David Whitford

Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Jeff Cox

A Process of Ongoing Improvement

The Goal

Examines the largest case of corruption in the history of collegiate athletics, the thirty-year practice of illegal payoffs to football players at Southern Methodist University in Texas

A Story of Greed, Corruption, and Football at SMU

A Payroll to Meet

Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try and improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a colleague from student days - Jonah - to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done.

Southern Methodist University in Dallas is one of numerous prestigious universities in Texas. The schoolOCOs football team was the pride of the university and the city. Before the late 1970s, however, the relatively small school had trouble recruiting and struggled to keep up with the big-time football universities that were often more than double its size. Under pressure to compete, the SMU football program engaged in ethics, rules, and recruiting violations for years. When the corruption came to light, the NCAA handed out its most serious punishment in the history of college sportsOCothe OC death penaltyOCOOCowhich cancelled the teamOCOs entire 1987 schedule. In "A Payroll to Meet," author David Whitford details the MustangsOCO descent into corruption and the fallout when it was discovered. Most egregiously, the football program ran a huge slush fund that was used to pay players from the mid-1970s through 1986. Bill Clements, chairman of the SMU board and soon to be reelected governor of Texas, knew all about the slush fund before the NCAA did. He opted, however, to phase out the payments rather than stop them immediately, for fear that angry players might go public and create still more problems for SMU. Clements and the athletic director Bob Hitch decided that the football program had OC a payroll to meet.OCO a"

"Examines the largest case of corruption in the history of collegiate athletics, the thirty-year practice of illegal payoffs to football players at Southern Methodist University in Texas, and the subsequent "death penalty" handed down by the NCAA"--

David Whitford

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