By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

When Bob Wagner was the head football coach at the University of Hawai'i, he'd celebrate a big win by downing a beer or two — non-alcohol, of course — and then having someone drive him home.

Wagner's biggest fear — more so than even giving up a 99-yard touchdown — was of ending up in the headlines for something other than beating BYU.

Though some snickered at the time, Wagner grasped early-on what too many coaches only now seem to be learning the hard way: That they are in the public spotlight 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and need to, at the very least, be mindful of it.

It is a lesson being reinforced at some peril these days, as the headlines and some antics worthy of "Animal House" remind us.

This week alone, Iowa State basketball coach Larry Eustachy and Alabama football coach Mike Price are under scrutiny for actions away from their sports and at least one of them is waiting to see whether he will have a job next season.

Photos of the married 47-year-old Eustachy drinking and snuggling with coeds at a Missouri frat party following a loss at Columbia, Mo., last season ended up in the Des Moines Register. Allegations that it wasn't the first time Eustachy had partied down frat row on the road helped prompt a suspension and a recommendation for termination.

What Price is alleged to have done at a celebrity golf tournament last month in Florida isn't being revealed beyond tight-lipped comments, but there have been two meetings with the Crimson Tide's athletic director and speculation flying wildly.

Closer to home in the Western Athletic Conference, Texas-El Paso has, in less than a year, seen one men's basketball coach hastily resign for "personal reasons" that have been the stuff of rumor and his successor go on trial for charges of driving while intoxicated.

Emboldened by contracts that now pay upwards of $1 million, some coaches have come to view themselves as bullet-proof as they blow off steam that comes with high expectations. For many years, coaches who won at a high level have been almost treated as such by admirers willing to overlook anything short of a capital crime.

But increasingly schools are coming to take the fine print in coaching contracts seriously, especially the clauses calling for their coaches to "represent the best interests" of the institution.

When a coach is the highest paid state employee, it shouldn't be too much to ask that he not show up in print with a lampshade on his head.