MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) - Former University of Montana women’s basketball coach Robin Selvig has apologized for plagiarizing a newspaper article in telling the inspirational story of a former Lady Griz basketball player during a high school graduation speech in Missoula.
Selvig told the Missoulian that he felt “terrible” for not crediting Great Falls Tribune writer David Murray on Saturday when he told Big Sky High graduates about LeAnn Montes of Box Elder. Montes had a daughter while in high school, played basketball for the Lady Griz and graduated from UM before getting her law degree in New Mexico.
Selvig used the opening paragraph of Murray’s 2014 article word-for-word and used about seven paragraphs total from the story on Montes being inducted into the Montana Indian Athletic Hall of Fame.
“I specifically looked at different things on LeAnn and liked what he had said, and I apparently plagiarized some of it,” Selvig told the Missoulian. “I should have told where I got some of that stuff. I know plenty about (Montes), I just liked that.”
Murray said Selvig was very apologetic when he talked to him on Saturday.
“My own reaction was one of surprise, but also I was flattered to a large degree simply that my words would be something that Coach Selvig found worthy of including within his commencement address,” Murray told The Associated Press on Monday.
Murray said he would have preferred some attribution, but “it isn’t as if I spent my day being upset about it,” calling it a compliment that “my words spoke to him in some way.”
Selvig retired two years ago after coaching the Montana women’s basketball team for 38 years. His teams posted an 865-286 mark.
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Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com
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