NCAA: Texas El Paso Acted Improperly in Recruiting of Staggers

Actions taken by the University of Texas at El Paso in recruiting former Crenshaw High standout John Staggers are among 13 allegations lodged by the NCAA after an investigation of the Miners’ basketball program that lasted more than one year.

An assistant coach is accused of tutoring Staggers at least four times to prepare him for three General Equivalency Diploma exams. The assistant also is accused of arranging for Staggers to retake the test, even though a six-month waiting period had not expired, and enrolling him in a federally funded GED preparation class intended for migrant workers and their families.

Staggers later passed the GED and is enrolled at Columbia, Calif., Community College.

School officials said Tuesday that Texas El Paso would conduct its own investigation of the allegations.

“We do want to find out if these are indeed true, and that takes an investigation on our part,” Athletic Director Brad Hovious said.

The school appointed attorney Ricardo Adauto III to look into the allegations. UTEP President Diana Natalicio said Adauto, her assistant, was present at many of the interviews conducted by the NCAA.

“The real point here is that there has been 14 months of speculation about various incidents, some of which may have occurred, some of which may not have occurred or may have been exaggerated. I think our job now is to sort out all of these facts,” Natalicio said.

UTEP has until May 7 to respond to the list of 13 allegations lodged by the NCAA following a probe that lasted more than a year.

Coach Don Haskins, who has headed the program for 30 years, was not at Tuesday’s news conference. “We didn’t invite him,” Natalicio said.

Hovious and Natalicio said they take all of the infractions seriously. Some of the more serious allegations are:

--The men’s basketball staff allegedly arranged for a booster to pay a prospective player for work done at the booster’s home. The booster, identified by a former player as restaurateur Mike Daeuble, is accused of paying $300 in cash for 10 hours work. Daeuble was not available for comment.

--A university athletic department official was accused of giving a player a round-trip airline ticket home. Former player Rodney McKoy has said he was given a free airline ticket.

--Basketball coaches were said to have made made off-campus recruiting visits to two prospective players illegally.

--Boosters allegedly provided free cars to players.

--A coach allegedly twice lied to the NCAA enforcement staff about providing transportation numerous time to prospective and enrolled players and a prospective player’s mother.

The NCAA also said the university poorly monitors and controls the program and has failed to educate athletics department staff members, students, athletes and boosters on its rules.

The infractions would have occurred from 1986-89.

The NCAA investigation began in December 1989 after former players told newspapers UTEP provided them with free use of cars, cash gifts and food.

Former UTEP basketball player Shelton Boykin, a reserve forward who played only during the 1987-88 season with the Miners, was quoted in The Times as saying, “When we wanted to go out, we’d get a car. They were nice cars--Cadillacs, Mercedes, Jaguars. . . .”

The reports were denied by Haskins and Hovious, who once said they conducted their own investigation and found no wrongdoing.

The NCAA Infractions Committee will review UTEP’s response at its June 27-30 meeting in Monterrey.

UTEP’s track and field program was found guilty of major violations in 1986. But the five-year clock on those violations runs out June 13, precluding the NCAA’s death penalty.