ABSTRACT
College athletics–particularly Division I-A football and basketball programs–suffered countless scandals during the late 1980s. The list included:
the Chicago trial of sports agents Norby Walters and Lloyd Bloom, who were ultimately convicted of bribing amateur athletes.
a rash of unlawful incidents involving University of Oklahoma football players in early 1989, including drug dealing, rape, and assault and battery, which led to the resignation of Head Coach Barry Switzer.
the testimony of two former University of Iowa football players that they took such puff courses as billiards, watercolor painting and recreational leisure.
two published articles in Sports Illustrated–one by a key player on the NCAA championship Villanova basketball squad, the other by a lineman on the University of South Carolina football team–which detailed cases of serious drug abuse (cocaine in the former case, steroids with respect to the latter).
an NCAA investigation of the University of Florida program in fall 1989–where (1) Gator basketball coaches stood accused of having paid players, (2) former athletes allegedly purchased drugs while playing for Florida, (3) the starting quarterback and one of his backups were booted off the team for betting on games, and (4) the football coach resigned for having violated NCAA rules–seemed likely to result in the imposition of the “death penalty” (given the 1984 firing of the head coach in football for infractions that included improper recruiting activities and payments).
the forced resignation in 1989 of North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano as Wolfpack athletic director, the result of a state investigation of academic and other abuses in his basketball program, followed by evidence–suppressed for one and a half months by Valvano–that nine current or former members of the wrestling team had assaulted two men and a woman near campus.
the sentencing of ex-Memphis State basketball coach Dana Kirk to a year in prison for income tax evasion.
the investigation of a former University of Kentucky assistant coach for reportedly sending $1,000 through the mail to the father of a recruited player.
the placing of many other big-time programs (e.g., USC, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, the University of Houston, Texas Christian, Kansas, Clemson, the University of Texas) on NCAA probation for assorted violations.
