AUSTIN, Texas -- Former Texas coach Tom Penders on Wednesday denied any involvement in ordering the release of a former player's grades to the media in 1998, a controversy that led to his leaving the university.

Penders testified in his own defense in a defamation lawsuit filed against him by Eddie Oran, his former assistant.

Oran sued Penders in 2000 alleging the former coach defamed his character in the aftermath of the release of Luke Axtell's grades to a local radio station. Testimony before Travis County Judge Susan Covington is expected to continue through Friday.

Oran seeks damages for loss of income, loss of his employment at Texas, personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering.

He also says he lost the opportunity to continue coaching at the major-college level. Oran now works for an Austin-area automobile dealership.

Although Oran originally took the blame for releasing Axtell's grades to KVET-AM, a violation of the federal student privacy laws, he now says Penders orchestrated their release. Oran said he took the blame to protect Penders.

"Tom made the decision of what station,'' Oran said Wednesday.

Penders said that a few days before the incident he had asked Oran to collect Axtell's grades to check on the player's academic progress. Axtell had asked that he be allowed to transfer.

"I said we need to worry more about his grades right now,'' Penders said. Asked several times if he ordered Oran or anyone else on staff to fax the grades to the radio station, Penders said, "No.''

In videotaped testimony, Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds said he had warned Penders that student information could not be released to the public. He said Oran should have known that as well.

Dodds said that during the school's investigation, Oran at first implicated Penders before shifting the blame to himself.

Dodds said he told Oran, "Eddie, you need to tell the truth. Tell the truth because that's what you're going to have to live with the rest of your life.''

Oran was disciplined and lost a week's salary for the incident. After Penders resigned after taking a settlement from Texas, Oran was not retained by new coach Rick Barnes.

Although Oran now blames Penders, he acknowledged under cross examination that he could have chosen not to release the grades at all. He said he felt under pressure to do so.

Oran's suit claims that, in the days surrounding the release of the deposition transcripts related to a separate lawsuit filed by Axtell, Penders made libelous statements to two newspapers and a radio station and also made slanderous statements to county residents as well as people in the basketball coaching fraternity.

He says the remarks kept him from getting a coaching job somewhere else. He said he got little interest when he inquired with other schools.

"It has had a tremendous impact on me not getting a job,'' Oran said. "I wanted to be the best assistant coach Tom ever had and things would fall into place. I felt like with my experience and reputation ... that I would have great opportunities.''

Penders' attorney, John Smith, noted that Oran was also passed over for several jobs before the grade release incident.

Penders was on the stand for about an hour and his testimony was to continue on Thursday.

Axtell, who transferred to Kansas, also sued the University of Texas, Penders, and Dodds but that case was dismissed.