Tennessee’s Investigation Called Bogus

An investigation last year by University of Tennessee athletic officials into school violations of National Collegiate Athletic Assn. rules was a cover-up, a national magazine has charged.

A story in Sport magazine’s November issue, due out later this week, says that the investigation was itself improper and many of its conclusions false.

A Tennessee investigative panel spent six months last year investigating allegations of improprieties in the school’s athletic department.

“A climate of casual rules violations existed at Tennessee for years,” Sport charges.

The magazine claims that more than a dozen former Tennessee players admitted receiving “as much as $2,000 annually through a system of ticket sales.”

The article also says that at least one former player, Reggie White, said he was encouraged to lie to the investigative panel about cash payments he received while at the school.

White, now an ordained minister, told Sport that he lied “to protect UT, and I wanted to protect the people I was involved with.”

The NCAA, after examining the panel’s findings, put the school on a year’s probation Oct. 9, 1986, for six infractions.