Coaches: Out

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"I don't know what I am going to do for a living now," sighed Pete Elliott, 40, "but it obviously will have to be a new career." Elliott's old career as head football coach at the University of Illinois ended abruptly last week after the Big Ten's faculty representatives refused to relent on their decision to boot Illinois out of the conference unless Pete was fired—along with Illinois Basketball Coach Harry Combes and Combes's assistant Howard Braun (TIME, March 10). The three coaches had been found guilty of providing needy athletes with "walking-around money" from an alumni-financed slush fund.

Illinois itself had brought the existence of the slush fund to the attention of the Big Ten, but the faculty representatives were adamant: Elliott, Combes and Braun were through as coaches—although they could remain at the university in a purely teaching capacity. That sop hardly impressed the coaches, all three of whom formally resigned. And it did nothing to mollify the Illinois legislature, which set up a ten-man committee to investigate the goings-on at other Big Ten colleges. No telling what the committee may find. The father of one Illinois athlete claimed last week that his son had been offered $100 per month to play instead for Michigan State, Indiana or Iowa.