Texas head coach Chris Beard arrested, charged with felony family violence

UPDATE 6:00PM CST >> Texas has announced that Beard is suspended indefinitely without pay. Associate head coach Rodney Terry will serve as acting head coach in tonight’s game against Rice and until further notice.

ORIGINAL POST (12:15PM CST) >>

Texas head men’s basketball coach Chris Beard was arrested early Monday morning and charged with felony family violence. Austin police responded to an active domestic violence “hotshot” call at 2:00am; a woman at the scene told responding officers that Beard had strangled her.

Beard was arrested and booked into Travis County jail at 4:18am for the charge, which is a third-degree felony in Texas that carries a possible punishment of 2-10 years in prison. Jail records show that Beard stood before a judge, posted $10,000 bond and would likely be released from custody later in the day. A booking photo of Beard was released on Monday afternoon.

Texas hired Beard in 2021 after he spent the previous five years as head coach at rival Texas Tech, a tenure that included a trip to the NCAA National Championship game in April 2019. Beard’s defection to his alma mater made waves in the college basketball world and the early returns have been strong, as the Longhorns have held a Top 10 ranking since late November.

It remains to be seen what will happen at Texas, as the Horns are scheduled to host Rice on Monday evening. As of this writing, the school has only released the following short statement:

“The University is aware of the situation regarding Chris Beard. We are continuing to gather information and monitoring the legal situation.”

credit to Eric Gay/AP Photo for the image