Bear Warned Bama Assts about LY

[DKW 86 7,481]

Bear Warned Rouzie about Young, Threatened to Fire Coaches "Getting Too Close to LY."

Bryant warned Tide coaches about Young

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Bear Bryant knew Logan Young. Everyone knows that.

But not everyone knows everything the legendary Alabama football coach thought about the now-disassociated Alabama booster.

Jeff Rouzie has an idea.

Rouzie played and coached for Bryant at Alabama. He also served as an Alabama assistant under head coaches Gene Stallings and Mike DuBose.

Rouzie was part of the DuBose staff that was fired in November of 2000. The next spring, he was one of the Alabama assistants interviewed by the NCAA in its investigation of the Tide football program.

In his interview, Rouzie made a striking revelation. He said, when Bryant was the Alabama head coach, Bryant told his assistants not to get close to Young - and if any of them did get close, he would get fired.

Consider the implications. Two decades before Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer and SEC investigator Bill Sievers both expressed concerns about Young, Bryant did the same thing.

Two decades before SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer heard concerns about Young, Bryant voiced his own concerns about the booster to his staff.

Two decades before the NCAA Infractions Committee and a federal grand jury found Young guilty of buying a football player for Alabama, Bryant found a reason to warn his assistant coaches about him.

That warning, by itself, proves nothing, but it is an indication that Young was on the radar screen of Alabama officials - of the most powerful official in Alabama history - long before any of the events that led to Ronnie Cottrell and Ivy Williams v. NCAA et al. took place.

That warning will have no bearing on the outcome of the Cottrell lawsuit, but like a lot of information that has come out because of the suit, it does raise a lot of questions.

Why didn't Alabama coaches and officials in the 1990s know more about Young's readiness, willingness and ability to help the program without regard to NCAA rules? Why didn't they know it sooner?

Or did they know a lot more about Young than we know?

Why did Alabama need a warning about Young that never came from the SEC or the NCAA? Would it have mattered if the SEC or the NCAA had warned Alabama about him?

Or was NCAA investigator Rich Johanningmeier correct in his belief, as stated in his deposition, that no one at Alabama could control Young?

It's been forgotten, but on Aug. 8, 2000, Gene Marsh, then-Alabama's faculty rep, had lunch with Young at AD Mal Moore's request. Marsh shared some thoughts from that lunch in an Aug. 16, 2000, memo to Marie Robbins, then the school's compliance director, and copied the memo to Kramer, the SEC commissioner, and Alabama President Andrew Sorensen.

In that memo, which was part of Alabama's public response to its NCAA letter of official inquiry, Marsh said Young "denied any improper activities."

Marsh also described Young as "a character and a namedropper. Whether he has committed any violations is another question."

That question has been answered.

Why somebody at Alabama didn't do something about Young a lot sooner has not been.

[Tigermike 3,077]

Are they saying that CPB knew Young would corrupt his assistants or that he felt that the fewer who know, the better off they would be?

Or is this a bit of revisionists history by the faithful to cover the Bears tracks?

[SKCAUB 0]

YEAH...Bahr knew him all right. And the pipeline FLOWED!

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

You better believe Bear knew what was going on. His players used to find money left by boosters like the Brombergs, Singtons, etc., in their shoes in the dressing room after a game if they had had a good game.

How do I know this? A very good friend of mine who was Captain of one of Bryant's bama teams told me this.........and a lot more.

[DKW 86 7,481]

What Proud said. If the Will Call Office could talk.... That place handled more money than some banks in small southern towns.

I believe the guys would come back into the locker room after a game and find cash in the pockets of their suit coats, shoes, lockers etc. At least that is the way I was told it happened during the Curry and Stallings years.

When Bear was there, it was a highway with big boosters at the Will Call Office. Basketball Tickets would go for $125 a piece...if sold by football players. Know that first hand, no second hand, no being told. I was there, saw it myself, in the first person.

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

It's just amazing tht there is a museum in Tuscaloosa named after tyhe coach who is probably the biggest rules breaker in the history of college FB. I know my bama friends will disagree with this because the Bear was imensely popular and was winning big time. The facts are that he was maybe the biggest cheater ever.

[Tigermike 3,077]

I know there were several grocery stores in the Tuscaloosa and surrounding area that would have weekly raffles for food and "prizes". More than one football player won, and there was absolutely no way for anyone to prove anything wrong.