Washington: A Program Gone Awry? : Athletics: Interviews, court and state records show that some football players received cash, jobs for little or no work, use of a truck, free lodging.

Some University of Washington boosters have engaged in a longstanding practice of providing Husky football players with thousands of dollars in cash and other improper benefits, including summer jobs requiring little or no work, a Times investigation shows.

In stories, based on interviews with more than two dozen former players and others familiar with the Washington program as well as court and state records, The Times has learned that:

--Washington players have received cash payments totaling thousands of dollars from Husky boosters.

--A Washington booster in Los Angeles has arranged summer jobs for Husky players paying as much as $10 an hour and requiring little or no work.

--While he was playing for the Huskies, star defensive lineman Dennis Brown had the use of a truck registered to a Washington booster and was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in the vehicle during the 1989 season.

--Through the arrangement of a Washington assistant coach, a Husky player was able to secure a summer job in Seattle that included free lodging in a unoccupied home.

Such special favors are apparent violations of the NCAA’s “extra benefit” rule, which prohibits representatives of a school’s athletic interests from providing athletes with benefits not available to the student body as a whole. The NCAA statute of limitations is four years, but it can be waived if there has been a pattern of violations that extends into the four-year period.

Washington players also have sold prescription drugs supplied by the university’s trainers or medical staff, according to the sworn testimony of Steven Bramwell, the Huskies’ team physician.

The players’ selling of the medication is an apparent violation of federal law and regulations as well as NCAA rules.

The Times’ findings come on the heels of two highly publicized incidents involving the Washington football program--the filing of cocaine-selling charges against linebacker Danianke Smith of Long Beach and the revelation that quarterback Billy Joe Hobert received $50,000 in improper loans.

Taken together, The Times’ findings and the Smith and Hobert incidents present a sharp contrast to the public image of the Washington program. Under Don James, the Huskies’ coach since 1975, Washington has gained a reputation for being clean off the field as well as highly successful on it.

The Huskies, who on Jan. 1 will make their third consecutive Rose Bowl appearance, have not been sanctioned by the NCAA for major rules violations since 1955.

The Times’ investigation found that cash and other improper benefits have regularly been dispensed to Washington players in recent years by two prominent Husky boosters: James W. Kenyon, a Los Angeles real estate developer, and Herbert T. Mead, a Seattle businessman.

Kenyon and Mead have been particularly active, the interviews and records indicate, in dealing with players from the Los Angeles area, a key recruiting region for the Huskies.

“Everyone (playing at Washington) had his own little booster,” said Corey Brown, a former Husky linebacker from Morningside High in Inglewood. “But everyone knew Kenyon and Mead were with the Los Angeles boys.”

Kenyon is president of a Century City real estate development firm, Kenyon Company. He previously was an executive in the Los Angeles office of Cabot, Cabot and Forbes, a Boston-based real estate development company. At one time, he served as the company’s president and chief operation officer.

Three former Washington players said they received cash from Kenyon while they were playing for the Huskies.

One, tailback Vince Weathersby from Dorsey High, said he was provided with cash payments totaling about $3,000 from both Kenyon and Mead during his five seasons at Washington, 1984 through ’88.

On one occasion, Weathersby said, he received cash from Kenyon in the Husky locker room after a game.

Kenyon denied providing Weathersby or other Husky players with cash. Mead, too, denied giving cash to Weathersby.

In addition, Kenyon could be counted on to arrange summer jobs that were little more than sources of easy money for Washington players, according to several ex-Huskies.

Five former Washington players said they made as much as $10 an hour doing little or no work in summer jobs arranged by Kenyon through his position at Cabot, Cabot and Forbes while they were playing for the Huskies. The players were ostensibly hired as messengers, laborers and security guards.

Those jobs and others like them, the former players said, were provided to players as rewards for performing well on the field or showing potential to do so.

Will Rideout, a former Husky rover back from Locke High, recalled that, after playing well as a walk-on, he was directed by James to see Kenyon about a summer job.

Calling the job “a perk for playing football,” Rideout said: “(The job) was good and bad. I wanted the money, but it was detrimental because we didn’t learn anything. We were just there (to get money). Back then, I was (thinking) like, ‘Take it and run.’ ”

Kenyon said he has provided dozens of Washington athletes with summer jobs over the years, but has never known of a situation in which an athlete was paid for doing little or no work.

“(At Cabot, Cabot and Forbes) we were building in 23 states. I was traveling all the time as president of the company,” he said. “Once in a while, a (supervisor) would say, ‘This kid isn’t working very hard.’ He’d bring the kid in, and I’d tell the kid to shape up or ship out.”

Added Kenyon: “I can tell you right now, I know of a lot of improprieties at other schools, because I used to see (such activity) all the time. . . . But I’ve played by the book.”

Former Husky players also cited Mead, president of Seattle-based Mead Investments, as a benefactor for star defensive lineman Dennis Brown when Brown, a graduate of Long Beach Jordan High, was playing for Washington (1986-89).

According to King County (Wash.) District Court records, Brown was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol late in the 1989 season in a Chevrolet pickup truck registered to Mead.

Two former Husky players said that Brown, now with the San Francisco 49ers, had the use of Mead’s vehicle at other times as well.

Ricky Andrews, a former Washington linebacker who worked for Mead one summer in Seattle, said: “(Husky boosters) like who they like. They got me a job, and that’s about it, mainly because a coach called (Mead) and said, ‘This guy needs a job.’ . . . But some other guys, like Dennis Brown--that was Herb Mead’s boy. It seemed like he got whatever he wanted.”

Mead denied giving Brown special treatment. As for Brown’s use of the pickup truck, Mead said he does not recall such an arrangement and would have to “check on it.”

Looking back at their careers at Washington, several former players spoke of the frustration they felt when they realized that the boosters cared about them only as Husky football players.

Andrews, for one, recalled how Mead refused to help him when he failed to stick in the NFL after brief stints with the San Diego Chargers and Seattle Seahawks.

“I went to ask Herb for a job after I got released,” he said, “and he just looked at me like, ‘Oh, sorry, your five years (at Washington) are up.’ ”

Other players contacted by The Times said they had to work for their money.

James dismissed the allegations, saying that every program has a few disgruntled athletes.

“There are 150 players every year,” he said. “I guess if you called enough players you could get what you want to get. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got blatant lies. If you talk to 98% of our players you would get a heck of a lot of positive comments.

“I trust Jim (Kenyon), and I trust Herb (Mead). They know the rules, and we’ve gone over the rules and they have assured us they have always abided by the rules. They don’t want to get their school in any kind of trouble.”

James said Washington gets about 750 athletes jobs for the summer, and that they all worked for their wages.

“We run too clean a program,” James said. “I’ve worked my whole career and my pride and my image is at stake because of what people are doing. It’s frustrating to me when we’ve got a program that has worked so hard to abide by all the rules. I wouldn’t care if the CIA or FBI came in and wanted to investigate our program. I have a clear conscience of everything we’ve done. We self report things every year. There are too many rules.”

James also said that he was unaware that Dennis Brown got a DUI in a pickup registered to Mead, but said Brown was working for a Washington booster.

Barbara Hedges, Washington’s athletic director since 1991, said she is satisfied that the jobs program is handled properly.

“I believe the program is monitored appropriately, it’s conducted appropriately, and the potential employers are provided the information they need to employ a student-athlete,” she said.

“This institution has always had a commitment to be in compliance with NCAA rules. That was a commitment in the past, that is a commitment today and we want to do everything we can to make sure that we are running our program appropriately.”

Auburn’s athletic director, Mike Lude, who was at Washington before Hedges, could not be reached at Auburn, or New York where he was attending the Hall of Fame awards dinner.

BIG BOOSTERS

This season has already produced one uncharacteristic crisis over NCAA rules for Washington--the revelation that Hobert received $50,000 in unsecured loans last spring from an Idaho nuclear engineer.

The engineer, Charles M. Rice, has no apparent connection to the university. Still, Hobert was declared ineligible by the school because the loans he received were based in part on his earning potential as a professional athlete.

Also, as a result of the Hobert case, according to the Seattle Times, the Pacific 10 Conference is investigating whether Mead and another Husky booster, Ron Crowe of Puyallup, Wash., arranged a job for Hobert before his senior year in high school. Under NCAA regulations, a booster cannot arrange employment for a recruit before the end of the recruit’s senior year in high school.

Improper activity by boosters can have a significant impact on a college athletic program.

NCAA rules stipulate that a school can be held responsible for the actions of anyone who can be considered a representative of the school’s athletic interests. If the NCAA finds that such a representative has acted improperly, the school involved can face penalties that range from a reprimand to a ban on postseason competition.

Among the individuals who can be considered representatives of a school’s interests, according to the NCAA, are those who have made financial contributions to the university’s athletic booster organization or have been involved in recruiting student-athletes for the school.

Kenyon and Mead qualify on both counts.

Partners in a New Mexico liquor distributorship, NMBC, Inc., the two Washington graduates also share a passion for the Huskies.

In 1986, they were among 125 Washington boosters who each donated $50,000 to help fund the Tyee Center, an addition to Husky Stadium.

In a 1991 Seattle Post-Intelligencer article on the Tyee Club, Washington’s athletic fund-raising organization, Kenyon was quoted as saying: “I’m one of the ultimate Husky junkies alive. I’ll cut short a meeting, fly up for practice, then fly home the same day.”

The article recounted how Kenyon and Mead had talked of almost nothing but Husky football recruiting during the meeting in which they closed the deal to purchase their liquor distributorship.

“I pulled out a recruiting sheet and said to Herb, ‘I’ll bet you $100 I can get closer to guessing this year’s recruiting class,’ ” the article quoted Kenyon as saying. “That’s what we did for the next hour and a half.”

Mead was quoted as saying of the incident: “(Another party to the transaction) finally asked, ‘Do you own this team?’ ”

None of the former Washington players interviewed by The Times said they believe that James has knowledge of improper activities by boosters.

However, one former player, Kevin Conard, said that Kenyon and Mead have such high profiles within Washington football circles that it would be difficult for anyone involved in the program to be unaware of what the two boosters might do on the program’s behalf.

Conard, a defensive lineman who attended Compton Centennial High, noted that, when he was visited at his home in 1983 by James during recruiting, the Husky coach was accompanied by Kenyon.

“Washington definitely has the image of ‘We’re the best guys, and we don’t do anything (improper).’ That is what (James) tries to exemplify,” Conard said.

“But I don’t think he would be as successful with some players as he has been if there were no incentives (for them to perform). That’s all it is--a sales pitch. They push Kenyon.

“They don’t out and out say, ‘You won’t do anything (on a summer job).’ But once you get in the system, you find out how it is. You see what you can get away with.”

THE PITCH

Often, the first glimpse comes during recruiting.

Conard recalled how he and other recruits visiting the Washington campus in 1983 went to Mead’s Seattle home and, at Mead’s invitation, became involved in a game of pickup basketball.

“(Mead) wanted to see who could jump high, who could shoot,” Conard said.

As for Kenyon’s recruiting tactics, Conard said the booster at one point described how Conard, if he became a Husky, could get a summer job in which the pay would be good and “there wouldn’t be too much (effort) involved.”

Vince Weathersby recalled a more direct approach from Kenyon.

“He called me and said that, if I signed with the University of Washington, wait a week and then give him a call,” Weathersby said.

Shortly after signing with the Huskies in February of 1984, Weathersby said, he followed through with a phone call to Kenyon and got the payoff--a job. Weathersby said he began working for Kenyon immediately and continued working for him that spring and summer.

Kenyon said he does not recall the events surrounding the recruiting of Weathersby, but disputed Weathersby’s claim of receiving a job before finishing at Dorsey.

“I have never hired a kid when the kid was still in high school,” he said.

Corey Brown said he, too, dealt extensively with Mead and Kenyon during his senior year at Morningside High, 1986-87.

“Herb Mead really was the one who got me to come to Seattle,” he said. “The man would not stop calling. . . . He would get on the phone and talk to my mother every time. He’d say, ‘Mom? Mead. Seattle.’ Here I am in the 12th grade and I got this man from Seattle calling.”

Later, as he prepared to graduate from Morningside, Brown said, he met Kenyon. The occasion, according to Brown, was a dinner at a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. Brown said he and another Los Angeles-area player who had signed that year with the Huskies, Terrance Powe of Wilmington Banning High, were Kenyon’s guests.

Recalling the evening, Brown said: “I had a real nice dinner. It was probably my first nice dinner.”

IGNORING THE RULES

The NCAA has attempted in recent years to shut boosters out of the recruiting process. To that end, the NCAA passed legislation at its January, 1987, convention prohibiting boosters from contacting recruits anywhere and in any form, including by telephone and correspondence. The legislation went into effect in August of ’87.

The change in regulations apparently did not deter Kenyon and Mead in their pursuit of players for the Huskies.

In January of 1988, Brown said, he and other Washington players entertained recruits at a Super Bowl party at Mead’s home in Seattle. Although Mead was not present, Mead’s son was there “supervising,” Brown said, as the Husky players and recruits watched the game, enjoyed food laid out for them and used Mead’s hot tub and pool table.

Among the recruits present at Mead’s party, according to Brown, was Darian Hagan, then a highly sought quarterback from Locke High.

Hagan, who would later sign with Colorado and lead the Buffaloes to the 1990 national championship, confirmed in a recent interview that he attended the party. “A big spread,” was how he described it.

Mead said he does not remember the party. “I was probably out of town (when the party was held),” he said.

Hagan also recalled another thing about being recruited by Washington--the phone calls he received as a senior at Locke in 1987-88 from Kenyon.

“He was just talking,” Hagan said, “basically asking me how I liked Washington and how, if I went to school there, he could always get me a job.”

Hagan, who spent the past season with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, said he chose Colorado because Washington was interested in him as a running back, not as a quarterback. Just the same, he said, he found Kenyon’s offer intriguing.

Said Hagan: “Being in high school and getting calls from a big shot like that--well, it was kind of interesting.”

Kenyon said he stopped contacting recruits when the NCAA tightened its regulation of booster involvement in recruiting in 1987. As for Hagan’s story, he said: “I don’t recall talking to Darian Hagan.”

PAYOFF FOR PERFORMANCE

For players who answered the call to be a Husky, particularly those who produced on the field or seemed destined to do so, such attention could, evidence suggests, turn profitable.

Vince Weathersby, the Huskies’ leading rusher in 1986 and ‘87, said that, as he progressed as a player at Washington, he got summer jobs from Kenyon requiring little or no work.

Laughing, he said: “It got to the point my last two years (at Washington) where I didn’t even have to show up.”

Weathersby said he was employed during those summers as a messenger in the downtown L.A. office of Cabot, Cabot and Forbes. The pay, he said, was $10 an hour, whether he came to work or not.

Asked what his duties were, he said: “I would just come to Mr. Kenyon’s office and sit down for eight hours. I’d go deposit money for him or his secretary or run little errands for him. Or sometimes . . . I would just go there on Fridays and pick up a (weekly) check for $400 because we had so many (Husky players) down there working.”

On top of that arrangement, Weathersby said, he received gifts of cash from Kenyon on several occasions, including one payment in the Husky locker room after a game.

“There were times where, if I needed money, I could make a phone call (to Kenyon) and get it, whether I was working (in Los Angeles) or up at school,” he said.

Weathersby said that, on one occasion when he called Kenyon from Seattle seeking money, Kenyon told him to contact Mead. Weathersby said he called Mead and was invited to the booster’s house, where, Weathersby said, he received about $500.

Asked why he sought the money, Weathersby said: “We were getting $400 a month (in scholarship money to live off campus), and my rent was $395. . . . I probably needed to pay bills or fill up the refrigerator, have a couple of dollars in my pocket.”

All told, he said, he received about $3,000 in cash payments from Kenyon and Mead during his time at Washington.

Weathersby, who ranks third among the Huskies’ all-time leading rushers and second among the school’s all-time leading receivers, attempted to make the Rams as a free agent in 1989, but left training camp after 12 days.

He later sued the university, James and members of the Washington training and medical staff charging negligence in the treatment of a shoulder injury he suffered while playing for the Huskies.

After filing the suit in October of 1990, Weathersby said, he was approached by Kenyon.

Recalling their conversation, Weathersby said: “(Kenyon) said, ‘Vince, I heard you were going through with a suit against the UW.’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Well, if you mention anything about me, you know I’m going to deny it.’ ”

Kenyon remembered the conversation differently, saying he mentioned the lawsuit only as one of several reasons why he would not provide Weathersby with a full-time job.

“I told Vince, ‘The fact that you’re harassing the University of Washington doesn’t go over very well with me. Grow up,’ ” he said.

THREE-HOUR WORKDAY

Corey Brown said he also spent two summers, 1987 and ‘88, working for Kenyon in the downtown L.A. office of Cabot, Cabot and Forbes. His story is similar to that told by Weathersby.

Brown said he received weekly paychecks of $400, but sometimes worked only three hours a day.

“(Husky players) had our own room,” he said. “We played dominoes. We did a little work. . . . Nothing big time.”

The job required so little effort, he said, that his mother became angry--angry enough, he said, to express her displeasure to both Kenyon and Mead.

“Because we weren’t getting any experience,” Brown said. “I’d come up with this amount of money at the end of the week, and I’d get up at 9 or 10 o’clock, drive down to work and be back my noon. My mother has always believed in working hard. She just didn’t understand.”

Brown’s mother, Delores Peters, confirmed that she was upset by the questionable nature of the job.

“This is not the way to teach these black kids,” she said, “to just have them work for a few hours, give them so much money, wine them and dine them and then toss them by the wayside.”

Kenyon confirmed that he spoke at one point to Brown’s mother, but said the conversation was not related to the summer job. Kenyon declined to elaborate on the matter.

Brown also said he and his roommate at Washington, Terrance Powe, received assistance of another kind from Kenyon during their freshman year--payment of a delinquent phone bill for about $1,500.

“You know, we had to turn to who we knew,” Brown said. “So we turned to (Kenyon).”

Powe, a defensive lineman who left the team in 1991 to take care of family problems in Los Angeles, declined to be interviewed on the record for this story.

Brown said he stopped receiving jobs and favors from Kenyon after the summer of 1988, the privileges ending, he said, when he did not pan out as a Husky player.

Rock bottom for Brown was the 1989 Freedom Bowl.

He said coaches told him he would not make the trip if he did not lose 15 pounds. Short of the prescribed weight by seven pounds, he still got a seat on the team plane, he said, through the efforts of an assistant coach. But when the Huskies arrived in Anaheim, Brown said, James told him he would have to lose the remaining seven pounds before he could check into the hotel and practice with the team.

Riding a stationary bike and using the hotel sauna, Brown said, he lost the weight in about 24 hours and rejoined the team.

But after one practice, he said, he felt so bad that he decided to walk out.

“Here I am, had to starve myself for a day, and (the coaches) are treating me like crap,” he said.

Brown said he left Anaheim a day later, paying his own way back to Seattle by collecting complimentary Freedom Bowl passes to Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm from his teammates and selling them for $15 to $20 apiece.

“By this time, I didn’t have any boosters. I didn’t have any money,” he said.

As for Husky coaches, Brown said, they never bothered to ask him how he got home.

After the bowl trip, Brown returned to the team. But he quit for good after a week of spring drills in 1990. He now is an assistant manager of a Seattle contracting business.

SLEEPING ON THE JOB

Kevin Conard said he had two different summer jobs arranged by Kenyon.

The first, Conard said, involved actual work--chopping weeds on an L.A. hillside. But the second, at a Cabot, Cabot and Forbes construction site in Torrance, required less effort, he said.

Conard said he and other Husky players would sleep, play cards or leave the site to lift weights or eat.

“I remember a supervisor named Rick,” he said. “We never had a problem when he did catch us sleeping. He knew what we were there for, which was basically to do nothing. Occasionally, he would try to get us to do something with the workers on the other side (of the job site). But it wasn’t an order. It was a request.”

Another former Husky player assigned to that job site, Vince Fudzie, said he does not remember what he did there.

“I don’t know,” he said. “All I ever did was pick up my check.”

Fudzie, a linebacker from Oakland, said he also spent part of that summer, 1985, working with other Washington players as a security guard at a building in San Francisco. That job, too, was arranged by Kenyon, he said.

Said Fudzie: “Our job was to watch the building so it wouldn’t fall down. We’d just take turns napping out there. I’d go in at 6 p.m., and I’d go to a club and hang out. . . . We never saw anyone (supervising) around there.”

Fudzie also said he received a cash payment of $600 from Kenyon that summer. Fudzie said he used the money to purchase a set of new tires.

“I had had a good spring (practice),” he said. “There was talk I was going to start. I went to (Kenyon) to get money for tires. He told his secretary to go into petty cash, and she gave me $600.

“I knew it was an NCAA violation, but I didn’t care. It was what was expected (as a college football player).”

Conard and Fudzie were dismissed from the team before the 1985 Freedom Bowl after they were arrested during an altercation with Santa Ana police at a local nightclub, the Red Onion.

All criminal charges were later dropped.

Conard transferred to San Diego State, where he lettered in 1987. He currently works for a Los Angeles credit repair company.

Fudzie remained at Washington as a nonscholarship student and graduated with a degree in accounting in 1988. He now works as a sports agent for a Seattle-based firm.

The two players received a settlement from the Red Onion, which, they alleged, had refused them entrance because they are African-Americans.

A suit filed by the players in 1986 against seven Santa Ana police officers, whom the players allege hand-cuffed them and beat them, is pending in Orange County Superior Court.

FAVORITE SON

If there was a Husky player who benefited more than anyone else from knowing Herb Mead, former players said, it was Dennis Brown, star defensive lineman and a captain of the 1989 Washington team.

Describing the differences between Kenyon and Mead, Corey Brown said: “Kenyon just had a different lifestyle. He had a lot of money. Mead did, too. But Mead was kind of cheap, except to Dennis Brown. Dennis Brown was Mead’s boy.”

A high school All-American at Long Beach Jordan, the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Brown played as advertised for the Huskies, earning All-Pac-10 honors as a junior in 1988.

Those credentials made Brown a special project for Mead, some of Brown’s former teammates said.

One special privilege afforded Brown during his time as a Husky, evidence suggests, was the use of a truck belonging to Mead.

According to King County District Court records, Brown was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in Clyde Hill, a Seattle suburb, on Nov. 26, 1989. The records show that, at the time of his arrest, Brown was driving a 1982 Chevrolet pickup truck registered to Mead.

The arrest occurred a month before Brown’s final game as a Husky, the 1989 Freedom Bowl.

Brown pleaded guilty to the charge and received a deferred sentence based on his serving a day in jail, paying $464 in fines and court costs and attending an alcohol information school.

According to Brown’s account of the incident, included in a pre-sentence report and alcohol evaluation, he drank about 10 beers in less than three hours at his fraternity house and then borrowed the truck to visit a girlfriend.

Two ex-teammates of Brown’s, Vince Weathersby and Rickey Andrews, cited other occasions on which Brown had the use of Mead’s truck.

Andrews, who completed his eligibility at Washington in 1988, said he noticed that Brown was driving the truck one summer in Seattle. Andrews said both he and Brown were working for Mead at the time.

Weathersby said he, too, saw Brown with the truck and also heard Brown say that the vehicle belonged to Mead.

Brown, who was selected by the 49ers in the second round of the 1990 draft, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview about his Husky career through the 49er media relations department.

Mead, asked about his relationship with Brown, said: “I didn’t take care of him. . . . I treated him like anybody else on that team. He was a nice kid.”

Mead said he does not recall Brown’s arrest on the DUI charge.

Asked if he owned a truck that was used by Brown, Mead said: “Listen, I’d have to look back at my records.”

Despite his arrest on the DUI charge, Brown played in the ’89 Freedom Bowl, helping Washington to a 34-7 victory over Florida.