St. Louis Dispatch article from the game, Gundy denied the accusations and told reporters that the Buffaloes players initiated the trash talking. He went on to tell the media to read a Sports Illustrated article about Colorado’s disciplinary problems within the football program.

Speaking with the Oklahoman in 2020, Williams said he had not seen Gundy’s denial until this week.

‘If he denies that he said (that), I have at least 20 people who will vouch for what happened that day.

‘I’m a little upset, because after 31 years I finally saw the story published in your papers out in Oklahoma,’ Williams continued, referring to The Oklahoman’s game story from 1989. ‘That was the first time I saw some of the responses to what I said.

‘In the St. Louis Dispatch he said, ”Look at the University of Colorado and its players. They got rapists.”’

Williams, who played nine NFL seasons, is not mentioned in the SI article and was not accused of any crime at Colorado.

Gundy became Oklahoma State’s offensive coordinator in 2001 and was promoted to the head coaching job at his alma mater in 2005. He has one Big 12 title and was named conference Coach of the Year in 2010.