Comments on: The History of College Football Recruiting Cheating- Part 8

By: mike baab

mike baab — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:20:11 +0000

Nice to be remembered . Yep , can still do the splits at 48. Some of my SMU and Aggie teammates took cuts in pay to go to the pros - I’m not kidding at all. That’s why we have new rules and no SWC anymore. Credit Darrell Royal and Fred Ackers and Mack Brown for staying the course on not cheating. The type of players Texas wants DO NOT make decisions like where to go to school based on $ or how good they look in the uniform. An education from UT can open doors to lifelong respect and enormous life changing possibilities.I believe the college game is much cleaner than it was in the wild ole wooly days. However , I am still a proponent of providing a basic NCAA stipend for all sport scholarship athletes - the colleges reap huge $ windfalls and athletes spend 40 hours + a week “working” in their sport for their scholarship and can’t get jobs. I remember selling blood at different places so my girl(future and still wife)and I could go out. But it was a grand adventure. Hook ‘em.

By: James

James — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:43:33 +0000

Steve Worster, Jim Bertleson, James Street
Paid for NOT working
UT had two administrators on the infractions and enforcement committees of NCAA. No penalty, no problem, just an oops it must have been a mistake.

By: callkevin

callkevin — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:44:55 +0000

Amazing timing. There’s a Mike Baab article on the TexasSports web-site today.

By: TaylorTRoom

TaylorTRoom — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:06:30 +0000

Thanks, Mike. I was in the student section rooting (well,…drinking mostly, but rooting some) while you played. Your comments make me feel better about those early ’80s teams that first made me a fan. I apologize for impugning them.

By: srr50

srr50 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:46:13 +0000

Thanks Mike.

Alfred Jackson is a couple of years before you, but he tells the same story. He also talked of being in NFL locker rooms and when the talk of who got what from their colleges rolled around, other players were incredulous over the lack of Longhorn bling

By: Scipio Tex

Scipio Tex — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:19:02 +0000

Thanks for the input, Mike.

For our younger reading audience: Mike was probably the best center in Texas history, an All-American, and had a long NFL career.

Nice to have you on here.

By: HenryJames

HenryJames — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:15:04 +0000

I remember watching you with the Browns, Mike.

Can you still do the splits?

By: Mike Baab

Mike Baab — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:05:58 +0000

I was a highly sought after prospect in 1978. The ONLY schools that didn’t offer me bags of money was Rice and Texas. I didn’t know of anyone on my UT teams that got cash. We mostly starved and were kinda embarrassed when our buddies from ATM or SMU would show up w. cars and cash. Cash was NOT the reason we went to Texas.

By: dedfischer

dedfischer — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:50:32 +0000

The academic side of things like easy classes, athletic friendly professors, and especially tutors is something that I think every university that is competitive at the D-I level partakes in. However, I think once some of these guys get on campus and realize that only 4 or 5 of their classmates will make it in the pros, they begin to realize they’re only a knee injury away from operating a ferris wheel and academics become more of a priority. Funny story, when I was at Tech, we had to take 2 poly science classes for my major and the 2nd one had a professor that was known for being a hardass. So, I went to my advisor and asked which class I needed to take at Claredon College to get credit. She checked on it, gave me the class number and I signed up. Apparently, the class numbers are vise versa at Tech/Clarendon, so the first day I show up for class at Clarendon for Poly Science 2, they’re covering the same material I covered in Poly Science 1 at Tech. Showed up for all the tests, made an A, never heard anything, got credit on my transcript, and 3 years later got a degree from Tech.

By: Scipio Tex

Scipio Tex — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:06:12 +0000

Taylor:

I just want to say props, man. I found this whole series fascinating and totally informative. I learned a lot. And that, aside from porn and telling people they suck, is what makes the ‘net cool.