Last year, LSU wide receivers coach Stan Hixon's biography touted that he "played one year on the (Iowa State) basketball team" in the late 1970s. This year, Hixon's bio makes no such claim.

Last year, Northwestern offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar's bio listed the three seasons he played at Michigan State and another at the University of Washington. Mysteriously, this year's guide doesn't include any playing experience.

	George O'Leary was all smiles when he took the Notre Dame job. That changed -- as have how schools look at resumes nationwide.

Last year, Georgia strength and conditioning coach Dave Van Halanger's bio reflected that he "played one season" in the NFL, with the Atlanta Falcons in 1976. In this year's guide, Van Halanger only "signed" with the Atlanta Falcons.

A review by ESPN.com of 2002 season media guides for 20 Division I-A football programs revealed at least 36 changes were made in biographies of both head coaches and assistants from among those included in the schools' media guides for the 2001 season. Most alterations were omissions or modifications to playing experience, including reductions in the number of letters received. Other changes focused on the degrees coaches claimed they had received, or the years in which they had earned them. Work histories were also adjusted to clarify dates and job titles of previous coaching positions.

Since George O'Leary made headlines for stepping down as Notre Dame's head football coach in December, just five days after taking the job, coaches, sports information directors and administrators have been poring over resumes and biographies in team media guides in search of inaccuracies, embellishments and flat out lies about the academic and athletic accomplishments of college coaches.

O'Leary was asked to resign at Notre Dame after it was discovered his bio in the Georgia Tech media guide falsely touted that he had lettered in football at the University of New Hampshire and that he had earned a master's degree from New York University. O'Leary had signed off with his approval on a similar version that was distributed to media during Notre Dame's news conference to announce his hiring.

"After George O'Leary, and those that were affected in the recent months, many more schools are saying, 'We should do more homework,' and many coaches are saying, 'Maybe I should change that,' " said Skip Bertman, who stepped down as LSU's baseball coach after 18 years and five national titles to become the school's athletics director a year ago.

In the eight months since O'Leary's December debacle, seven sports executives or coaches -- including United States Olympic Committee president Sandra Baldwin, Allegheny College football coach Blair Horvat, incoming Dartmouth athletics director Charles Harris, incoming Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Rick Smith, University of Richmond assistant basketball coach Mike Wilson, Fayetteville State basketball coach Mike Bernard and UCLA men's soccer coach Todd Saldana -- were either fired, forced to step down or denied new jobs after being caught in resume flaps.

Headhunters

Thanks to resume and bio inaccuracies across the country, executive recruiters are being asked to put job candidates through more thorough background checks. This summer, Teamwork Consulting, which has helped to fill more than 300 sports executive positions over the years, was asked by the USA Cycling to do criminal and credit checks, as well as a search newspaper articles, when screening candidates for the organization's chief executive officer opening. "It was not common to do that before the George O'Leary and (USOC president) Sandra Baldwin incidences," TeamWork president Buffy Filippell said. "Now we're doing educational background checks when looking for directors of ticket operations."

In May, former Colorado State women's basketball coach Tom Collen was a victim of the fervor. Twenty four hours after being named Vanderbilt's new coach, Collen was asked to resign after a newspaper report revealed he had one master's degree in two areas of study, instead of separate master's degrees, which Collen claimed on his resume. A month later, officials at Miami University in Ohio, where Collen had pursued his postgraduate education, said its registrar's office had made a clerical error. Collen, indeed, does have two master's degrees.

"I'm surprised that there are so many inaccuracies to correct this year," said Pete Moore, the associate director of athletics communications at Syracuse who recently completed his one-year term as president of the College Sports Information Directors of America. "I can understand if it's the first time it is being written and the coach hasn't looked at it. But some of these coaches apparently have been carrying around these guides on recruiting trips for years and they've obviously never thought to correct them."

It was at Syracuse, in 1980, where O'Leary said he first filled out a questionnaire, indicating that he had earned three letters for football at the University of New Hampshire.

That likely prompted Hixon and Dunbar to make changes in their bios. Neither had played enough in college to be listed among their school's all-time lettermen, and Van Halanger's short professional career didn't give him the chance to even earn inclusion on the Atlanta Falcons' all-time player roster.

"I never really read my bio," said Van Halanger, whose bio included the one-year stint in the NFL throughout his many seasons as a Florida State assistant before arriving at Georgia for the 2001 season. "Technically, I progressed through mini camp with them, but I got hurt and I didn't finish the season. So, just to be on the cautious side, I wanted to be more specific this year."

Van Halanger wasn't the only one at Georgia who correct inaccuries in his biography this year.

In 2001, the bio of Bulldogs receivers coach John Eason said he played with the Oakland Raiders in 1968 and 1969. This year, it reflects more accurate information -- that Eason played with the Raiders only in 1968. According to NFL records, Eason played in three games that season, but never caught a pass.

The 2001 bio of Georgia running backs coach Tony Pierce said he played one season with the Philadelphia Stars of the USFL. In this year's media guide, Pierce's bio clarifies his experience, that he was with the team during mini camp and the preseason.

"In light of the events that have happened over the last eight or nine months, the school as well as the coaches are a lot more sensitive about this," said Claude Felton, Georgia's sports information director. "Not only are we now checking new hires on their educational, athletic and legal past, but we are asking our current coaches to submit updated resumes and to verify that the information in their bio is accurate."

A closer look

Jim Heacock Ohio State defensive line coach 2001: Played in NFL two seasons 2002: Played briefly in the NFL Heacock was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 16th round in the 1970 Draft. Heacock is not listed on the team's all-time roster. Steve Dunlap Syracuse linebackers coach 2001: Played in the 1972 and 1975 Peach Bowl with West Virginia ... Defensive coordinator at West Virginia (1987-2000) 2002: Played in the 1975 Peach Bowl ... Defensive coordinator at West Virginia (1991-2000) According to the Syracuse media relations department, Dunlap played on the 1972 team at West Virginia, but did not play in the bowl game. While he had defensive coordinator duties at West Virginia as early as the 1987 season, he did not formally receive the title until 1991. Daryl Dickey Florida State quarterbacks coach 2001: Played a year of football with the San Diego Chargers 2002: Played a brief stint with the San Diego Chargers Dickey, who was a quarterback, was never drafted by the San Diego Chargers, does not have any statistics in NFL records and is not listed on the team's all-time roster.

On July 3, at the CoSIDA conference, sports information directors attended a panel entitled "Resume Crisis." Since then, many schools have had coaches sign forms affirming that their biographic information was correct. The University of Louisville even has added a new line to the contracts of all its coaches this year: "If a discrepancy is found after background check, employee is subject to immediate dismissal."

While schools still might be embarrassed for failing to do a full background check, should a coach be found to have fabricated or embellished information on a resume or biography, the new affidavit takes the responsibility away from the school's sports information director, whose departments are charged with publishing team media guides.

It came too late for Mike Stamus. He was demoted from his post as Georgia Tech's sports information director when he took the biographical sketches of new football coaches Tommie Robinson and Rick Smith from media guides of their previous schools and released them without verifying the information with the coaches or the other schools.

Both Robinson and Smith, who were hired by Chan Gailey, O'Leary's replacement at Georgia Tech, had errors in their bios.

Robinson, who is still on Gailey's staff, had an inaccurate bio from Oklahoma State that claimed he had earned a master's degree. According to Georgia Tech's Athletic Board, which reviewed the situation in February, Robinson said he had a Dallas Cowboys secretary type his resume and send it to Oklahoma State. He didn't get a chance to see that the secretary had given him a master's degree that he didn't earn and Oklahoma State subsequently printed it in its 2001 media guide. Although Robinson had informed Stamus he needed to correct it, the erroneous information was released when he was hired at Georgia Tech.

Smith had a bio that traveled with him from the University of Kentucky that erroneously indicated that he had played football and baseball at Florida State and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He resigned in February.

"I corrected it at Tulane (1997-1998) and at Cincinnati (1999-2000)," said Smith, who is now a defensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech, "but when I was hired by Kentucky the wrong information came back again and although I was given the opportunity to correct it, I was focusing too much on the playbook and never did."

Although Smith says his resume never included the misinformation, he still accepts the responsibility for its inclusion in his biography.

"It was my responsibility to make sure that bio was right every year and I paid the price," Smith said.

Ironically, Smith claims the idea of fictionalizing a football career at Florida State was the brainchild of the sports information director at Georgia Tech during Smith's stint as a Yellow Jackets assistant coach in the early '80s.

"I asked him at the time why it was in there and he told me that he needed to put it in there to make me look better in the eyes of the alumni. So he convinced me that it wasn't a big deal and I should let it go," Smith said.

Smith came to Florida State on a baseball scholarship, but was later injured and never played professionally. He said he isn't sure how the Pittsburgh Pirates detail emerged, only saying that the Pirates had called him after his sophomore season, promising that they were going to draft him.

Mysterious inclusion

For more than 10 seasons, Baylor head coach Kevin Steele didn't catch that his bio listed that he had played linebacker at Tennessee for four seasons. But in October, before O'Leary was fired, Baylor sports information director Scott Stricklin said Steele's wife realized that it should have only said two seasons, as his resume indicated. Steele never indicated in any school questionnaires that he played all four years at Tennessee. "Kevin would be the first to tell you he would never lie about his playing career to further his coaching career," Stricklin said. "He's always making jokes about how good of a scout team player he was."

Stamus would not speak with ESPN.com and Georgia Tech athletics director Dave Blaine did not return calls seeking comment. But Allison George, Georgia Tech's new sports information director, said a system is now in place in which the responsibility for the accuracy of credentials falls on the individual coach.

One erroneous master's degree appeared in a bio of another O'Leary replacement at Notre Dame. Offensive line coach Mike Denbrock's bio from Stanford indicated that he "recently earned a master's degree in athletic administration from Michigan State." Suddenly a stickler for accuracy in the wake of O'Leary's resignation, Notre Dame called Stanford officials, who confirmed that they were responsible for the error, and the bio was corrected, according to John Heisler, Notre Dame's sports information director.

At LSU's staff meetings this week, Bertman said he planned to tell all his coaches to check their bio again and report any changes to the sports information office.

"Everyone has to be responsible for their own, and I don't have to know about it," Bertman said.

That is, unless word gets back that there's a major change to be made.

"If it's flagrant enough, like a master's degree when it should have said a bachelor's degree, then I'll definitely know about it."

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espnpub.com .