When a Magazine Tried — and Failed — to Bring Down Two College Football Powerhouses
I’ll never understand it for the life of me, but there has always been one element or another that is bent on ruining college football.
Back in 1897, after a University of Georgia football player died as the result of injuries sustained during a game, the state legislature considered banning college football in the state until the player’s mother intervened.
A few decades later, one magazine attempted irresponsible tabloid reporting as a way to try to take down both the University of Georgia and University of Alabama football programs. And it backfired.
"A great sport will be permanently damaged. For many people the bloom must pass forever from college football," the Saturday Evening Post reported in a March 23, 1963, story entitled "The Story of a College Football Fix."
A 2008 AL.com article by Charles Goldberg shared the details:
The story came about quite by accident.
It started when George Burnett, an insurance agent in Atlanta, claimed a telephone call he made was accidentally connected into a conversation between Bryant and Butts on Sept. 13, 1962. Burnett said he heard Butts tell Bryant the plays and formations that Georgia would use in their game nine days later. Alabama, a 17-point favorite, won 35-0. Burnett told his story to only a few associates before the game. But early in 1963, he told his story to the Saturday Evening Post for $5,000.
The magazine rushed the story to print when it got wind that others might publish it first. Frank Graham Jr. penned the story with help from Atlanta Journal sportswriter Furman Bisher.
The problem was that the Saturday Evening Post, with some help from a legendary Atlanta sportswriter, was taking on the hottest program in the country in Alabama and another beloved team in Georgia.
Both Bryant and Butts sued for libel, seeking $10 million each. Bryant already had one suit against the magazine in the works, and he settled them for $300,000 tax-free. He later wrote that the suit “took 10 years off my life.”
Butts, who resigned as UGA’s athletic director over the scandal, kept his suit up. Goldberg wrote:
The jury didn't need much time to decide who it believed. Butts was awarded "general damages" of $60,000. Then, in a surprise, it assessed punitive damages of $3 million in what was one of the largest libel suit awards in American history at that time.
Appeals too the suit all the way to the Supreme Court, and eventually, a judge reduced the damages to $460,000. For all his trouble, Butts received $163,000 after taxes.
The lawsuits dented the reputation and the fortunes of an already struggling magazine, and it eventually led to the demise of the Saturday Evening Post.
It’s easy to look back and say that it served the magazine right. After all it bought a story without checking out the veracity. This story serves as a lesson to outlets not to run a story irresponsibly — and it may also serve as a warning not to mess with college football! 🤣
Photo: The Saturday Evening Post, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (I thought it was appropriate to use a clown on the cover because the magazine beclowned itself with the anti-Alabama-Georgia piece…)