Tuskegee Basketball Coach Put In Handcuffs Will Sue Morehouse, Police

A Division II men's basketball coach removed from the court in handcuffs earlier this season is planning to file a lawsuit against Morehouse College and two of its campus police officers, according to the coach's attorneys.

Tuskegee University coach Benjy Taylor was never charged with a crime despite being escorted off the floor after a 77-69 loss at rival Morehouse and he will announce on Friday, March 20 in College Park, Georgia that he's seeking further legal ramifications from the incident. Taylor is being represented by well-known civil rights attorneys Harry Daniels, John Burris, Gerald Griggs and Gregory Reynald Williams.

Taylor's attorneys wrote in a news release announcing their intention to officially file a lawsuit this week that the treatment Taylor received "sparked national attention and outcry." In addition to Morehouse College, campus police officers "R. Clark and M. Roberson" were named by Taylor's legal team as defendants in the impending civil case. Daniels previously said Taylor had retained him to explore "all legal avenues."

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The incident occurred as players from Tuskegee and Morehouse shook hands after a Jan. 31 game at Forbes Arena in Atlanta, with an HBCU Gameday video widely shared on social media showing Taylor initially confronting security.

According to Taylor and Tuskegee athletic director Reginald Ruffin, Taylor asked the security officer to follow conference rules and help remove a group of Morehouse football players — who Taylor said were yelling obscenities — from the handshake line. Instead, after a brief interaction, the security officer handcuffed Taylor and walked him off the court.

“I am at a loss for words and I am upset about how I was violated and treated today," Taylor said in a statement to multiple outlets in the immediate aftermath of the incident. "For my players, my family and people of Tuskegee to witness that is heartbreaking for me. I was simply trying to get the football team out of the handshake line as they were following right behind me and the team yelling obscenities! It was a very dangerous situation.”

Trying to sort out what happened at the end of this HBCU rivalry game ????

Here is what we know: https://t.co/eDyEz8cuSKpic.twitter.com/en5f6Qq3Oj

— HBCU Gameday (@HBCUGameday) January 31, 2026

The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC), of which both schools are members, subsequently fined Morehouse an undisclosed amount. An investigation by the conference into the situation determined Morehouse, "did not satisfy the required security standards for a host institution, specifically as it relates to crowd control and ensuring the safe entry and exit of visiting teams and game participants."

Tuskegee also lost to Morehouse, 66-56, in the SIAC championship game on March 7. The two teams played three times this season, including a 67-55 Tuskegee win on Dec. 1. Morehouse lost to Nova Southeastern in the first round of the NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament on March 14.

Taylor recently finished his seventh season at Tuskegee. He was previously the head coach at Chicago State and interim head coach at Hawaii, and served as an assistant coach at Tulane, CSU-Bakersfield and Missouri State during a career spanning 35 years.

Tuskegee president Dr. Mark A. Brown has stated Taylor has “our full, unequivocal, and unwavering support.”

“It would be bad for a police officer to treat anyone like this," Daniels said last month. "But to do it to a man like Coach Taylor, a highly respected professional and role model, to put him in handcuffs, humiliate him and treat him like a criminal in front of his team, his family and a gym full of fans is absolutely disgusting and they need to be held accountable.”

-USA TODAY Sports reporter Craig Meyer contributed to this story

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tuskegee basketball coach Benjy Taylor to file lawsuit vs. Morehouse