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Articles
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Some historical anecdotes By Malamute, 30 May 2004
That incident, involving former Washington players Vince Fudzie and Kevin Conard, occurred in 1985 just before the game with Colorado in the Freedom Bowl. Since then several run-ins with security guards involving UW football players have occurred. Shortly after Barbara Hedges hired Rick Neuheisel as Washington’s head coach, ten UW football players (March 1999) attempted to gain entry to a fraternity party, held at the Tau Kappa Epsilon house, that required guest-list only admittance. The players broke into the house, assaulted people and damaged property. A local writer opined that this was another blot on Rick Neuheisel's record, even though Neuheisel was just two months into the program. The coach required that his team pay out-of-pocket money to cover the damages. In April 2003, TB Rich Alexis allegedly hit a security guard stationed at a Sigma Chi fraternity house party. Both he and WR Reggie Williams were denied admittance to the party based on a guest list. Currently, Washington needs a War Daddy on the defensive line, a head chef who will fill the pan with opposing linemen who are bent on serving pancake blocks. To win the conference championship, Washington will need a War Daddy, the likes of which will make the opposing QB wish that he had majored at Ihop. A prime candidate for this role, Manase Hopoi (DE, Senior, 6-foot-4, 265), is facing felony assault charges after the King County Prosecutor's office received a reworked investigation report from the Seattle Police Department in late April. A decision as to whether charges will be filed is pending. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Hopoi was arrested on March 7 for allegedly punching a security guard working the door during a student fundraiser at the Aristocrats nightclub.” Apparently, he and his girlfriend were denied entry to the club. However, the incident involving Fudzie and Conard could be the most significant in UW’s recent history.1 A week before the Freedom Bowl game with Colorado in 1985, Conard and Fudzie were told to leave the Red Onion Restaurant (Santa Ana, December 22, 1985) because of a dress code violation – no suit, no tie, no service, whatever. They had snuck back into the bar area of the club after being told to leave, an employee said.2 After they refused to leave, two police officers were called in. Both players challenged the two officers to a fight (this according to the police report), and because of that, the officers, along with several other officers who were called in later, put them under arrest. Fudzie was handcuffed with little resistance; however, Conard had to be physically subdued after running from officers, according to the police report. Allegedly, Conard struck two of the officers.3 Conard received minor cuts that needed medical attention later on. The incident was written up in the papers. Later, both players sued the Red Onion for its discriminatory practices and received an undisclosed settlement. All charges against them were dropped. As a result of the altercation, Fudzie and Conard were dismissed from the team before the Freedom Bowl game, and their scholarships were not renewed for the 1986/87 academic year. During the Freedom Bowl game, we were first hand witnesses to some untoward behavior on behalf of several Husky players who had participated in the 1984 Orange Bowl. Seated in the row in front of us, a few of the former players would leave their seats repetitively to flirt with young women as they walked down the steps to their seats. Their unwanted advances with these women failed as miserably as Colorado’s flirtation with the Huskies, which the Buffs lost 20-17. None of these former players seemed interested in the game nor were they ejected from the stadium. After the Billy Joe Hobert episode (the story erupting in November 5, 1992), the Los Angeles Times was put on alert. Its associate sports editor and reporter Elliott Almond, in a conjoined effort, recalled the incident with the Husky players at the Red Onion, saying that the Rodney King beating trial motivated their interest and triggered their memory. Investigative reporters Danny Robbins and Almond contacted Conard and Fudzie and, eventually, a number of other UW football players. Fudzie told Robbins and Almond that he had worked in the Los Angeles summer jobs program, receiving pay at a job arranged by a booster that required little or no work. He also stated he received a cash payment ($600) from the booster’s company for a new set of tires, according to the Times. These, of course, are NCAA violations since the booster represented the university’s athletic interests, having donated money, along with other boosters, to the university in the past, such as funding of the Don James Center. Ironically, the same booster arranged a job for Fudzie to be a security guard for a building in San Francisco. "Our job was to watch the building so it wouldn't fall down. We'd just take turns napping out there. I'd go in at 6 p.m., and I'd go to a club and hang out. . . . We never saw anyone (supervising) around there,” Fudzie told the Times.4 With respect to work arranged by a booster at a construction site in Torrance, Conard told the Times that he and “other Husky players would sleep, play cards or leave the site to lift weights or eat.” Fudzie and Conard, along with three other players (all of them having had a falling out with the Washington program before their interviews with Robbins and Almond), lent their names to the article published in the Times on December 9, 1992, entitled “Washington: A Program Gone Awry?”5 Just because they had had an ax to grind with the University does not mean that Conard and Fudzie, along with the three other players, were not necessarily telling the truth about the employment arranged for them. However, it should be noted that Conard and Fudzie had sued the university unsuccessfully and were not starters on the team. Two boosters named in the story denied giving cash to players. Conard also stated that he had to work for his pay in another job that the same booster had arranged for him. The Times stated that it had multiple sources for its stories, backing up Fudzie's and Conard's allegations relating to the summer jobs program. The Gone-Awry article, along with companion stories, triggered the Pac-10 investigation of the Don James football program, which led to James’ subsequent retirement because of the “unfair” sanctions levied on the program. University President William P. Gerberding was quoted as saying: “Whether one considers the penalties imposed by the conference to be appropriate or fair is a matter of individual judgment. I do not.” According to the Los Angeles Times, Conard transferred to San Diego State, where he lettered in 1987. Later, he worked for a Los Angeles credit repair company. “Fudzie remained at Washington as a non-scholarship student and graduated with a degree in accounting in 1988. He began work as a sports agent for a Seattle-based firm,” the Times said Deep in its elitist bowels, the Times continues to break wind to the beat of its investigative stories, still dreaming of Pulitzer Prizes for the likes of the Robbins' and Almond's, who sadly matriculate from our journalism schools in chaotic numbers. That paper left thousands of Husky fans in tears -- along with the winningest coach in Pac-10 history,6 who in all of his life was dressed for the occasion. References: 1. Farmer, Sam, "Bitter Roses," Sagamore Publishing, 1993. 2. Ibid. See Appendix A. Transcript of a report filed by Santa Ana, California Police Officers who arrested Husky Players Vince Fudzie and Kevin Conard (pages 281-286). 3. Ibid. Appendix A. Page 285 and page 286. 4. Ibid. Chapter 22 (pages 235-255]. 5. Robbins, Danny; Almond, Elliott, "Washington: A Program Gone Awry?" The Los Angeles Times, 9 December 1992. 6. Providing two forfeited games are counted; otherwise, it's Terry Donahue (UCLA), as he is recognized by the Pac-10. Richard Linde (a.k.a., Malamute) can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com |
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In the past, a number of Washington football players have had run-ins with
security guards or restaurant managers because of admission standards -- that
is, being denied admission to an establishment for a variety of reasons. The
most infamous of those past events, an eighty-six, indirectly led to the toppling
of the Don James dynasty.