SMU Alumnus Raises Money to Fight Penalties

A Southern Methodist alumnus said $30,000 has been raised as a legal war chest to finance a federal lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s right to shut down SMU’s football program because of recruiting violations, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

The alumnus, Reid Ryan of Corpus Christi, said the suit could be filed Tuesday in Corpus Christi or Dallas.

SMU became the first school hit with the so-called death penalty. It was barred from fielding a football team this fall and may play only seven games, all on the road, in 1988. SMU was in the second year of a three-year probation term when the latest penalties came down. SMU said it would not appeal the sanctions.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News reported that Bob Hitch, SMU’s former athletic director, had direct knowledge of payoffs to SMU players.

The newspaper reported that sources said that Hitch knew as long ago as the fall of 1981 that SMU players were being paid from a fund set up by boosters and that records were kept of the payments.

The sources also said Hitch was involved in the decision to continue the payoffs after SMU was placed on three years probation by the NCAA in August, 1985.

Hitch denied the charges.