A friend sent to me this series done by the Seattle Times on criminal activity involving the University of Washington Husky football team, which won the Rose Bowl in 2000.
It’s a four-part series entitled “Victory and Ruins” demonstrating how these players may have been treated a bit more leniently because of their status as sports figures. Just FYI, the online version doesn’t link that well through the series, so you may have to hunt a bit to find it–the first three parts have been posted as of today. I’ve given you the introduction above, but here are links to the others: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
There are also web extras as well, along with PDFs of many of the documents that the reporters obtained.
What I like about this series is its focus and reliance on public records. In the link to sources for this story for Part 3, the reporters detail their sources, including 91 public records requests completed to get this information for the series. These sources include transcripts and academic information that often would not be public records for individuals. However, because these players were college athletes and accused of criminal activity, much of their information became public.
Today’s story relied on the following documents: investigative records from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the Seattle Police Department and the University of Washington Police Department; probation reports and documents from the Washington State Department of Corrections; Williams’ academic transcript and other records from the UW, including correspondence detailing the team’s effort to lift Williams’ scholarship; court records and transcripts from King County Superior Court and King County District Court; and accounts from The Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The News Tribune of Tacoma and Dawgman.com.
For this series, reporters relied heavily on public records, filing 91 public-disclosure requests with 27 agencies in Washington and California. Reporters also conducted dozens of interviews of players, players’ relatives, coaches, university administrators, professors, academic advisers, prosecutors, police officers, lawyers, judges and others who had dealings with the UW’s 2000 football team.
It’s a solid series that certainly will raise the hackles of the football-supporting public in Seattle. But, the paper points fingers at itself in a few places, nothing that it, too, overlooked some of these issues in 2000 when they were happening. The writers point out that, despite the presence of public records, journalists did not go searching for details about these players infractions that were readily availble with some investigative reporting.
To add to this saga, here’s a story from Jan. 10 that focuses on emails (obtained through public records) that outline pledges of money and donations if UW fired its current head coach.