Tying a Shoe

[johnny1784]

Originally posted by mick

johnny1784,
Bill Walton was an Academic All-American.
What were some of the income and perks for UCLA players?
mick

WORK PAID FOR THAT WAS NOT PERFORMED, CLOTHING, AUTOS, CASH, HOOKERS, ETC.


Debate has become a pain in the asterisk
By Bruce Jenkins

There once was scandal in a magical kingdom. It was the realm of a legendary sports figure, not so saintly as he appeared, and it seems relevant to the Barry Bonds-with-an-asterisk issue that has dominated spring-training conversation.

The scene was West Los Angeles in the late 1960s and early '70s, a time when UCLA basketball ran roughshod over the competition. Coach John Wooden's club almost literally was unbeatable, with a stable of future NBA standouts that spoke brilliantly to his recruiting powers.

As it turned out, the Bruins didn't play by the rules. Over the years, it came to light that a wealthy alumnus named Sam Gilbert bestowed lavish favors upon players and potential recruits, from cars to free apartments to cold cash -- anything to maintain the party-hearty atmosphere that surrounded the team at that time.

As opposed to Wooden, who was interested only in the players' on-court behavior and deeply resented the student rebellion of the time, Gilbert was a friend and father figure who could talk to players about personal matters. And Wooden, it was always said, simply looked the other way.

In subsequent years, investigative pieces in the Los Angeles Times exposed Gilbert's activities as clearly illegal by NCAA standards, even quoting sources claiming he was involved with the Miami mafia. "For years, the NCAA ignored everything," said Mike Littwin, one of the Times' chief reporters on the story (the only sanction was to ban Gilbert from any association with the program). "They didn't want to mess with the Wooden legend."

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Excerpts from the article,

“Cheerleaders or Reporters?”
By Ken Krayeske

…Go back 30 years, though, and the UCLA run of 10 national basketball championships that laid the groundwork for puff-pastry sports writing "We all know that Sam Gilbert [a rich Los Angeles businessman] was the sugar daddy for UCLA basketball players [in the early 1970s]," Secia says. Gilbert lavished players and coaches with illegal gifts.

In 1990, Gilbert died three days before the federal government was to indict him for laundering drug money at his Bicycle Club Casino in Los Angeles. "But [any connection between Gilbert and the team] was untouchable because it was [UCLA coach] John Wooden territory. Everybody knew what was going on at UCLA, just as they did at the Kennedy White House, but nobody did anything about it. People are reporting it now," he says, but then, it was good for college basketball to sweep it under the rug…