Dallas Paper, in Probe, Alleges Payoffs to Players at Texas A

DALLAS —  Texas A&M; football players were given thousands of dollars in under-the-table payments and other illegal considerations by coaches and booster “sugar daddies,” a copyright story in the Dallas Times Herald said.

In a 160-inch story appearing in today’s editions, the Times Herald reported that a two-month investigation undertaken by the newspaper revealed that the Aggies, this year’s Southwest Conference football champions, had committed scores of NCAA violations since 1979.

The story was the first in a series, the newspaper said.

One former player, Gary Rogers of Dallas, said he was paid $20,000 by Riley C. Couch III, a Dallas banker and president-elect of the Dallas A&M; Club.

“It came to the point where I began to wonder, ‘Where is it coming from?’ ” said Rogers, who signed with A&M; in 1982 and left after sitting out the 1983 season on a disciplinary suspension. “I just blew money all the time. I partied a lot.”

Kathy Jackson, a former athletic department tutor at the university, was quoted as saying: “They had a very organized system for a player being paid. According to his ability, he would be assigned a sugar daddy. They would always joke about it: ‘My sugar daddy is richer than your sugar daddy.’ ”

Southwest Conference President Dr. Michael Johnson said Saturday that any collegiate athlete caught accepting money or other inducements from boosters should be considered a professional and ineligible to compete at any NCAA school.

Johnson declined to comment on the Times Herald story but said he believed that legislation slated for proposal to the NCAA convention next month concerning the responsibility of athletes in recruiting violation cases was not strong enough.

The Times Herald said that two current players, sophomore quarterback Kevin Murray and freshman linebacker Aaron Wallace, were driving late-model cars leased by sports agents or owned by boosters.

The alleged infractions, which included car deals, signing bonuses, weekly allowances and big payoffs for the sale of players’ game tickets, occurred during the tenures of Jackie Sherrill, the school’s football coach and athletic director since 1982, and former coach Tom Wilson.

Wilson, who coached from 1978 to 1981, would not comment. Sherrill told the Times Herald that he had no knowledge of violations and that a partly completed in-house investigation had revealed no improprieties.

The Southwest Conference has been overwhelmed by NCAA scrutiny in recent years. Southern Methodist is currently serving the stiffest football-related penalty handed out by the NCAA. Baylor is under investigation for alleged payments made to a basketball player, and Texas Christian football Coach Jim Wacker suspended seven players from his team this year for taking money from alumni.

In interviews with more than 40 recent players and other sources, the newspaper uncovered a payoff system that matched “sugar daddies” with players they allegedly paid off.

Two players, Rogers and Cal Peveto of Vidor, said they were given large amounts of cash from Couch.

Rogers said he received $5,000 from Couch as a high school junior in 1981 and another large, unspecified amount after signing a letter of intent with Texas A&M; in 1982.

Rogers further alleged that Couch paid him a weekly allowance of up to $500 during his two years at the university.

Couch, 36, a senior vice president at Capital Bank in Dallas, denied giving money to either player.

Former players also alleged they were given money by coaches, who sometimes handed over hundreds of dollars.

Players who performed well in a game would return to the locker room to find envelopes stuffed with hundreds of dollars slipped anonymously into their lockers and shoes or under doors in the athletic dormitory, the story said.

One former player, who asked not to be identified, said he received small amounts of cash from a hometown booster before and during his career at Texas A&M.;

“Just about every one of the starters had their alumni,” he was quoted as saying. “I had an alum. . . . He’d give me $50 here and there.”

The Times Herald further said that Sherrill is directing a “cover-up” of information about his players and has restricted access to them while potential NCAA violations are being investigated.

Sherrill, in a statement issued in response to inquiries from the Associated Press Saturday, denied any cover-up and said he simply was trying to shield his players from “harassment” by the newspaper.

The newspaper said that Sherrill had most of his players sign secrecy requests that Texas A&M; officials have used to withhold otherwise public information about the players’ cars.

The Times Herald said the secrecy forms were passed out after it made a request under the state open records law for documents about vehicle registrations previously ruled public records by the Texas attorney general.

The newspaper said that Sherrill also ordered in late October that players’ telephone numbers be kept secret. Some players also told the paper that Sherrill ordered them not to talk with some newspaper reporters.

Sherrill told the Associated Press that he gave players the option of signing secrecy forms and had their phone numbers withheld to shield them during their successful Southwest Conference championship drive.

“We simply decided to combat the paper’s disruptive tactics--harassment is probably not too strong a term--by the only means available to us,” Sherrill said. “And that was to limit our contact with its abusive reporters and protect the players to the best of our ability so that they could concentrate on their studies and preparations for games.”

The newspaper said it asked to review vehicle registration records after reports of potential violations of NCAA regulations.

According to earlier published reports, an Aggie booster from Dallas, Ronald Dockery, provided a car to quarterback Murray in violation of NCAA rules.

Murray, of Dallas, has said he was offered cars and other improper inducements while being recruited by Texas A&M;, SMU, TCU and Oklahoma. Dockery and coaches at all four institutions have denied any impropriety.

But A&M; officials have asked the Southwest Conference and NCAA to investigate the allegations concerning Murray’s recruitment and the car, the newspaper said. NCAA officials also plan to investigate the accusations involving Texas A&M; and the other three schools, the Times Herald said.

A&M; is conducting an internal investigation that school officials said will review its football recruiting in general.

The newspaper said that Sherrill had his players sign secrecy forms during practice session shortly after the school received the Times Herald’s formal request for car registrations.

On Oct. 22, the same week the secrecy forms were passed out, Sherrill issued a directive ordering the school’s telephone operator to withhold players’ numbers.

“As of today, do not give out any numbers of the athletes that live in the C-Wing (the football team wing) of Cain Dorm, per Coach Sherrill,” the directive said.

Sherrill said Saturday that he felt so confident that the school’s athletic program was “in good shape” that he might tell university officials to “limit the extent of our investigation.”

“If all the Times Herald could find is what they confronted me with, then the paper has essentially substantiated what we already know--that our program is in good shape,” Sherrill said.

But Sherrill added that a coach at any major college would be foolish to make a blanket statement that its program was completely clean.

“When anyone is involved with hundreds of young people and thousands of alumni, you’d have to be stupid to say categorically that nothing irregular ever took place,” he said, “just as you’d be stupid to say so about a large corporation, a charitable organization or perhaps even a church.”