A Houston bank connected to the chairman...

A Houston bank connected to the chairman of the University of Houston board of regents made loans to Cougar football players in a possible violation of NCAA rules, the Houston Post reported.

The loan information is the latest in a series of allegations concerning possible payoffs to former Houston players by Coach Bill Yeoman and other members of Yeoman’s coaching staff.

Former Cougar player Stanford McDowell said that Yeoman once threatened to take him off the kickoff return team for a game if McDowell’s bank loan was not repaid.

“Then about two weeks later, I got a note in the mail that it had been paid,” McDowell said. “I don’t know who paid it, but I know I didn’t.”

The Dallas Times Herald quoted former wide receiver Jeffrey Fields as saying he received money from assistant coach Don Ivory to help pay his mother’s rent and that Houston booster Manuel Delatorre gave him $100 for each touchdown he scored in a 1983 game against Texas A&M.;

Jack Sharp, a backup guard, also claimed he was promised money by Yeoman after he told the coach he needed cash to pay for a woman’s abortion, the Times Herald reported. But Yeoman later told Sharp his grades were too low to merit help in the matter, Sharp said.