Does Blue Blood Run Too Thick? : A Kentucky Graduate Plays a Role in Jeopardizing Program

You can say this much about Bill Chupil, the alleged part-time recruiter for the mighty University of Kentucky basketball program, the same guy whose supposed actions could help the school soon get sent to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. slammer:

He doesn’t look the part.

Chupil dresses as if he’s late for a “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” rehearsal. Lots of flannel.

His car, a 1977 Ford Thunderbird, wheezed into a restaurant parking lot not long ago, the odometer now a weary 233,000 miles old. Chupil had just plunked down some precious money for some valve work on the relic, which wouldn’t have been so bad except that an axle is preparing itself for junkyard heaven.

Chupil sublets an apartment, though he lived in an Ohio State graduate student dormitory 3 years ago. He filed for bankruptcy last December.

He earns about $20,000 a year, mostly from his work as a substitute teacher in the Columbus Public Schools system, where he is certified to teach health, physical education and driver education on the high school level.

He has crossed picket lines--in fact, it’s where you can make the most money, he said. He occasionally volunteers--for a fee--to take part in various scientific studies conducted at the Ohio State University Hospital.

He is 39, or “right around there,” he said, single, a 1971 graduate of Kentucky. He has been described as an independent basketball talent scout, which is a nice way of saying no one will hire him. He has called himself “a basketball junkie.”

Whatever the case, the sport is his one love, his passion, he said. But not his vocation.

“If I got compensation from schools, I wouldn’t be living so frugally,” he said. “(Compensation) would be nice a thing, but it’s not allowed, to begin with, because then you would have a vested interest. I would never short-change a kid like that, because that’s what you’re doing.”

The NCAA disagrees with his assessment of himself, which is why you can find Chupil’s name sprinkled liberally through 5 of the 18 recruiting allegations sent to Kentucky attorneys for response by Jan. 30.

If found guilty by the Committee on Infractions this spring, UK’s basketball program would be a possible--though unlikely--candidate for the so-called death penalty. More plausible is a sentence that would include probation, a ban on television appearances and post-season play and a reduction in available scholarships.

According to NCAA investigators, Chupil acted as “a representative of the university’s athletics interests” when he took Lawrence Funderburke, a 6-foot 8-inch forward considered by many recruiters to be among the country’s top 10 high school seniors this year, to various Kentucky games and practices in 1987.

In addition, the NCAA contends that Chupil provided Funderburke with lodging, food, clothing and opportunities to meet Kentucky coaches and players and view UK basketball facilities--all improper under existing rules--during several of those visits.

Funderburke, who has since made an oral commitment to play for Indiana University, played for Wehrle High School in Columbus, Ohio, until being dismissed from the squad last month for violating team rules.

It is a broad definition the NCAA uses to describe university “representatives.” In short, it can be anyone who promotes an athletic program, or provides benefits to a recruit, or assists, whether asked or not, in the recruitment of a player, or simply makes a financial contribution to a school’s athletic program.

Chupil said he fits in none of these categories, that he is just a guy who befriended a gifted but confused Funderburke a full year before Funderburke blossomed into a star. And if he represented Kentucky, Chupil said, then he also represented the interests of several other universities, including the local campus, Ohio State, the school that Chupil believes reported him to the NCAA.

“Why am not I a representative of Ohio State, when I certainly did a lot more for them?” he said.

It gets messy at this point. Chupil, who said he is not a mudslinger by nature, loads up his shovel and starts piling it on the Buckeyes, specifically, Coach Gary Williams and assistant Fran Fraschilla.

Among other things, Chupil wants to know why it was a crime to drive Funderburke to Kentucky games and practices, but not to Ohio State games, where tickets were left--perfectly allowable under NCAA rules--for Funderburke eight times in 1987? Never mind that Kentucky’s Rupp Arena is 200 miles away, while St. John Arena, the Ohio State facility, is a 15-20-minute drive, tops.

“(Fraschilla) asked me at the beginning of the year to take Lawrence to the games,” Chupil said. “I said, ‘I’ll take him if he wants me to take him and he doesn’t have a ride.’ He said, ‘I’ll leave you tickets, too. I’ll leave you my personal tickets, if need be.’

“I made a mistake: I never used those (tickets),” Chupil said. “And so now they’re saying they left the tickets for Lawrence and he brought me.”

Chupil, an Ohio State season-ticket holder, also wonders why his 30 or so phone conversations with Kentucky assistant Dwane Casey during the last 2 years constitutes a relationship, whereas similar conversations with Fraschilla, which Chupil said lasted anywhere from a half-hour to two hours a day during the peak recruiting periods last year, are ignored?

There’s more:

--Chupil said that Fraschilla once threatened to cry on cue in front of Funderburke if he sensed that Funderburke was prepared to choose a school other than Ohio State.

--He said that Fraschilla told him that Fraschilla’s position as an Ohio State assistant was in jeopardy should Funderburke not sign a letter of intent with the Buckeyes.

--He said that he saw Williams enter the Wehrle locker room after a game last season to speak with Funderburke, which, if true, would be an NCAA violation.

--He said that an Ohio State coach gave Funderburke clothes, which also would be a violation.

Chupil is not alone in his accusations of the Ohio State program.

Dan Downing, a friend of Chupil who also is named in the NCAA allegations for transporting Funderburke and a friend to a Kentucky basketball camp last summer, said that he attended a high school tournament at the Fairgrounds Coliseum in Columbus last year and witnessed an unusual exchange in which Fraschilla played a part.

“Lawrence was at the tournament and he had on a Kentucky hat,” said Downing, who attended Ohio State. “Someone said (to Fraschilla), ‘Hey, you’re going to have to get that Kentucky hat off him.’

“Fraschilla said, ‘Oh, we’ll get him an Ohio State hat.’

“Someone said, ‘I don’t know if that’s going to do it.’

“Then Fraschilla said, ‘Don’t worry, he’ll never go to Kentucky. I’ll make sure of that.’

“I would testify to that on a lie detector,” Downing said.

Said Fraschilla: “Totally a lie. We had just played Michigan and I had rushed back to watch the last 2 minutes of the game. In fact, I was there with my wife. The whole thing is totally a lie, totally baloney.

“If (Downing) is a friend of Bill Chupil, his credibility in my mind is zero. I think what you have here is a major stonewalling job.”

Downing also said that Funderburke’s mother, Laura, told him that Fraschilla arranged for Lawrence to buy tickets to a 1988 National Basketball Assn. exhibition game at St. John Arena, an NCAA violation.

However, Chuck Kemper, Funderburke’s coach at Wehrle, disputes Downing’s account concerning the NBA game and Chupil’s recollection of an alleged visit by Williams.

“I specifically called Ohio State for the tickets,” Kemper said. “(They) told me, ‘If we get you tickets, you’ll have to pay for them.’ ”

Still, according to a spokesman for the NCAA’s legislative services department, such an arrangement might be considered an “improper inducement” and thus, “an unacceptable benefit.”

Kemper also said that although Williams attended “a couple” of Wehrle games, the Ohio State coach was not allowed in the locker room.

“No way,” Kemper said. “No college coach has done that. I wouldn’t let that happen.”

Downing also said that Laura Funderburke had told him that Fraschilla gave her an Ohio State jacket.

“She told me, ‘I don’t see anything wrong with that,’ ” he said.

Fraschilla denied the charge. “Absolutely not true,” he said.

As for Chupil’s allegations, Fraschilla said: “Anybody who knows basketball and knows recruiting, knows what this guy is all about--and it speaks for itself.”

An Ohio State source close to the basketball program also suggested that Chupil’s contentions were “fabrication” and that Chupil was “playing double agent.”

Said the source: “He never did anything for us in terms of helping us in . . . recruiting. From our point of view, he has nothing on us. He had to turn the blame on somebody, so he tried to throw mud on us.”

Kentucky’s Casey declined to return phone interview requests.

Meanwhile, Funderburke, who led Wehrle to the state’s small-school championship last spring, has since declined all interview requests. According to an intermediary, Funderburke has been told by Indiana Coach Bob Knight not to discuss the situation with reporters.

But in a series of interviews with the Columbus Dispatch shortly before Knight’s gag order, Funderburke said that Kentucky was his first choice before the NCAA notified the school of its investigation. He also said that despite the controversy surrounding Chupil, he could find nothing wrong with their association.

“I wouldn’t say he’s working for Kentucky or anything,” Funderburke said. “I still talk to him and if I was trying to hide anything, I would stop talking to him.

“But there’s nothing wrong with me talking to him. He’s been more of a friend to me and he’s helped to improve my game. He told me a lot of drills to work on, what it takes to become a better player, like going to different camps and playing hard. If it wasn’t for him, I would not be the player I am now.”

So Chupil, this odd, quirky but pleasant man, has somehow struck a nerve in both Columbus and Lexington. His name often provokes opinion, though, not always for print. And as might be expected, his charges have brought countercharges.

An Ohio State source said that this isn’t the first time Chupil has tried to influence a player to go to Kentucky, that Chupil attempted to woo then-Simi Valley star Don MacLean to the Wildcats last year.

Not true, said MacLean, who eventually signed with UCLA.

“I don’t think he was representing Kentucky,” MacLean said. “I knew that he really liked Kentucky basketball and had been involved with them, but he was just more of a contact. I talked to him, but it wasn’t him just calling me and trying to recruit me.”

One college assistant coach, who asked that his name not be used, called Chupil “a chronic liar . . . a weirdo.”

But for every harsh comment concerning Chupil, there is a softer, almost sadder view of him.

“(Basketball), that’s his whole life,” said Dicky Baldwin, who knew Chupil at Kentucky and still talks occasionally with him. “If you take that away from him, I don’t know what he would do with his life.

“(Kentucky) can send him all the letters they want to, telling him to disassociate himself (from the program), but it won’t matter. He doesn’t have anything else in his life that he really cares about. It’s really sad. It’s really pitiful.”

Said Bobby Barton, Chupil’s roommate at Kentucky: “I’ll go to my grave saying that he knew basketball. He knew it the day I met him. It wasn’t anything he came to Kentucky to learn.”

Chupil met Barton before the 1965-66 season, the year the legendary Adolph Rupp coached a smallish, overachieving Kentucky team called “Rupp’s Runts,” led, in part, by a Yankee from Schenectady, N.Y., named Pat Riley. Barton and Chupil, both freshmen, served as assistant managers for the team.

Chupil apparently wasn’t a memorable person. Mike Harreld, the head student manager that year, said he couldn’t recall Chupil. “Doesn’t ring a bell,” he said.

Joe B. Hall, an assistant coach at the time who later succeeded Rupp, said Chupil “was not in any way involved” with the team.

Larry Conley, a senior forward on the ‘65-66 team, remembers Chupil, but just barely. “He was very quiet, almost unassuming,” he said.

Chupil occasionally had his moments, said Barton, who became the head student manager the following season. As Barton tells it, the student manager was responsible for having film of Kentucky’s next opponent threaded in the projector the morning after UK’s previous game. Sometimes, though, Barton and Chupil would take a peek before Rupp arrived.

“(Rupp) would ask us managers what we thought, you know: ‘Could we beat them?’ ” Barton said. “I was always the optimist. I was never wanting to say anything that would upset the man. But I’ve heard Bill suggest a play that he thought would work. Rupp always took it in good graces.”

Hall wasn’t so sure about the authenticity of the story.

“If that had ever happened, I would have known,” Hall said. “Coach Rupp would hardly let the assistant coaches tell him something.”

Still, there was no mistaking Chupil’s fascination with the game. He surrounded himself with statistics and basketball periodicals in his Haggin Hall dorm room. He made it a point to learn all he could about the top high school and college players. If a Kentucky player needed an instant update on their own stats or those of an opposing player, Chupil usually had the information available.

Although he left Kentucky with a degree in health and physical education, Chupil chose to move to Detroit, where he worked for Ford Motor Co. The pay was good and it allowed Chupil to jump into his car at a moment’s notice and go see a college game or high school tournament. He began to meet coaches. Soon, he had developed a reputation of sorts as a talent scout.

From 1974-79, Chupil worked at the Joe B. Hall Basketball Camp, though Hall said he doesn’t remember putting Chupil on the payroll or assigning him any teaching duties.

“He was no coach,” Hall said.

Actually, a graduate assistant had hired Chupil for the camps. As fate would have it, the experience became important for three reasons:

--It was at one of the camps that Chupil said he met Casey.

--It allowed Chupil to come in contact with more players and coaches.

--It looked good on a resume.

Using his considerable basketball knowledge and his ties with Kentucky as a selling point, Chupil landed a recruiting job with the University of Akron in 1980.

An Akron Beacon Journal story quoted Chupil in an April 23, 1980 story. It read: “Recruiting is the name of the game. This is the exciting part of the game to me. I have helped recruit for Kentucky and Ohio State.”

Chupil lasted a season. He was later named in 4 of 26 NCAA allegations that eventually earned Akron a 2-year probation.

“I didn’t feel I was guilty of anything,” Chupil said, though he admits violating rules regarding the observation of practices and lending a player money, in this case, he said, $10. “I didn’t see anything wrong with it,” he said of the loan.

Chupil moved to Columbus shortly thereafter, his fondness for Kentucky basketball still intact. Baldwin can remember Chupil phoning him in Lexington and asking that the receiver be placed near a radio so a UK ballgame or talk show could be heard.

“But then the next day the operator would call me back, saying that Bill was trying to pawn off a phone bill,” Baldwin said.

In 1987, Chupil, who already had befriended 5-9 Wehrle guard Mark Johnson a year earlier, met Funderburke at a baseball game. He began giving Funderburke articles on basketball. He became a mentor of sorts, all with the blessings of Kemper.

“I asked Bill personally to drive Lawrence to our games, home from our games,” Kemper said. “In all my dealings with Bill, I never ever got the feeling he was a representative of the University of Kentucky.”

Kemper, though, said he didn’t approve of Chupil’s driving Johnson and Funderburke to Kentucky’s Midnight Madness practice in October 1987, or a December 1987 game between Kentucky and Louisville, or arranging for Funderburke to be driven to a Kentucky summer camp in 1987.

From those trips come most of the NCAA allegations involving Chupil. According to the NCAA, Chupil billed the Kentucky basketball department for 3 nights’ lodging between June and July, 1987. An examination of UK records by the Louisville Courier-Journal later showed that Chupil, not Kentucky, eventually paid the hotel bills.

During one of the visits to Kentucky, Chupil allegedly introduced himself and Funderburke to Coach Eddie Sutton and Casey. Chupil later bought a baseball cap for Funderburke and drove him to the apartment of Bret Bearup, a former Kentucky player, where Bearup, says the NCAA, “encouraged” the Wehrle star to attend Kentucky.

“I never met Bill Chupil until he came down for Midnight Madness,” Sutton said. “The thing I made a statement to the NCAA is, if he’s an athletic rep for us, then he’s an athletic rep for a lot of people. If you say, ‘He’s one for Kentucky,’ then he definitely has to be one for Ohio State and some of the other places he’s taken these kids.

“We would have stopped it right then and there if would have known he was an alumni,” Sutton said. “We would have said, ‘Hey, you can’t be talking to someone we might recruit.’ ”

Fair enough, except that Chupil and Casey already knew one another. Why didn’t Casey tell Sutton that Chupil was a Kentucky alumnus before the Midnight Madness meeting?

The NCAA also contends that Chupil paid Johnson’s and Funderburke’s expenses during the trip to the Louisville-Kentucky game, as well as an Amateur Athletic Union all-star game against a Soviet national junior team at Rupp Arena in the spring of 1988.

Furthermore, Chupil took Funderburke to an NCAA tournament game in Cincinnati last March. Kentucky was one of the featured teams.

Although he will quibble over some specifics of the allegations, Chupil doesn’t deny that he took Funderburke and Johnson to games and practices. He doesn’t deny that he purchased hats--including a Louisville cap, Chupil said--or food for Funderburke. But he said he did the same sort of thing for Johnson, too, and long before he had even met Funderburke. That was confirmed by John Johnson, Mark’s father.

Chupil considers himself a victim of circumstances, a scapegoat for Ohio State’s failure to sign Funderburke. No good deed goes unpunished, and all that.

The NCAA insists that Chupil knew exactly what he was doing, that he should never have become involved with Funderburke.

But the NCAA misses the point: Chupil can’t help himself. Corny as it may be, basketball is his life’s blood.

“Let Kentucky get their due,” he said. “If I’m guilty, I’m guilty. If they want to Mickey Mouse me to death, that’s fine. That was my mistake, I admit that.

“I didn’t view (the actions) that way. (Funderburke and Johnson) didn’t view it that way. But if the NCAA Infractions Committee does, then I’ll take that and put my tail between my legs.”

And go where? Chupil is forever married to a game--no matter what sort of trouble it causes him, or he causes it.