NEW YORK

A jury might conclude that a White former college basketball coach was fired because he was married to a Black woman, a federal appeals court said Tuesday as it reinstated a lawsuit that had been dismissed by a judge.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan restored the lawsuit brought by former Iona College basketball assistant coach Craig Holcomb against the school, finding a jury might say he was fired in part due to his wife's race.

The appeals court said Holcomb was entitled to try to prove Iona was motivated by his interracial marriage when it fired him. The college has maintained the firing had nothing to do with race and Holcomb was fired in an overhaul of a poorly performing team.

The three-judge appeals panel wrote that it was the first time it had concluded that an employer can violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by taking action against an employee because of association with a person of another race. Three other appeals courts nationwide have made the same ruling.

Holcomb was hired by Iona as an assistant coach for the men's basketball team in 1995. He was named associate head coach in 1998 after the school hired Jeff Ruland, a former NBA All-Star, as its coach. The team won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in 1998, 2000 and 2001 and won a berth each year in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.

Holcomb was fired along with another coach in 2004. In a $2 million lawsuit, Holcomb said two of five college officers responsible for his firing had racially inspired motives and a desire to help fundraising among Iona's mostly White alumni, the appeals court said.

A federal judge in White Plains dismissed the lawsuit before trial, saying Holcomb had not established facts linking the alleged racist tendencies to the administration's evaluation of the basketball program.

Holcomb married a Black woman, Pamela Gauthier, in June 2000, and Ruland began a relationship in 2001 with a Black woman who was her friend, the appeals court said. In his lawsuit, Holcomb outlined examples of racially charged behavior by the school.