NCAA Clears Five Players

Five Notre Dame football players under investigation by the NCAA for accepting gifts from a booster have been cleared of any wrongdoing and will be eligible for the 1998 season, Athletic Director Michael Wadsworth said.

The players, who Wadsworth refused to identify, could have been suspended by the NCAA for taking a trip to a Chicago Bulls game with Kimberly Dunbar, who embezzled more than $1 million from her employer and then allegedly spent some of the money on gifts for players.

The news was the first good break for the Irish in a series of off-the-field troubles that have put the program under scrutiny over the last several months.

“Certainly I’m happy that there’s definite word now our football team will be intact for the Michigan game [Sept. 5], but it hasn’t impacted us a whole lot because we’ve prepared every day like they would be here,” Coach Bob Davie said.

“When I told them [the players], to be honest, there wasn’t much of a reaction. But I’m sure the players involved are relieved that that’s behind them.”

The school still faces possible sanctions for the trip as well as another incident involving two former players and Dunbar uncovered during an internal investigation by the school. Notre Dame forwarded its findings to the NCAA after beginning the probe in February.

Since then, the NCAA has ruled that Dunbar was acting as a school representative while a member of the now-disbanded Quarterback Club, something the school contests. But Wadsworth declined to comment about the school’s position regarding possible sanctions.

“The position that we have on this is spelled out in our report to the NCAA, and that’s where it’s going to remain,” Wadsworth said.

In another matter, Notre Dame lawyers have until Sept. 11 to respond to a motion filed by attorneys for Joe Moore requesting his reinstatement as an assistant coach. Moore, dismissed in December 1996 in one of Davie’s first coaching moves, was awarded about $86,000 in damages in an age discrimination suit he filed against the university. A federal jury also awarded him attorney’s fees.

Moore’s attorney, Richard Lieberman, said he filed the reinstatement motion Aug. 14 along with a request for attorney’s fees of slightly more than $600,000. Lieberman also filed a request for front pay of close to $375,000 if the reinstatement motion is denied.

Lieberman said a ruling isn’t expected until October.

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If Florida State wins a football title again, don’t expect Coach Bobby Bowden to follow his friend, former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne, into retirement.

Bowden, 68, said he won’t retire even if the Seminoles go undefeated and get a chance to give him a second national championship.

“I wouldn’t go out if I had five of them [national championships],” Bowden said Sunday night at a charity roast of Osborne in Omaha, Neb. “I don’t want to go out. As long as I can stay healthy, I want to coach. I have no desire to retire.”