Holy Family Basketball Coach Resigns

PHILADELPHIA - Embattled Holy Family basketball coach John O’Connor will resign from his post at the Philadelphia university after Fox 29 aired a tape of his confrontation with a player at practice.

Slideshow: Practice Tape Shows Incident

The Philadelphia Daily News first said O’Connor told reporter Dick Jerardi that he quit at a closed door meeting with players and school officials on Thursday night.

One of the players at the meeting, Rickie Crews, said Thursday O'Connor had a meeting with the team around 6:30 p.m. and announced he would resign. Crews said O'Connor came with his wife, and they were welcomed with a standing ovation and support from players at the meeting.

An attorney representing O'Connor refused to comment on the resignation announcement Thursday.

On Friday morning, the university put a statement that read: "After careful consideration, Coach John O’Connor believes that his continuing as the coach of the men’s basketball team at Holy Family University is not in his or the University’s best interests. Therefore, Coach O’Connor has tendered his resignation."

O’Connor’s story went national last weekend when Fox 29 aired video of his confrontation with player Matt Kravcuk at a January practice.

O'Connor then gave a video interview to Jeradi where he broke down on camera talking about the incident.

O'Conner, Kravcuk and their attorneys appeared on ABC's Good Morrning America on Thursday, where O'Connor tried the explain her version of the incident.

O'Connor said the confrontation was an accident and unintentional, when he physically confronted Kravcuk, kicked him and cursed him on camera.

"As he goes down I am trying to get them competitive," O'Connor said about the incident first broadcast by Fox 29 that shows O'Connor charging into Kravcuk at practice and then kicking him on the ground.

Kravcuk said that O'Connor did apologize the night of the incident but "it didn't feel right."

Kravcuk said Holy Family didn't take any action against O'Connor after it promised him it would do so for two weeks, and a school official wouldn't tell him why the school didn't take any action.

At that point, ABC forced O'Connor to apologize to Kravcuk face to face in front of the two lawyers.

In an awkward moment, Kravcuk would not accept the apology and said he lost respect for O'Connor, and would not play for him.

O'Connor was speaking out about the incident that led to his suspension and a criminal complaint now being investigated by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

Police did not press charges in the case.