Missouri sports psychologist Brandon Orr arrested for public intoxication

April 22, 2014

Oklahoma City Police arrested a Missouri wrestling staff member early Sunday morning for public intoxication in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City.

“We are aware of Brandon’s situation and are addressing it in an appropriate manner,” Mizzou Athletics spokesman Chad Moller said in an emailed statement. “We are disappointed that this happened, and it’s an important reminder that staff members are held to high standards and that we are always representing the University at all times.”

Moller said Missouri athletics employees are always on the job whether or not they are working.

Brandon Orr is the wrestling team’s sports psychologist. He was arrested wearing a yellow Missouri polo and in the presence of several student athletes, according to the police report.

Orr was in Oklahoma City with the Missouri wrestling team for the 2014 NCAA Wrestling National Championships. The Tigers had eight wrestlers in the tournament.

The Sheraton is one block from Chesapeake Energy Arena, the site of the championships. It was a team hotel for many of the competing schools.

When officers arrived at the hotel, about 50 people were in the lobby, many of them drunk and intoxicated student athletes, according to the police report, though no other university affiliations were mentioned. The report said that hotel employees called the police because the situation was getting out of hand.

Officers asked people in the lobby to return to their rooms, but Orr refused. He also refused twice to the officers’ request to stand up.

The report said Orr smelled of alcohol and that there was a table with several empty beer bottles in front of him.

The tournament ended Saturday night, and Orr was arrested around 3 a.m. Sunday. He was released 10 hours later and paid a $167 fine, as is the policy with local public drunkenness citations.

“I apologize for my recent actions,” Orr said in a statement from the athletic department. “I made an inappropriate comment to an officer, and I very much regret that. I know that this doesn’t reflect the values we are held to at Mizzou.”

Orr, an assistant teaching professor, has been with MU since 2008. He is currently a fellow with the Honors College and has taught some general honors courses. He currently instructs an online course for graduate students about sports and applied coaching.

“We cannot comment on disciplinary procedures,” MU spokesman Christian Basi said Wednesday.

According to the human resources policy manual, UM employees can be fired without warning due to the seriousness of the incident. Basi said being drunk on the job is a serious enough offense to warrant summary discharge.

This is the seventh known arrest this year of a Missouri athlete or athletics department official.

Source: Katherine Knott, "Wrestling team’s sport psychologist arrested after hotel lobby party," The Maneater, March 26, 2014.