coach_years overall_record coach_team current_title sport birth_date player_teams article_title name
1994 2013 -- 1997 1997 -- 2002 , 2005 -- 257 -- 210 -lrb- 257 210 -rrb- stoney brook oakland head coach women 's basketball 21 july 2013 colgate beckie francis
 beckie francis
beckie francis

beckie sue francis -lrb- born 1964 or 1965 -rrb- is a basketball coach , most recently head coach of oakland university 's golden grizzlies women 's basketball team .
at oakland , she compiled a 227 -- 162 -lrb- -rrb- record , and has a 257 -- 210 -lrb- -rrb- career head coaching record .
she coached two kodak all-americans and 11 all-conference players during her tenure .
francis led oakland to three consecutive postseason appearances , with two ncaa tournament bids and one wnit appearance .
she was terminated by oakland , with cause , on the same day her husband retired as president of the university , because she was alleged to have mentally and emotionally abused her players , become obsessed with her players eating habits and body weights , and refused to separate her religion from coaching .
francis has denied each of these allegations .
francis played college basketball at colgate university where she was a four-year starter and three-time team captain .
she was an assistant coach at the university at buffalo for four years .
from 1994 -- 1996 , she was the head coach at stony brook university , then a ncaa division ii program , where she compiled a 30 -- 48 record .
oakland hired francis as the program was making the transition from division ii to division i. francis coached at oakland from 1997 -- 2013 , taking a three-year sabbatical from coaching for health reasons between the 2001 -- 2002 and 2005 -- 2006 seasons .
her teams won the conference tournament championship twice , and the conference regular season championship three times .
the 2006 season where the grizzlies went 19 -- 13 , featured a school record 12-game winning streak .
she earned her second conference coach of the year award during the 2006 season .
at the time of her hiring at oakland on july 1 , 1997 , her salary was $ 50,000 ; by july 1 , 2012 it had been increased to $ 126,381 along with a 15 % performance bonus totaling $ 15,703 .
her players did well academically , earning her teams high marks in the ncaa 's academic progress rate .
francis ' teams placed in the wbca top-25 for team gpa nationally for six consecutive seasons from the 2007-08 season through the 2012-13 season .
in 1999 , francis married then-president of oakland university , gary russi .
francis was fired with cause in june 2013 , hours after her husband retired as oakland president .
the school released a statement at the time that said an investigation had begun in april after concerns about her conduct and behavior and that she had been terminated with cause .
a july 2013 report by the `` detroit free press '' , interviewing 15 former players and others close to the program , noted common complaints that francis had fixated on their weight , pushed her particular views of christianity , used intimidation and emotional abuse .
in october 2012 , francis revealed in an interview with the associated press that she had been sexually abused by her father between the ages of 4 and 13 .
that winter she testified before the education committee of the michigan house of representatives and later lobbied representatives in support of erin 's law , bipartisan legislation allowing schools to educate students about sexual abuse .
for her work in this area she received national acclaim , and in april 2013 , during the ncaa women 's final four , she was the recipient of the pat summitt most courageous award , given by the u.s. basketball writers association , for demonstrating `` extraordinary courage while facing adversity in life . ''
