Top Syracuse Booster Is Asked to Leave Post

The president of Syracuse University’s largest basketball booster group has been asked to resign and no longer associate himself with the men’s program, a university spokesman said Monday.

The university did not specify why it was directing Hardwood Club President Joseph Giannuzzi to step down and surrender the preferred seating privileges he and his wife, Cynthia, enjoyed at games.

However, last week Giannuzzi’s name came up in a story published by the Syracuse Post-Standard regarding the university’s decision to place junior Dave Johnson on a year’s probation for an “inappropriate” relationship he had with a 14-year-old girl two years ago.

The girl said Johnson had sex with her during the summer of 1988 and into the spring of 1989 at Giannuzzi’s home in Syracuse. She told Syracuse officials that Johnson and another player, sophomore Michael Hopkins, both lived at the Giannuzzi’s home during the summer of 1988, before starting classes at Syracuse.

She also said players ate meals in the home, drank beer there and that the Giannuzzis gave Johnson a sweater and a stocking stuffed with toiletries for Christmas in 1988.

A Syracuse investigation resulted in the brief suspension Friday of seven players, who were reinstated by the NCAA later the same day. Star Billy Owens, one of the seven, played Saturday as the No. 7 Orangemen beat Notre Dame.

The university is investigating allegations raised in a series of articles published in December by the Post-Standard, which reported that Syracuse might have broken several NCAA rules, such as allowing players to receive merchandise, cut-rate use of cars and cash gifts from boosters.