Coach firing sparks furor

CHAMPAIGN – On the eve of a regional basketball championship game, Champaign school officials fired a popular Franklin Middle School coach who admits he pushed a player down on the bench.

That player: Superintendent Arthur Culver's seventh-grade son, Alexander, who coach Todd Anderson says swore at him when he removed him from the game because he was playing poorly. Culver, who attended the Wednesday sectional game at Tolono's Unity Junior High School, took his son home before the game ended with a Franklin victory.

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