Former Business Partners Sue Barry Switzer

NORMAN, Okla. (CN) – Former University of Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer has been sued by a former wrestling coach at the university and a former student wrestler, who say Switzer pocketed their $187,000 investment to open a restaurant.     Stanley Abel, who was head wrestling coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1972 until 1993, says he befriended Switzer when Switzer was the university’s head football coach.     The two “became extremely close personal friends” and business partners, according to the complaint in Cleveland County Court.     Abel says he and one of his former student-wrestlers, plaintiff Mozaffar Jahanguiri, invested in Switzer’s Lighthouse Restaurant in Oklahoma City, with Abel owning 25 percent and Jahanguiri getting 27.5 percent.     Abel says he invested $90,000, while Jahanguiri invested $97,000.     When the restaurant failed, the two say, they were never given their money back despite Switzer’s repeated promises that he would repay them.     Abel and Jahanguiri want their money back.     They are represented by Stanley Ward with Ward Glass.