Louisville group wants Pitino fired

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 14 (UPI) -- An anti-abortion group at the University of Louisville says Rick Pitino, coach of the men's basketball team at the Kentucky college, should be fired.

The Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal said Thursday that Cardinals for Life are seeking Pitino's dismissal for his recent comments that he once paid $3,000 so a woman he had an affair with could receive an abortion.

Pitino, 56, has admitted he gave Karen Cunagin Sypher money to help pay for an abortion in the wake of their 2003 sexual encounter at a Louisville restaurant.

Records indicate Sypher, who did not have medical insurance to cover the medical procedure at the time, underwent the abortion in Cincinnati in August 2003. The records do not indicate the father of the unborn child.

"Rick Pitino will always be considered a great basketball coach, but just because he knows basketball does not mean the University of Louisville community should hold up this man as a role model and hero," Cardinals for Life president Lisa Just said in a release.