Football Playbook Pages Faxed to Florida’s Defensive Coordinator

On October 9, 1991, shortly before Tennessee was to play Florida, Jack Sells, who had been fired by UT on June 7 for recruiting violations and lying to NCAA investigators, faxed pages from UT’s football playbook to his friend Ron Zook, the new defensive coordinator for the University of Florida. The pages were faxed from a Kinko’s copy store on Cumberland Avenue. Zook denied the faxing, but reporters found a copy of a fax cover sheet at Kinko’s. According to newspaper reports, a Kinko’s employee recognized Sells and stopped the transmission after 10-15 pages and called the UT Athletic Department, which sent an employee to collect the pages.

Head Coach Spurrier admitted that the fax had been received but said neither he nor Zook had meant to mislead the public by saying they had received nothing improper. Sells later sued Kinko’s, accusing the business of violating his privacy, damaging his reputation, and destroying his career. The lawsuit was settled in 1995.

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  • Title Football Playbook Pages Faxed to Florida’s Defensive Coordinator
  • Author
  • Keywords Football Playbook Pages Faxed to Florida’s Defensive Coordinator
  • Website Name Volopedia
  • Publisher University of Tennessee Libraries
  • URL
  • Access Date March 29, 2024
  • Original Published Date
  • Date of Last Update October 8, 2018