The Scott Hartman Decathlon of the Spring (Dogwood, then Sea Ray) Relays honors Scott Hartman, UT freshman track athlete who was hit in the back of the head by a practice throw of a 16-pound field hammer by a Berea College athlete warming up for a competition on the campus of the University of Kentucky on April 17, 1987. Hartman, from Brentwood, Tennessee, was the 1986 high school state decathlon champion. He never regained complete consciousness and died in 2003 at age 36.
A lawsuit filed by Hartman’s parents against UT and the State of Tennessee in 1988 was settled in 1998, but the claims of the elder Hartman’s employer, BellSouth, were not. The elder Hartman carried his son on his insurance through his employer. In April 2003, the court of appeals upheld a 2002 Tennessee Claims Commission ruling that UT owed BellSouth more than $1 million for medical bills for which BellSouth had been billed. The court ruled that a preseason letter from Athletics Director Doug Dickey to scholarship athletes implied that UT agreed to furnish medical treatment for any injuries incurred during athletic competition when it gave Hartman an athletic scholarship. The Hartmans also filed suits against Berea College and the University of Kentucky Athletics Association on Scott’s behalf.