Gary Spann : Education and football career, Controversy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gary Spann

American football player (born 1963)

American football player

Gary Spann

No. 94

Position:

Linebacker

Personal information

Born:

(1963-02-03) February 3, 1963 (age 61)
Dallas, Texas, U.S.

Height:

6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)

Weight:

218 lb (99 kg)

Career information

College:

TCU

NFL draft:

1986 / Round: 10 / Pick: 263

Career history

Kansas City Chiefs (1987)

Career NFL statistics

Games played:	2

Gary Lynn Spann (born February 3, 1963) is a former professional football player.

Education and football career

Spann grew up in Dallas and graduated from South Oak Cliff High School in 1981. He was recruited to play football for TCU, located in nearby Ft. Worth.

Spann was drafted as a linebacker by the NFL's Green Bay Packers in the tenth round of the 1986 NFL Draft.^[1] He played with the Kansas City Chiefs during the 1987 NFL season.^[2]

Controversy

In September 1985, his senior year, Spann was one of 7 TCU players who publicly revealed that they had received cash in exchange for signing to play football with TCU.^[3] Spann and his teammates were suspended as soon as the payments were made public. Ineligible to play (as per NCAA rules), they were removed from the team, though their scholarships were guaranteed through 1987.^[4]

Allen and two other players (who happened to also be former high school teammates) sued the University in 1985, indicating that they had thought that the payments were sanctioned by the University; their legal view was that one of the involved alumni, Richard Lowe, was a member of the TCU Board of Trustees and, therefore, seen by them as a representative of the school. Later, that trustee underlined how common such payments were by claiming that he knew of 29 blue-chip TCU players who had been paid during the tenure of one TCU coach, F.A. Dry.^[5]^[6] After the suspensions (and eventual dismissals) of those 7 players, TCU went winless throughout the 1986 conference season after having gone 8-4 the previous season.

References

^ "1986 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
^ "Gary Spann". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
^ "BEAR NOT SHY ABOUT TAKING MONEY - Chicago Tribune".
^ "T.C.U. SUSPENDS SIX PLAYERS". September 21, 1985 – via NYTimes.com.
^ "Orlando Sentinel - We are currently unavailable in your region".
^ "The Pizza Papers and TCU's 1985 football scandal". June 16, 2018. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2021.