Sports Scandals

by Laura Finley; Jeffrey J. Fountain Peter Finley

  The Albert Means recruiting scandal was important in that it brought to light that top high school prospects truly can be bought, which many had suspected. Further, as one sports columnist suggested, it begged the question, ''If schools have become that aggressive when it comes to a lineman such as Means, what must they be doing to acquire star quarterbacks, running backs and receivers?''51

  Means transferred after one season at Alabama to the University of Memphis and was immediately eligible to play. The NCAA waived the normal one-year residency requirement that would have forced Means to sit out a year NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro said the NCAA's Administrative Review Subcommittee reviewed the case and considered what was best for the player in light of the fact that he knew nothing of the payments that Lang had received. Means missed one season at Memphis due to academic issues, but returned to complete his eligibility. He was not drafted to play in the National Football League.

  TENNESSEE FOOTBALL ACADEMIC FRAUD ACCUSATIONS

  In late September 1999 ESPN.com reported on incidents of possible academic fraud by athletes and their tutors at the University of Tennessee (UT).

  The scandal was particularly damaging given that it came on the tail of one of the football program's greatest moments-claiming the 1998 national title.

  ESPN.com reported that academic programs coordinator Robin Wright informed tutor program supervisor Gerald Dickey and associate athletic director Carmen Tegano about several plagiarism cases involving football players.

  According to ESPN, none of the information was passed on to the proper campus authorities charged with investigating such claims. Four football players were immediately suspended (Leonard Scott, Reggie Ridley, Keyon Whiteside, and Ryan Rowe) until the university could review the allegations. Two football players who had transferred and one women's basketball player were also named. Linda Bensel-Meyers, director of composition for the UT English department, issued a statement claiming ''the acts of plagiarism appeared to be institutionally mandated by the athletic department.''52 A former Tennessee wide receiver, Tory Edge, supported Bensel-Meyers's claim by saying, ''Not with every tutor. But you get some guys who come up there just bleeding orange. They don't care; they just want to be around the football team.''53

  The report set forth a chain of events that placed the University of Tennessee in the media spotlight for possible academic fraud, and resulted in several internal and external investigations that continued for over two years.

  The university, lead by UT attorney Ron Leadbetter, conducted a probe into the allegations of academic fraud that included an interview with BenselMeyers. She claimed, however, that the interview prevented open discussion and that Leadbetter did not want her to bring in files that backed up the claims that academic fraud was commonplace in the tutoring program. Leadbetter's investigation concluded with the university finding that no tutors wrote papers for athletes and there was no cover-up of NCAA violations.

  Some faculty members expressed concern about the investigatory process. John Finger, head of the history department, commented, ''I think it's ridiculous to think that the university, as tied to the athletic department as it is, could come up with a completely objective assessment of the situation.''54

  In December 1999 the NCAA conducted an inquiry into the university's investigation. The NCAA also concluded that the University of Tennessee was not violating any NCAA rules in its academic assistance of athletes. BenselMeyers was interviewed by NCAA investigators, but, just as with the university's investigation, she claimed the NCAA investigators also did not want to see her records that exposed the academic problems at the university.

  In April 2000, Bensel-Meyers released summaries of some of the records she had compiled. The records were from thirty-nine athletes, of which most were football players and included all of the starters from the 1999 season.

  The summaries showed twenty of the players were on academic review multiple times, and thirty players had a total of 105 cases of grade changes after they were initially entered by professors. Two players each received eleven grade changes and two other players had failing grades changed to an ''A.''

  The report summaries also showed that one athlete was placed on academic review ten times in five years at UT (the University of Tennessee's academic review is instituted when a student's grade-point average falls below 2.0). In May 2000 Bensel-Meyers handed over the records of the thirty-nine athletes to a faculty committee that was charged with investigating specific allegations of academic fraud in the athletic department.

  Through the media, UT responded by disputing Bensel-Meyers's claim that most of the thirty-nine athletes never bothered to declare majors, but it did not address her other, and more serious, allegations. The NCAA returned in August 2000 to investigate the issue of grade changes, and this time BenselMeyers was able to share her information regarding players she alleged were ''academically suspect'' because of the tutoring program and claims of plagiarism, grade changes, and using the learning disabilities guidelines liberally to avoid academic eligibility issues. For her efforts to protect the academic integrity of the institution, Bensel-Meyers received death threats, had her office broken into, and was harassed in malls and grocery stores. She even believed her phone had been tapped. Her appearances on 20/20, HBO's Real Sports, and ESPN outraged the Volunteers' faithful fans and caused many of her colleagues to distance themselves.

  Bensel-Meyers filed a complaint with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI failed to find any violation of federal law, but the threats against her stopped. According to Bensel-Meyers, she knew her phone was tapped when she received a call from an alumnus who offered unsolicited information. After hanging up, the caller received a call from someone who knew the allegations he had just made.55 The FBI did not say whether BenselMeyers's phone calls had been monitored, but the university claimed it did not monitor employees' calls.

  In the end, both the NCAA and the Southeastern Conference cleared the University of Tennessee of any violations under the basic argument that neither body has any ''authority over academics'' nor do they ''police academics.''56 Robin Wright, who authored the memos initially used by ESPN to break the story, left Tennessee in January 1999 for a position at Stephen F. Austin University, where she runs the award-winning and nationally-recognized academic assistance and resource center. On July 1, 2003, Linda Bensel-Meyers resigned from the University of Tennessee and accepted a faculty position at the University of Denver. She continues to be active and influential in the movement to protect the academic integrity of higher education. The case brought up important issues regarding the quality of education for student-athletes. This issue remains important today, as scholars and sports fans regularly assess graduation rates, grade-point averages, and even the majors selected by student athletes as at least partial indicators of a university's commitment to creating not just athletes, but student-athletes.

  UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA ACADEMIC FRAUD

  On March 10, 1999, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that Jan Gangelhoff, a former employee in the academic counseling department at the University of Minnesota, claimed she had written hundreds of assignments and assisted in other course work, including research papers and take-home tests, for at least twenty men's basketball players at the University of Minnesota.

  Gangelhoff reported that she received $3,000 and was told it came from coach Haskins. The report came out one day before the Gophers were set to play in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament. A few hours before tipoff, university president Mark Yudof declared four players ineligible for the first-round game against Gonzaga, pending an investigation. The players were starters Kevin Clark and Miles Tarver and reserves Antoine Broxsie and Jason Stanford. The Gophers lost to Gonzaga, 75-63.

  The same day, another former employee accused head coach Clem Haskins of asking him to do course work for a player in 1986. As the accusations piled up, former player Russ Archambault claimed Haskins gave him hundreds of dollars between 19
96 and 1998, when he was kicked off the team for missing curfew. Melissa Burns, a former academic counselor for the basketball program, came forward to report that she had quit because she had suspicions of cheating by players. She claimed officials disregarded her concerns, and that Coach Haskins ''intimidated her.'' Next, Elayne Donahue, the former head of academic counseling, said that faculty members were pressured to help assist the team in keeping players eligible to play. This included changing grades and issuing grades before completion of the work. She also claimed Haskins gave free tickets to a faculty member to secure eligibility of players.

  The investigation initially focused on Alonzo Newby, the academic counsellor for the men's basketball team and the man Gangelhoff named as the person who handed her the $3,000.57 In June 1999, Newby was fired because he had refused to talk to investigators during the university's independent investigation.

  The university and Haskins also reached a settlement in June 1999. The university agreed to buy out his contract for $1.5 million because officials felt they did not have enough direct evidence to fire Haskins with cause. However, the university sued to recover the $1.5 million after the investigation turned up a copy of a check made out to cash for $3,000 from Clem Haskins, and he admitted to paying Jan Gangelhoff. When the two sides finally settled the case, Haskins was required to return $850,000 of the $1.5 million.

  Once the smoke cleared from the academic-fraud scandal, several highranking administrators were also left without jobs. McKinley Boston, the vice president for student development and athletics, athletic director Mark Dienhart, compliance director Chris Schoemann, and men's senior associate athletic director Jeff Schemmel all did not have their contracts renewed. Boston and Dienhart resigned shortly after the final report on the investigation was released because they had failed to catch the academic fraud. Among the reasons the academic fraud went unnoticed was that in 1994, Haskins requested a reorganization of academic counseling. Academic counselors for men's basketball would report directly to the athletic department, while all other sports had their academic counselors reporting to the university's academic counseling department.

  The NCAA placed the Gophers on probation for four years and reduced the number of scholarships allowed. The punishment was considered light because the university already had self-imposed penalties including sitting out the postseason the previous year. The NCAA also required the school to alter the team's records from the 1993-94 season to the 1998-99 season, forfeiting every game played in those seasons. The team was stripped of its 1997 Big Ten Championship win, Voshon Lenard was stripped of his career scoring record, and Haskins was stripped of all victories over his last six seasons. Literally overnight, Haskins's record at the University of Minnesota went from 240-165 to 111-294. Unfortunately, this was not the last allegation of academic fraud at the college level.

  DANNY ALMONTE STARRED IN LITTLE LEAGUE, TWO YEARS TOO LATE

  Danny Almonte was like a man playing with boys when he took the mound in the 2001 Little League World Series. He threw heat that the batters had little hope of putting a bat to. Through the tournament, Almonte used seventy-miles-per-hour fastballs, striking out forty-six of the batters he faced, allowing only three hits and one run. In the regional finals he threw a no-hitter, and then he bettered that with the first perfect game in the Little League World Series since 1957. It would be revealed that Almonte's success was tainted, however, as he was two years older than the competition that he toyed with. The Rolando Paulino All-Stars team, who many called the Baby Bombers, was disqualifled from its third-place finish (Almonte did not pitch in the game the team lost), and his records were stricken from the books.

  Almonte had moved from the Dominican Republic to the Bronx, New York, where he began to play Little League in 2001. Almost immediately he was dogged by accusations that he was too old. Parents from two opposing teams were so confident that he and his teammates were too old that they hired private investigators to look into the matter. Neither found conclusive evidence. However, reporters for Sports Illustrated did find that Almonte's father had registered a questionable birth certificate in 1994. That discovery led to a full investigation.

  Sonia Rojas Breton, Almonte's mother, claimed he was born in 1989 and produced a handwritten and photocopied birth certificate to prove it. She claimed he had been born at home. Just ten blocks from her house in Moca, the official records office had a birth certificate showing his birth year as 1987 and that he had been born in a nearby hospital. Almonte's mother claimed all records but hers were false. After an investigation, Dominican public officials disagreed and charged his father with falsifying a birth certificate.

  Compounding the Almonte scandal was that it was more than just a case of a forged birth certificate. Little League rules require players to represent a team in at least six games prior to June 15 to be eligible to play on an All-Star team. Almonte had not even lived in the Bronx long enough to satisfy this requirement. School officials in the Dominican Republic certifled that he was finishing the seventh grade there and up to June 15 was taking final exams. That meant not only had his father cheated the system, but also that there were conspirators with the local Little League who attested that Danny had played in games that he did not. He wasn't even in the country when they were played.58

  This prompted one sports columnist to write, ''That's the part I can't understand. I've seen plenty of parents who thought nothing of bending the rules to give their kids an edge. But the depth of collusion in this case, the sheer number of people who willingly lied and the audacity of their deceit, is simply unbelievable.''59

  Little League officials were more inclined to place the blame for the Almonte scandal on the adults involved than to blame the player. Felipe de Jesus Almonte and league founder Rolando Paulino were both banned from Little League for life. ''Clearly, adults have used Danny Almonte and his teammates in a most contemptible and despicable way,'' said Stephen D. Keener, the president and CEO of Little League Baseball.60 As of 2004, Almonte reported that he no longer spoke to his father.

  The Almonte scandal was indicative of how one name can become synonymous with a form of cheating and a player can go from hero to goat overnight. A teammate of Almonte, catcher Francisco Pena, was also in school in the Dominican Republic through June, making him equally ineligible to have played, but his name never made the headlines. Even years after the incident, Almonte made back page headlines when, at eighteen and a high school senior, he married a thirty-year-old hairdresser. From time to time stories continued to make the papers about Almonte's success as a high school pitcher and then subsequent struggles as a minor league ballplayer, and his surprising failure to be drafted by a Major League Baseball team in 2006. In an interview in 2004, Almonte commented that he learned some life lessons from the scandal. Sadly, he expounded, ''I feel now like I don't trust everybody like I did before. The people I trusted wronged me.''61

  SAMMY SOSA'S CORKED BAT

  Chicago Cubs star Sammy Sosa, one of the most prolific home run hitters in Major League Baseball history, was caught cheating with a corked bat against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in June 2003. Sosa had gained fame as the man who battled and ultimately lost to Mark McGwire in the home run race of 1998. Sosa had enjoyed a tremendous reputation, with one columnist calling him a ''quintessential good guy … a lovable slugger with an infectious smile.''62 The corked bat changed all that. Like McGwire, Sosa's accomplishments were already suspect as a result of the steroid problems that plagued the sport when his bat shattered and umpires found the cork.

  Cork inside a baseball bat helps players hit the ball farther. Corking a bat is a violation of baseball's rules, and several players have been suspended from Major League Baseball when their bats splintered and cork spilled out, including Albert Belle, Wilton Guerrero, Chris Sabo, Billy Hatcher, and Graig Nettles.

  Sosa was suspended for seven games and came back to hostile fans who booed him when he was on road trips. They called him ''Corky'' and waved signs calli
ng him ''Scammy Sosa.'' To his credit, Sosa just kept smiling and swinging and never showed a surly reaction.

  Sosa offered an explanation and apology for the incident: ''I use that bat for batting practice,'' Sosa said. ''It's something that I take the blame for. It's a mistake, I know that.'' He went on to explain that he had the bat to put on a show for fans during batting practice and accidentally took it into the game.63

  Many doubted his story and believed the real explanation was that the slugger was coming back from an injury and was mired in a slump, recording only two hits in fifteen at bats since coming off the disabled list. In his favor was the fact that he had broken hundreds of bats and none before had been corked. His other bats were confiscated and X-rayed. None were revealed to have been corked. Regardless, the corked bat incident has remained as a stain on Sosa's reputation.

  UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA ACADEMIC FRAUD

  The University of Georgia suspended assistant men's basketball coach Jim Harrick Jr. pending an investigation on February 28, 2003. One day prior, ESPN televised an interview with former University of Georgia basketball player Tony Cole, in which he claimed that he had some of his bills paid by and received academic help from Harrick Jr. Cole accused Harrick Jr. of paying over $1,300 in hotel and phone charges before Cole enrolled at the University of Georgia. Cole said the coach completed junior college correspondence courses for him and gave him a passing grade in a class taught by Harrick Jr. Cole never attended the course. Cole did not leave the University of Georgia basketball team on good terms. After being charged with aggravated assault with intent to rape, he was dismissed from the team. The charges were later dismissed. Harrick Jr. held the position of assistant under his father, Head Coach Jim Harrick.