Police found two receipts and a Gulf Oil credit card belonging to allergist Bob Overholt’s firm in the glove compartment of Tony Robinson’s Grand Prix following his January 8, 1986, arrest for selling cocaine. Newspaper allegations suggested that Overholt, a longtime athletics booster, had provided the car to Robinson, loaned cars to other athletes, allowed Robinson to use his credit card, and provided housing for Robinson. A former hotel owner, Trent Richey, announced that he had provided more than $100,000 in free lodging to players and coaches of various teams over a multiyear period, and some athletes were quoted in local newspapers as admitting to being given cash by boosters and to selling their complimentary game tickets for large amounts of money.
President Edward J. Boling appointed a committee to investigate possible NCAA infractions dealing with booster benefits and sale of complimentary tickets over the preceding 10 years. The committee was comprised of Athletics Director Doug Dickey, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Phil Scheurer (chair), Associate General Counsel Ron Leadbetter, and athletics compliance officer Malcolm McInnis. The appointments were announced a week later. The NCAA was notified of the internal investigation. Faculty and students objected to their exclusion from the fact-finding body to no avail. On February 18 the Daily Beacon quoted Boling as saying the findings would be “bounced off” others outside UT, including Bob Barrett, an SEC official.
On February 21 Boling announced that student, faculty, and alumni would be appointed to an outside panel to review the findings of the committee. On March 12 Scheurer announced that current athletes would be granted immunity from loss of eligibility on a case-by-case basis to ensure that they could talk freely with the investigative panel. (NCAA officials were not in agreement as to whether the individual school or the NCAA had to approve such immunity.) The review panel, appointed in early May, consisted of: Charles E. Smith, UT vice president for administration, chair; Kelsey Finch, former football player; Joan Cronan, women’s athletics director; Nancy Lay, professor of physical education; Ida Jones, a UT student from Memphis; William Halliday, a UT student from Memphis and student member of the board of trustees; Earl Ramer, retired education professor and two-term president of the NCAA; Bob Barrett, SEC enforcement officer and former FBI agent; Dennis Coughlin of Knoxville, physician and chair of the UT Development Council; and Alan Cates of Chattanooga, attorney and president of the UT Alumni Association.
The investigative committee recommended disciplinary action against five individuals. Because Coach Johnny Majors had been informed of Robinson’s use of Overholt’s car on several occasions and did not report the problem to the athletics director, the panel recommended that he be publicly reprimanded, and that his compliance documents (filed with the NCAA) be reviewed annually. The committee found that Overholt had provided cars for use by at least Tony Robinson and basketball player Willie Burton, had provided a credit card to Robinson, and had allowed Robinson the use of his home in summer 1984. The committee recommended that Overholt be “disassociated” from the athletics program and be limited to participation as a spectator. It also recommended returning his $8,000 contribution toward arena funding, which would have entitled him to priority seating. The panel recommended that former hotel owner Trent Richey be “completely disassociated” from the program. Both placekicker Carlos Reveiz and linebacker Kelly Ziegler were found to have allowed unentitled use of their football passes. UT was told by the NCAA that Reveiz and Ziegler were ineligible for participation until UT petitioned for their reinstatement, which it did immediately. In July the NCAA imposed one-game suspensions for Reveiz and Ziegler.
Two days before the opening football game, the Knoxville Journal reported violations of rules governing complimentary passes by 29 present or former players. UT responded by suspending an additional 8 players for the opening game and ordered the suspension of an additional 9, pending the results of an appeal by the University of Nebraska football program, which had been ordered by the NCAA to suspend 53 Nebraska players for one game. The additional 9 players were required to surrender game passes in accord with the NCAA’s modified penalty. Ten players were suspended, therefore, for the opening game against New Mexico.
On October 6, 1986, the NCAA placed the UT Athletics Department on a one-year probation for eight violations of the organization’s rules in order to monitor corrective changes within the department. The NCAA conducted its own audit of UT’s complimentary pass lists (the UT probe had discovered only two violations), and one day after placing UT on probation, the NCAA announced the results of that study, requiring that 11 basketball players and 46 football players lose some or all of their game passes for 1986–87. In basketball, 8 players lost all passes for 1986–87; 3 lost some passes. In football, 20 players forfeited their passes for the season and 21 others lost some of their passes.