No Wonder We Can't Compete

[yesindeedydoody]

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports

Feb. 11, 2004, 2:08AM


UH, Rice unaware of strippers
Dancers supposedly hired by students
By DAVID BARRON
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

The president of a company that employs topless dancers said Tuesday his strippers have been hired by students at Rice University and the University of Houston to perform at parties that might have been attended by student-athletes or prospective student-athletes.

Steve Lower, whose Denver-based Hardbodies Entertainment Inc. employs about 15 dancers in Houston, said such parties are commonplace in Colorado and, to his knowledge, elsewhere around the nation.

"It's a tradition handed down from player to player to player," Lower said. "But colleges and universities have absolutely no knowledge of these parties. They're paid for by players or friends of players, and they're not happening on campus."

Lower first disclosed that Hardbodies dancers had danced at parties involving student-athletes as recently as two weeks ago at the University of Colorado. He subsequently said Colorado should not be singled out because such parties happened elsewhere, such as at Rice and UH.

"We have supplied entertainers for parties at the University of Houston and Rice," he said. "Whether they were recruit parties, I don't know."

Lower said he opened the Houston branch of his business, which also includes branches in Denver and Las Vegas, about 18 months ago. He said he was not as familiar with the Houston operation as the Denver branch and thus could not say if dancers had been hired here to perform for recruits.

"Usually the only way we find out that recruits were there is if the girls tell us," he said.

University of Houston athletic director Dave Maggard said UH "has no knowledge of and does not condone the type of `recruitment' activity" described by Lower.

"We expect our student-athletes to act responsibly at all times," he added. "We are concerned about these allegations and will investigate them completely."

Maggard said Lower was unable to give him a definitive answer when he asked if UH student-athletes had hired dancers.

"He indicated to me that University of Houston students had utilized this service," Maggard said. "My question was, `Are you talking about student-athletes or students?' and he said `students.' I said `athletes?' and he said, `I'm not sure. I would assume that athletes may have been involved.'

"No one in our department knows anything about this, and this fellow (Lower) indicated that no one at the school knows anything about it other than the students (who hired the dancers)." Maggard said. "He said at all the institutions where he has done, quote, business, it has all been through students."

UH football coach Art Briles, who was hired after the 2002 season, said, "We know what type of players we have here, and this hasn't happened in the last two recruiting seasons."

At Rice, spokesman Terry Shepard said university president Malcolm Gillis had asked athletic director Bobby May and vice president for student affairs Zenaido Camacho to determine whether such parties had taken place on campus.

Shepard said Rice officials had no knowledge of the parties described by Lower and that if such gatherings took place, they were "completely out of line with the university's standards."

"I can't believe any of our athletes are that stupid," Gillis said in a university statement. "However, if it is proven that any of them or anyone at Rice had anything to do with such a thing, it would go very [deleted] them."

May said Rice officials were unable to find any reference to Hardbodies in its athletic department records.

"We will do our best to find out if there is any activity that would link our players with that organization, but we have no evidence of that," he said. "We don't expect to find any connection."

Lower's statements came one week after Boulder County (Colo). District Attorney Mary Keenan alleged that the University of Colorado uses sex and women to entice recruits. The allegation was contained in one of three federal lawsuits filed by women who say they were raped at an off-campus party in December 2001 attended by players and recruits.

According to NCAA rules, a school "may not arrange or permit excessive entertainment," though it is unclear what constitutes excessive.


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The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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<img src="http://www.eeeep.com/m-factor/monkeys/monkeybra.jpg" alt=" - " />

[EastStang]

Strippers, Ho's, and willing co-eds have been a recruiting tool since the beginning of time.

[OldPony]

Uh- Isn't this whar college guys have always done- with or without athletics being involved? This is just a witch hunt fueled by a few shameless promoters. I doubt anyone much had heard of Hardbodies until this guy had a chance to get ink and he utilized it the best way he knew how by suggesting with no proof that this was a recruiting party. Thnik it could have been a bachelor party? Or talent for some other big party? The press should be ashamed for reporting this at this point.

[RELATIVE-STANG]

**************HEY! BOOKWORMS*************
OLD-P is trying to tell ya that this is nothing new, ahh, except maybe to you bookworms!!! so leave him alone. Heee,,Heee,,,Heee,

[Eddie P]

Laughing maniacally by yourself as you type on a computer is often a symptom of serious personality disorders.

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

Originally posted by RELATIVE-STANG:
**************HEY! BOOKWORMS*************
OLD-P is trying to tell ya that this is nothing new, ahh, except maybe to you bookworms!!! so leave him alone. Heee,,Heee,,,Heee,

Isn't there some Ouachita Baptist message board you should go and post on now?