Georgia Versus Alabama a Shocking Report of How
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GEORGIA VERSUS ALABAMA Not since the Chicago White Sox threw the 1919 World Series has there been a sports story as shocking as this one. This is the story of one fixed game of college football. Before the University of Georgia played the University of Alabama last September 22, Wally Butts, athletic director of Georgia, gave Paul (Bear) Bryant, head coach of Alabama, Georgia's plays, defensive patterns, all the significant secrets Georgia's football team possessed. The corrupt here were not professional ballplayers gone wrong, as in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. The corrupt were not disrepu- table gamblers, as in the scandals continually afflicting college basketball. The corrupt were two men—Butts and Bryant—employed to educate and to guide young men. How prevalent is the fixing of college foot- ball games? How often do teachers sell out their pupils? We don't know—yet. For now THE we can only be appalled. — THE EDITORS STORY OF A COLLEGE FOOTBALL FIX A SHOCKING REPORT OF HOW WALLY BUTTS AND "BEAR" BRYANT RIGGED A GAME LAST FALL By FRANK GRAHAM JR. 80 On their knees, Alabama cheerleaders plead for touchdown. Team scored five. n Friday morning, September 14, still sat at his desk, stunned, and a little attack built around a sensational sopho- O 1962, an insurance salesman in At- bit frightened. more quarterback named Joe Namath. lanta, Georgia, named George Burnett Suddenly he heard an operator's voice: The Georgia team was composed chiefly picked up his .telephone and dialed the "Have you completed your call, sir?" of unsensational sophomores. number of a local public-relations firm. Burnett started. "Yes, operator. By the Various betting lines showed Alabama The number was Jackson 5-3536. The line way, can you give me the number I was favored by from 14 to 17 points. If a man was busy, but Burnett kept trying. On the connected with?" were to bet on Alabama he would want to fourth or fifth attempt he had just dialed The operator supplied him with a num- be pretty sure that his team could win by the final number when he heard what he ber in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, which he more than 17 points, a very uncertain later described as "a series of harsh elec- later identified as that of the University of wager when two major colleges are open- tronic sounds," then the voice of a tele- Alabama. The extension was that of the ing the season together and supposedly phone operator said: athletic department. Burnett then dialed have no reliable line on the other's "Coach Bryant is out on the field, but Jackson 5-3536—the number he originally strengths and weaknesses. he'll come to the phone. Do you want to wanted. This time the call went through Bryant, before the game, certainly did hold, Coach Butts, or shall we call you normally, and he reached a close friend not talk to the press like a man who was back?" and former business associate named playing with a stacked deck. And then a man's voice: "I'll hold, Milton Flack. "The only chance we've got against operator." "Is Wally Butts in your office now, Georgia is by scratching and battling for Like most males over the age of four in Milt?" Burnett asked. our life," he said, managing to keep a Atlanta, George Burnett is a football fan. "Well, he's in the back office—making straight face. "Put that down so you can He realized that he had been hooked by a phone call, I think. Here he comes now." look at it next week and see how right accident into a long-distance circuit and "Don't mention that I asked about it is." that he was about to overhear a conversa- him," Burnett said hurriedly. "I'll talk to The game itself would have been en- tion between two of the colossi of South- you later." joyed most by a man who gets kicks from ern football. Paul (Bear) Bryant is the Through some curious electronic con- attending executions. Coach Bryant (he head coach and athletic director of the fusion, George Burnett, calling his friend neglected to wear a black hood) snapped Wally Butts, former athletic di- University of Alabama, and Wallace Milt Flack, had hooked into the call every trap. The first time Rakestraw rector of Georgia : He gave away "Wally" Butts was for 22 years the head Wally Butts was making from a rear office passed, Alabama intercepted. Then Ala- Georgia plays, defense patterns. coach of the University of Georgia and, in Flack's suite. He was the third man, bama quickly scored on a 52-yard pass at the time of this conversation, the uni- the odd man. But he was not out. play of its own. The Georgia players, versity's athletic director. Burnett ("I was their moves analyzed and forecast like curious, naturally") kept the phone to Putting the pieces together those of rats in a maze, took a frightful his ear. Through this almost incredible physical beating. coincidence he was to make the most im- In the next few hours Burnett tried to "The Georgia backfield never got out of portant interception in modern foot- piece together what he knew of Georgia its backfield," one spectator said after- ball history. football. Butts, a native of Milledgeville, ward. And reporter Jesse Outlar wrote in After a brief wait Burnett heard the op- Georgia, had joined the university coach- Atlanta's Sunday Journal the following erator say that Coach Bryant was on the ing staff as an assistant in 1938. A year day: "Every time Rakestraw got the ball phone and ready to speak to Coach Butts. later he was named head coach. For 20 he was surrounded by Alabama's All- "Hello, Bear," Butts said. years he was one of the most popular and American center Lee Roy Jordan and his "Hello, Wally. Do you have anything successful coaches in the South. Then eager playmates." for me?" prominent University of Georgia alumni Georgia made only 37 yards rushing, As Burnett listened, Butts began to give abruptly soured on him, and on January completed only 7 of 19 passes for 79 Bryant detailed information about the 6, 1961, he was replaced by a young as- yards, and made its deepest penetration plays and formations Georgia would use sistant coach named Johnny Griffith. (to Alabama's 41-yard line) on the next to in its opening game eight days later. Butts, filed away in the position of Geor- the last play of the game. Georgia could Georgia's opponent was to be Alabama. gia's athletic director (which he had held do nothing right, and Alabama nothing Butts outlined Georgia's offensive plays along with his coaching job for some wrong. The final score was 35-0, the most for Bryant and told him how Georgia years), was outspokenly bitter about his lopsided score between the two teams planned to defend against Alabama's at- removal from the field. since 1923. tack. Butts mentioned both players and Burnett knew, too, that Butts recently It was a bitter defeat for Georgia's plays by name. Occasionally Bryant asked had been involved in a disastrous specula- promising young team. The 38-year-old Butts about specific offensive or defensive tion in Florida orange groves. Butts had Johnny Griffith, who was beginning his maneuvers, and Butts either answered in lost over $70,000 because, as someone put second season as head coach, was stunned. detail or said, "I don't know about that. it, "you couldn't grow cactus on that Asked about the game by reporter Jim Head coach Paul ( Bear ) Bryant I'll have to find out." land." One of his partners in the deal was Minter, he said: "1 figured Alabama was of Alabama. He took plays for his "One question Bryant asked," Burnett also an associate of Milt Flack at a pub- about three touchdowns better than we defending national champions. recalled later, "was 'How about quick lic-relations firm called Communications were. So that leaves about fifteen points kicks?' And Butts said, 'Don't worry International, the office Burnett had been we can explain only by saying we didn't about quick kicks. They don't have any- trying to call when he hooked into the play any football." one who can do it.' Butts-Bryant conversation. Quarterback Rakestraw came even "Butts also said that Rakestraw [Geor- That afternoon Burnett told Flack closer to the truth. "They were just so gia quarterback Larry Rakestraw] tipped what he had overheard. Both of them, quick and mobile," he told Minter. "They off what he was going to do by the way he though only slightly acquainted with the seemed to know every play we were going held his feet. If one foot was behind the high-spirited, gregarious Butts, liked him, to run." other it meant he would drop back to and they decided to forget the whole Later other members of the Georgia pass. If they were together it meant he was thing. Burnett went home in the evening squad expressed their misgivings to Fur- setting himself to spin and hand off. And and stuffed his notes away in a bureau man Bisher, sports editor of the Atlanta another thing he told Bryant was that drawer. He felt a great sense of relief. The Journal. "The Alabama players taunted Woodward [Brigham Woodward, a de- matter, as far as he was concerned, was us," end Mickey Babb told him. "'You fensive back] committed himself fast on closed.