Testimony in Alabama booster’s suit describes cash flow

SCOTTSBORO, Ala. — An Alabama booster’s defamation suit against the NCAA has brought out testimony that $20,000 in cash was given to the Tennessee father of a Crimson Tide football recruit before signing day in 1996.

But Ken Smith of South Pittsburg, Tenn., who testified that he received the money, denied it had anything to do with his son’s decision to sign with the Crimson Tide. He also said he was intimidated by an NCAA investigator when he made statements that he now says were incorrect.

Smith’s testimony came in the trial of a suit filed by a northeast Alabama timberman, Ray Keller of Stevenson, who is seeking $2 million from the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He claims defamation and invasion of privacy stemming from the NCAA’s 2002 press release announcing sanctions for recruiting violations at Alabama.

Keller was one of three men described in the report as “rogue boosters” and “the parasites of intercollegiate athletics.” The university cut its ties with the three — Keller, the late Logan Young of Memphis, Tenn., and Wendell Smith of Chattanooga, Tenn.

Young was found dead in his Memphis home in April 2006. Police at first thought he had been violently assaulted, but later concluded he accidentally hit his head in a fall.

Testimony continued Friday before Jackson County Circuit Judge John Graham in a trial that could last through next week.

Ken Smith testified Thursday he received $20,000 from Wendell Smith, who is unrelated, after moving his family to Bridgeport so his son, Kenny Smith, could play football at North Jackson High School in northeast Alabama.

Smith said Wendell Smith brought $10,000 in $100 bills to his home in late 1995 and another $10,000 in cash just before the February 1996 football signing day. He repeatedly said the money came from Young, with Wendell Smith as the middleman.

But late in his testimony he said he thought $11,000 of it came from the late R.D. Hicks, a longtime supporter of North Jackson High athletics.

Trial testimony was reported Friday by The Huntsville Times and The Daily Sentinel of Scottsboro.

Ken Smith said he saw no legal or moral problem with taking the money, and that Keller “to my knowledge” had no involvement with the $20,000, which was used partly to buy a car.

He said Keller never pressured his son to sign with Alabama. But during a 2001 taped interview with NCAA investigator Richard Johanningmeier, Smith said “it was understood” that Keller would be his son’s sponsor for “things a student needs” at Alabama.

Kenny Smith signed with Alabama but never joined the team because of grades.

Ken Smith said he felt intimidated during the June 2001 interview with Johanningmeier, Alabama faculty athletics representative Gene Marsh and Rich Hilliard, a University of Alabama attorney.

Smith said the tape recorder was turned off during that interview, at which time Johanningmeier told him the IRS could be contacted about the $20,000. Smith also claimed Johanningmeier mischaracterized information.

NCAA attorney Allen Dodd repeatedly played portions of the interview and asked Smith if what he had told Johanningmeier was correct. Smith said it was not, or he “thought it was true at the time but now I know it’s false.”

“They were after Ray Keller and Logan Young,” Smith said of the meeting. “The whole interview was about Logan Young and Ray Keller. They weren’t after the truth.”

He said he had asked for the meeting with the NCAA investigator.

“I called him to set the record straight on the car,” he said.

Under cross-examination, he added that “the University of Alabama never offered my son anything. Ray Keller never bought my son that vehicle, or any vehicle.”