Writing America's Sports Tragedy

[50's PONY]

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Writing America's sports tragedy
John Sparks tells his side of the SMU death penalty story
By: Nicole Jacobsen, Editor-in-Chief, [email protected]
Posted: 10/21/09
John Sparks has not returned to Ford Stadium since breaking the story that got SMU the NCAA death penalty. A University of Texas graduate, Sparks refuses to let himself feel guilty for what has become one of the greatest sport tragedies in America.

"I was fielding calls all day from people who were pretty upset, but most of the time after I finished talking to them they understood why it had to be done," Sparks said about the comments he received the day after the story broke. "I asked them, 'How could I not have done the story having discovered what I had found out?' They didn't like it, but they did come around to understand it."

A story too big to ignore, Sparks led the investigation, working with WFAA sports reporter Dale Hansen to break the story in an extended 1986 news show.

Sparks was a producer at ABC's Dallas affiliate, WFAA in 1983 when he received a tip from a former staff member of The Daily Campus about a player receiving money under the table at SMU. Sparks's research led him to David Stanley, a linebacker at SMU for the 1983-84 season, before he succumbed to a cocaine addiction and underwent an appendectomy in 1985.

Stanley told Sparks he was paid $25,000 to sign with the Mustangs in 1983, receiving monthly payments of $750 from SMU's recruiting coordinator, Henry Lee Parker. It was through the monthly payments from SMU that Stanley was able to support his drug habit.

"In college my freshman year, I guess was when I got involved with cocaine," Stanley told WFAA in a 1986 interview. Stanley admits that the athletic department paid for the drugs, giving him up to seven or eight thousand dollars.

"I told Bobby (the head coach at the time) I was doing it, and I told our faculty representative and president I was doing it," said Hitch, the athletic director, about the accusation. "We were trying to help David's family work out of his problems, and it concerns me now David is trying to hurt our program."

Sparks went to Parker next, armed with postmarked letters from Parker addressed to Stanley's family. Dated Oct. 25, 1985, SMU was already on probation for recruiting violations; the letters were a direct violation of NCAA rules, putting SMU back on the chopping block for violating probation.

Despite Parker and Hitch, denying accusations, a handwriting expert was able to match the writing on the letter to that of Parker.

As the investigation continued, the NCAA revealed that between 1985-86, 13 players, including Stanley, had received $61,000 from a booster-funded slushpool with payments ranging from $50 to $750 a month. The latest payment was instilled only one month after SMU was hit with the most recent probation.

It was later discovered that the payments were distributed with the approval of the SMU Athletic Department. Hitch even went on to admit he knew since 1981 that there was a slush fund being distributed to a group of football players. By the end of the 1986 season, SMU President L. Donald Shields, Hitch and head coach Bobby Collins resigned.

On Feb. 6, 1987, a report was delivered to the NCAA recommending an extension of the school's probation an extra four years until 1990. The report proposed the university would only be allowed to hire six assistant coaches, four of which could assist in off-campus recruiting. The committee also accepted the request to ban the team from playing in bowl games and appearing on live TV broadcasts.

On Feb. 25, the committee met again, canceling the team's 1987 season in a unanimous vote, and allowing only seven games to be played in 1988. During 1987, only conditioning drills would be permitted. Other penalties included the loss of 55 scholarships over a four year period, eight boosters being banned from all contact with the program and no off-campus recruiting until August 1988.

For the first time in the history of the NCAA, a school was banned from playing football for an entire season. The NCAA cited the penalties towards SMU to "eliminate a program that was built on a legacy of wrongdoing, deceit and rule violations."

Fortunately for SMU, the NCAA failed to deliver the full sentence, stopping short of canceling the program for as long as two seasons if the team was found guilty of major violations twice in a five-year period.

In addition to the cancelled 1987 season, all practices and scholarships were discontinued for the 1987-89 academic year. In the 1988 season, the NCAA permitted SMU to play in only seven games, none of which were to be considered "home" games. Scholarships, coaching positions and television games were also limited through the end of the team's probation on Sept. 1, 1990.

"It was such a devastating blow to SMU that I don't think [the NCAA] will ever do it again," Sparks said. "I don't even think [the NCAA] wanted to do something like that. The program was devastated, the university was devastated and because of the economic impact and the devastation it did I don't think there's ever been close to what the program was and I don't think there ever will be another school to receive the death penalty."

Despite the impact, Sparks admits that given another chance, he would still break the story, and feels if he had not uncovered the scandal, someone else would.

Since 1989, SMU's first season back after the death penalty, the program has only defeated two nationally-ranked teams and only has one winning season. In the 21 years, SMU is currently 58-153-3.

"SMU taught the committee that the death penalty is too much like the nuclear bomb," John Lombardi, the Louisiana State University System President said. "It's like what happened after we dropped the (atom) bomb in World War II. The results were so catastrophic that now we'll do anything to avoid dropping another one."
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© Copyright 2009 Daily Campus

[couch 'em]

WFAA in 1983 when he received a tip from a former staff member of The Daily Campus about a player receiving money under the table at SMU.

So it was full of football hating communists, even then.......

[Balatro Diabolus Ex]

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Writing America's sports tragedy
John Sparks tells his side of the SMU death penalty story
By: Nicole Jacobsen, Editor-in-Chief, [email protected]
Posted: 10/21/09
John Sparks has not returned to Ford Stadium since breaking the story that got SMU the NCAA death penalty.

Since there was no Ford stadium then, I can see why it would be difficult for him to "return".

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

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Writing America's sports tragedy
John Sparks tells his side of the SMU death penalty story
By: Nicole Jacobsen, Editor-in-Chief, [email protected]
Posted: 10/21/09
John Sparks has not returned to Ford Stadium since breaking the story that got SMU the NCAA death penalty.

Since there was no Ford stadium then, I can see why it would be difficult for him to "return".

That was my thought too when I started reading the article.

[Junior]

There you go again. Letting facts get in the way of such a great article!

[lwjr]

This took a lot of guts for him to break this story, but it still pi@# me off that it happened. Once again, this could have happened in Austin, College Station, or any of the big schools, but they produce to much revenue for the NCAA. The NCAA is a joke and does not have the courage to get serious about "cleaning up the problem". Reggie Bush and USC come to mind. MONEY MONEY MONEY.

[Stallion]

No again this could not have happened at ANY other school because no university was lead by a bunch of circus clowns like SMU under Bill Clements. Go back and study the evolution again of SMU's probations from at least 1974-1986. I believe there are 5 probations in 12 years. Nothing to compare to Bill "there wasn't a Bible in the Room" Clements. Quit glossing over the unique facts that distinguish SMU from all other NCAA violations. The Board of Govenors on 2 occassions condoned a clear plan to ignore NCAA sanctions and to continue meeting Payroll even after 3rd and 4th probations-there is no similar violation in NCAA History by the administration of an NCAA institution. There can be no easier slam-dunk case for "lack of institutional control" than SMU.


See this excerpt that shows Clements had knowledge as early as 1984(2+ years before Death Penalty revealations were uncovered November 1986) of the slush fund and failed to reveal to NCAA or take corrective action-remember also SMU had just been placed on probation again just about a year before the DP revealations:

On March 3, 1987, Clements admitted that he and the other members of the SMU board of governors had approved a secret plan to continue the slush fund payments to players. Clements said that the board agreed to "phase out" the slush fund at the end of the 1986 season, but that it felt duty-bound to honor prior commitments to the players. He later said he hadn't told the truth about the payments sooner because "there wasn't a Bible in the room."[17]

A week later, Clements apologized for his role in continuing the payments. He said he'd learned about the slush fund in 1984, and an investigation by the board of governors revealed that players had been paid to play since the mid-1970s. Clements said that rather than shut the payments down immediately, the board "reluctantly and uncomfortably" decided to continue paying players who had already been guaranteed payments. However, he said, in hindsight the board "should have stopped (the payments) immediately" rather than merely phase them out.[18]

[benchedpony]

As I watched the ESPN Pony Excess it brought back a sick feeling I hadn't felt in many years. I played at SMU in 76-78. I lived in fear in the years later that the NCAA was conducting the investigations that they would find me ask me to tell them what I saw happening. If had told them the things that I saw, I never would have been able to work at any company where a SMU booster had influence.

Long story, but I went to SMU just looking to play football because I loved the game...nothing more. That was Ron Meyer's first year. Why I stayed there is something even I can't even understand now. It's my opinion that Ron Meyer was a great football coach (for a college team), but I don't think many people would ever call him a great person. Even still he was hired to do only one thing and knew what it would take to get the players that were needed.

I will always be a SMU fan even though I saw the ugly underside of what winning at all costs involved. That fact that many other schools in Texas and across the country were doing the same doesn't make it right. It took great courage for someone to finally expose it...but don't think that the NCAA wasn't persuaded to pass the sanctions it did without some influence from other programs in what was then the SWC.

[SMUPhil]

Sparks mentions "how could I not publish the story, knowing what I did...". OK I get that, but how come they always stopped at SMU. Why didn't they say "Hey, Stanley, did any of these other schools offer you anything?" Or Dickerson's trans-am, how come they never followed up on that, even though EVERYONE knew aTm bought it.