Jerry Tarkanian

According to Michael Green, history professor at Community College of Southern Nevada, you can't assess Tarkanian without assessing Bob Maxson. To their mutual chagrin, they are historically inseparable…. They became embroiled in this terrible fight where neither man controlled his logic or emotion. In a sense, they destroyed each other. Robert C. Maxson, formerly senior vice president of academic affairs at the University of Houston, was brought to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), as its new president in 1984. His immediate mission was to upgrade the university's academic reputation, a goal that eventually brought him into conflict with Tarkanian

Rumors had long persisted that Tarkanian recruited students who were good basketball players but lacked the necessary skills to succeed academically. Although Maxson at first tried to make an ally of Tarkanian, any relationship the two might have developed was blown away by Maxson's decision in 1990 to replace Tarkanian supporter Brad Rothermiel with Dennis Finfrock as athletic director. Within two years, Tarkanian had stepped down as basketball coach, but Maxson was not far behind him, resigning in 1994.

Maxson in 1958 earned his bachelor's degree in education and psychology from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. He received a master's degree in education administration from Florida Atlantic University in 1967 and a doctorate in educational leadership from Mississippi State University in 1970. After leaving UNLV in 1994, he was hired to serve as president of California State University, Long Beach. Maxson is married to Dr. Sylvia Parrish Maxson, and the couple has two children, Todd and Kimberly.