6
Tuesday, December 4, 1979
University Daily Kansan
Agents seek athletic meat for pro market
By JERRY FINCHEP
Sports Writer
"How'd you like a car, and a new house for your mother? I could loan you the money."
"How would I pay it back?"
"You can pay it back later."
A KU athlete and an agent reportedly had such a conversation in Jayhawer Towers this summer after the two met in the weight room.
The athlete said he turned down the offer and, after reading recent articles about agents in Sport magazine, he realized he was not eligible. Mr. Hankan had his eligibility if he had accepted the offer.
KANSAN
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"After I read about it in sport, I knew I had been up a creep the athlete said, and that they were going to realize the staff they to do afterward. You have to be represented by them and you should get them."
Because the athlete still has eligibility he, asked that his name be omitted because he feared problems with agents, coaches and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
STEVE MORGAN, executive assistant in NCAA women's department, said that the team could not contract with an agent to be represented in this sport and keep their
Morgan, a KU journalism and law graduate, said that students were required to sign a student-athlete statement that explains the rule.
But Morgan said it was not against NCAA rules for an agent to offer something.
"There's nothing to keep you from contacting or being contacted by an agent," Morgan added.
The role of an agent is to represent players in contract negotiations, but some
agents claim to be able to do such things as get athletes higher selections in the professional draft and appearances in all-star games.
KU COACHES seemed to agree that agents were often not welcome.
"No agent is welcome on this campus, as far as I'm concerned." KU football coach Darnambrough said, "because this is not the time and place for that sort of thing. I sure that some are around without my knowledge, but I certainly don't conduce."
Fambrough said that if he were to find out that a player had been offered something from an agent, he would call the player in question and explain that his sequence might be if he accepted anything.
Several of Fambrough's players said recently that they had been offered loans from agents during the football season.
MIGE GAY, senior offensive tackle, said that someone who wanted to be his financial agent had offered him some deals.
"He said if I wanted to buy a car, he'd give me a discount." Gay said.
But it wasn't until the agent claimed he could get Gay drafted in the third round that he doubted the agent.
"That's when I knew he was lying," Gay said. "I mean, how can I get drafted in the third round when I could play that much."
That was not the first time agents had been around KU.
Two years ago, Billy Campfield and Lindsey Mason signed with an agent in September of their senior years at KU.
BOTH PLAYERS said they didn't know it was against NCAA rules when they signed a contract with Ivory Black, who works for Michael Trope.
"I was just naive about the situation." Campfield said. "They were telling us things that sounded好 that we'd never heard before."
Campfield said he and Mason had been on vacation when the Squirrel Sea Lion, after wading for a call until after Christmas vacation, they realized agents had been telling other players the squirrel sea lion.
CAMPFIELD SAID they were able to get out of the contracts they signed a week apart in September because the agreement was in violation of the contract, and the company would take it.
Mason said he received a loan of under $100 that he paid back within a few weeks, "but it wasn't a substantial enough amount that would bind me to a contract."
"When we got back and saw that all of them were using the same lines, we got out of it," Campfield said.
After Trope tried to talk Mason out of getting out of the contract, Mason said he decided to get out a few days later.
"He tries to paint a picture that you need him to get through," Mason said. "It's more like the agent needs you."
Campfield and Mason said they signed because the agents made them feel they needed an agent.
He kept pointing the finger at Bud and I, who had been the reason I had got into any book names because my school had a bad record and the coach wasn't doing anything to get us into the league.
MASON SAID THE agent told him he needed someone to publicize him for the draft.
Dan Lauck, a Kansas State University graduate, formerly in the sports department of New York City with Newday of Garden City, N.Y., has talked to the two former KU athletes while playing.
“PART OF THE problem is the NCAA's fault,” Lauck said. “There isn't any agency that controls them (agents).”
Mason said Moore warned them about
agents too late, long after they had signed with Black.
"This creates a possibility of where a helium balloon would come to change the air said. "Either the balloon gives them the money - or the agents do. All this creates an atmosphere whereby the agents can control it."
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Lauck said that athletic departments were also to blame, because of what he called a lack of concern for athletes.
"The agents are one of the sleaziest in town," she said, of the end they bully (money) out like a carrot on the back of a stick. They stab each in the back right and left. They are "on the loose."
LUCKY SAID he believed in his own mind that there were a couple of good agents. But he couldn't afford to be the good agent, because he didn't want to have it on his mind six months later when a
KU coach Ted Owens said he knew of a 'ew good agents.
"Really, the problem is in selecting one that you can trust." Owens said, "there are a lot of young men who had their children because of getting with a crooked agent."
Michael Reed, head of a management agency in Red Oak, Iowa, who received his
masters in business administration from KU after football coach at Summer High School in Kansas City, lets only a small number of agents use study business practices.
"If I find an agent trying to contact one of the players without making the coaches aware of the situation, I'm making a judgment that this is a person who really invested in their players," Owens said. "I'm jeopardizing the player's eligibility."
Owens said that he would help players select agents once they had decided to pursue a professional career, but that he would not take any meetings between players and agents.
OWEN'S SAID that one of his former players was presently involved in a lawsuit because of misrepresente investments made by an agent.
"THEE ARE a Few bad ones, like in the last week when I called the ruler the bad name. Our policy is for athletes to call us. I never been called by an athlete earlier than the last week of the season."
"There's a very large sum of money involved." Owens said. "It's a big jipro by some them who could represent him or someone than someone walking in off the street."
Owens, as well as some athletes who have been talking to agents, agreed that not everyone needed an agent.
"You don't have to sign with an agent to
"I JUST THINK I have people around me who are able to help me out without giving someone 7 percent," KU senior outside manager Teresa Bucchera said. "All these people want my money."
Although the season is over and football players may not have any eligibility to use, some players may still need compensation from an agent, the school would have to subtract the compensation
get a contract with a professional team," Owens said.
A section of the NCAA rule regarding cues says that a player may take advice from an instructor, and contract, as long as the lawyer doesn't represent the athlete in the contract.
Owens said that some athletes, including two-time all-American J. Jo White, have received guidance from local people associated with the University who don't
MORGAN SAID A school could terminate a player's financial aid.
KU athletic director Bob Marcum said he hadn't had to deal with any problems concerning agents.
"It's just a matter of having them around that takes the athlete's mind off other things," Marcum said.
Fambridge agreed. "Some agents are probably legitimate, and some of them do a good job for the players." Fambridge said. Suddenly, someone approached him and got as much as they can out of these kids.
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