McKinley Boston -- a college athlete's best friend?

We have hesitated for some time to present the following, primarily because it is too easy to go after people nowadays but ultimately it seemed appropriate to blog the following:

To paraphrase Robert MacNeil, formerly an anchor on the PBS show "The News Hour" -- "The easiest thing to create is heat. The hardest thing is light."

Our desire here is to do the latter.

We come not to bury New Mexico State Athletics Director Dr. McKinley Boston, nor to praise him -- simply to present moments of his decision-making through the years while he has been employed in various positions in higher education. And yes, we absolutely understand and accept that we don't even register on any scale of any magnitude with any authority of any sorts but we still feel compelled to present the following information.

We do wish to stress that our compilation is not meant to even hint at character assassination of Mr. Boston -- it is simply a laying out of factual information. The genesis for this is the pattern that has formed involving the legal infractions connected with a number of NMSU student-athletes the past two years. Upon doing some background investigation, this template extends to another university that employed Mr. Boston in the 1990s.

Some articles below are presented in their entirety, an elemental no-no when quoting other sources. However, many of the article are from some time ago and needed a complete presentation in order to fully shed light so our apology is issued to these sources beforehand.

So let us begin in Minnesota in the 1990s.

Report Says Haskins Knew Of Academic Misconduct
New York Times
November 20, 1999

Clem Haskins, the former Minnesota coach, lied to investigators about ''widespread academic misconduct'' in his men's basketball program and also told his players to lie, a report concluded today.

Two of the university's top athletics officials resigned hours before the release of the report, which sharply criticized the athletic department, academic counseling supervisors and faculty members for failing to detect the improper assistance to players.

The scandal began in March when Jan Gangelhoff, a former tutor, said that she had done more than 400 papers for as many as 20 basketball players from 1993 to 1998. The report, prepared for the university by an outside law firm, substantiated most of Gangelhoff's claims.

As the report was released, Mark Yudof, the university president, announced the resignations of McKinley Boston, vice president for student development and athletics, and Mark Dienhart, the men's athletic director...

...While Yudof said he felt Boston and Dienhart were good men who simply managed badly, he had sharp words when asked about Haskins.

''I am angry,'' Yudof said. ''I feel I was lied to to my face, and that the problem was much deeper, and that this program was corrupt in almost any way one can think about it...''

...The 1,000-page report, with 1,500 more pages of supporting exhibits, was compiled by outside investigators hired by the university...

...Assignments, papers and exams were routinely written for at least 18 players, and academic policies were manipulated to keep players eligible. For five seasons starting in 1994-95, the team played with at least one player who was ineligible because of improper help, the report said.

''We conclude that between 1993 and 1998 there was systematic, widespread academic misconduct in the men's basketball program,'' the report said.

Yudof said, ''While nothing in the report demonstrates either Dr. Boston or Dr. Dienhart knew of the cheating, the facts showed they had strong reason to be suspicious'' of the academic counseling program. He added, ''Plenty of warning signs were sent.''

and

Here is some background to Boston's employment at Minnesota:

Alumnus Gets Post
New York Times
December 18, 1991

McKinley Boston, a University of Minnesota defensive tackle on the Gophers' last Big Ten football champion in 1967, returned to the university yesterday when he was named men's athletic director. He served as athletic director for the last three years at the University of Rhode Island. The Minnesota Board of Regents voted by 12-0 to approve Boston, who becomes the first black athletic director in the Big Ten. He received a five-year contract.

Here is a later entry on Boston's employment history:

After four years as Minnesota AD, [McKinley Boston] became vice president for student development and athletics. Oversees programs that deal with social, recreational, physical and mental needs of students. Before coming to Minnesota, was AD at Rhode Island since 1988. Before that, was AD at Kean College in New Jersey for two years and director of students and assistant head football coach at Montclair State. Played two years with the New York Giants and two in the CFL before retiring in 1971.

Adding to the smoke and fire, one of Boston's hiring decisions while at Minnesota resulted in this article:

Boston created job, hired an ex-colleague
Residence hall employee already had NCAA violations
George Dohrmann
September 24, 1999
St. Paul Pioneer Press

University of Minnesota vice president McKinley Boston created a special position in a residence hall last year and gave it to a former University of Wisconsin NCAA compliance director who resigned after breaking the rules he was supposed to help enforce.

Anthony Adams, who was among the more than a dozen Badgers officials who broke NCAA rules by improperly spending booster-club funds, was hired last October to a 10-month position that paid $35,000. He was given use of an apartment in Wilkins Hall, which houses some of the school's most prominent athletes.

The explanations given for Adams' hiring and his responsibilities while on the job are unclear.

In his first response to written questions submitted by the Pioneer Press, Boston said Adams, who left Wisconsin in 1997, was hired to help him gain "better understanding of the living/learning environment for student-athletes in the residence halls, especially students at risk (academically)."

In answering a second set of written questions, Boston stated that Adams' hiring was prompted by "instances of social misconduct in Wilkins Hall by student-athletes and non student-athletes."

University records indicate that the number of alleged rules violations, ranging from disorderly conduct to smoking, recorded by Wilkins Hall staff and known as "incident reports," more than tripled while Adams lived in the dorm, from 27 the year before he arrived, to 92.

Unlike many other residence halls, where an increase in incidents over the last five years is being blamed partly on the presence of more first-year students, Wilkins Hall, the smallest residential structure on campus, is reserved for juniors, seniors, and graduate students. It houses 126 students, half of whom are athletes, in one- and two-bedroom apartments.

Asked about the increase this week, Boston responded: "I have not attempted to measure or benchmark Mr. Adams' effectiveness based upon an evaluation of incident results."

Boston stated that he has known Adams for 11 years but did not know he had committed two secondary NCAA violations at Wisconsin as part of a scandal that resulted in the Badgers being placed on two years' probation last March for hundreds of booster-club spending violations, including cash payments to coaches.

Boston defended hiring Adams, saying secondary violations are like "parking tickets" and that he couldn't imagine anyone "who would have worked in college athletics for a period of time" not having committed a secondary violation.

Adams' violations consisted of twice using booster-club money to pay for golf outings, at a total cost of $100. Although the violations are considered secondary, the NCAA's Committee on Infractions stated the school received lessened penalties because it had already accepted Adams' resignation.

As compliance director at Wisconsin, Adams was responsible for ensuring that Badgers athletes and employees understood and were acting within the NCAA and Big Ten rules and that proper paperwork was filed. But the NCAA report stated that "there was a failure to monitor the athletics program" and that Wisconsin "either did not maintain or could not locate annual certification of compliance forms."

When Adams came to Minnesota, according to Boston, he reported to the academic counseling and student services director, and the department of housing and residential life. He was often seen with students in the Bierman athletic complex, and one employee in Boston's office said he thought Adams worked for the athletic department. His salary came out of the academic counseling budget.

But Adams, reached at Wilkins Hall before his position ended Aug. 31, said he never worked for academic counseling, where he occasionally attended staff meetings, or the men's or women's athletic departments. When asked to give his job title, he said: "I'm sitting at this desk. That's it." He did not return phone messages following that conversation.

Boston did not answer why Adams was paid $35,000 while live-in hall advisers hired for the 1999-2000 school year are paid no more than $30,000. Boston also did not answer a question about whether Adams had the advanced degree in counseling required of hall advisers this year.

In an earlier response, Boston said Adams' job description included these duties:

Encourage student-athlete involvement in campus and residence hall activities.
Encourage student-athletes in their academic and social transition to the resident halls.
Assist with and help Housing and Residential Life's diversity agenda initiatives.
Serve as a point of contact for student-athlete-related misconduct issues as they arise with hall security monitors.
Adams was also required to assist with special projects or complete other duties assigned to him by his superiors, who included Boston. Boston said Adams' input from his 10-month employment would be part of a report "on how to increase the effectiveness of student development programs."

Boston worked with Adams while the two were at the University of Rhode Island a decade ago. Boston, the Rams' athletic director from 1988-91, said "it was that familiarity and his availability that made him an attractive candidate for the position. Thus, I recruited him." Adams' title was "associate program director, student-athlete welfare," Boston said.

Adams' job at Minnesota was not posted to other candidates and no one else was interviewed for the position, Boston said. He added that university guidelines allow individuals to be hired without a search for a limited appointment period.

"I have known Anthony Adams for 11 years, and I have been an active mentor to him during this time," Boston wrote in one of his responses.

"I view mentoring as a professional obligation to get more people of color involved in athletic management and in higher education."

Boston has been under fire since the Pioneer Press in March reported allegations of alleged academic fraud by the men's basketball team. The Gophers face NCAA sanctions after preliminary findings from an internal investigation found "numerous, maybe even massive" amounts of academic fraud, according to President Mark Yudof.

Boston has maintained he was not aware of any wrongdoing...

and

Another perplexing Boston hiring decision also didn't work out so well:

Shocking commentary from McKinley Boston
Doug Grow
Minneapolis Star Tribune
November 06, 1999

McKinley Boston's office is in Morrill Hall, which is in the middle of the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus. On a daily basis, then, Boston surely must see hundreds of people rushing about, conducting the business of a major university. So how is it that the university's vice president for student development and athletics can be so isolated from reality?

On Thursday, Boston came out of whatever mist he's been in and appeared before a University of Minnesota faculty committee, which has recommended sweeping leadership changes for the Minnesota athletic department. In addressing the faculty report, which would strip from him control of athletics, Boston read from a seven-page statement. A couple of sentences in one paragraph of the statement revealed how out of touch Boston is.

"Professionally, I'm at a point where I do not view this recommendation as a turf issue for me," Boston said. "But I can assure you the nature of the beast is that wherever it resides there will be three or four issues a year that will become significant and possibly embarrassing to the university. There are roughly 700 men and women student-athletes, over 70 coaches and hundreds of staff whose standard of conduct by working in athletics is held higher by the media than their peers or colleagues. . . ."

Here comes the jaw-dropping part:

"I'll offer you an example. When was the last time you saw a person who was arrested for solicitation on the front page of a major newspaper?" Boston asked, referring to the Star Tribune's coverage of athletic official Rufus Simmons' June arrest on charges of soliciting a prostitute. "That incident and other related stories, reflected the 'lightning rod' that is associated with major college athletics. . . ."

People who know him say Boston is a charming and capable man. Former Gov. Arne Carlson thought so much of Boston that when it appeared in 1995 that Boston, who was Minnesota's athletic director at the time, was going to take a job at Florida State University, Carlson pushed for the creation of the new vice presidential post, which called for a salary of $225,000.

But go back to those incredible comments Thursday. Remember, they were read from a statement, meaning Boston had taken time to contemplate what he was saying.

The story the Star Tribune ran on its front page on Aug. 20 wasn't about just any john. Simmons was cited on June 15 for soliciting a prostitute in Minneapolis. It turned out that Simmons previously had been cited for the same thing in 1991, and it also turned out that Simmons was the the subject of a sexual harassment claim against the university that was settled in 1988.

Did Simmons make the front page simply because he was an employee of the athletic department and therefore a lightning rod, as Boston said?

Hardly.

Until he retired on July 31, Simmons was an associate men's athletic director charged with running the Center for Student-Athlete Development. Boston, who came to the university as men's athletic director in 1991, put Simmons in charge of the center in 1993.

Among other things, Simmons was supposed to see to it that the athletes were sensitive to issues of sexual harassment and sexual violence. But Star Tribune reports showed that beyond his sexual problem, Simmons often was uncooperative in working with the organizations that were supposed to give athletes sensitivity training.

Remember, too, the university has been embarrassed and people have been hurt in the past dozen years by athletes who have been charged with rape and other forms of sexual violence.

How many assaults or instances of boorish behavior might have been prevented if Boston hadn't taken the attitude that stuff happens because the athletic department is big and it's in the public eye?

While the faculty committee was calling for massive athletic department change Thursday, the Student Judicial Affairs panel was calling for the university to hire an investigator independent of its police department to look into allegations of sexual violence, domestic violence and the cozy relationship between police and athletic department coaches and officials.

There was a third report, independent of the other two, that was issued amid less fanfare Thursday. The Minnesota Public Interest Research Group issued a study, "Sexual Harassment and Violence on Campus." We have almost become numb to the sort of numbers that filled the report: One in three women will be a victim of some sort of sexual assault, ranging from an unwanted pinch to rape. About 40 percent of the male students believe that people who complain about sexual harassment are simply overreacting to "expressions of normal sexual attraction."

The study makes it clear that students today are far more likely to know there are protective policies on campus than students 10 years ago were. But it's less clear if behaviors have substantially changed.

All in all, the study shows that colleges must spend more time teaching incoming students about sensitivity and law surrounding sexual behavior.

The depressing numbers in the report also show that the university needs vice presidents who act like leaders, not $225,000-a-year victims.

and

For those of you wishing to read a timeline of the NCAA violations and the resulting investigation involving Minnesota, here goes. Note that the St. Paul Pioneer Press won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for its reporting. From that newspaper:

March 28, 1999
ANALYZING THE POSITIONS

...UNDER FIRE
McKINLEY BOSTON
Vice president for Athletics and Student Development
1995-present.

Concern: Internal memos indicate Boston approved decision that made basketball’s Alonzo Newby the only academic counselor who reported directly to the athletic department. Former academic counseling director Elayne Donahue also says he ignored warnings of a potential problem.

Where he stands: Initial comments suggested he was distancing himself from Jan Gangelhoff’s allegations, saying that only Newby should have known who was tutoring the players. Has been quiet since.

What’s at stake: Even if he keeps his job, the allegations and investigation will be an embarrassing bump in a long career in athletics...

CHAIN OF EVENTS

A timeline of the investigation into allegations of academic fraud by its men’s basketball players.

Feb. 27: Jan Gangelhoff turns over to a Pioneer Press reporter almost 300 documents from her tenure as an office manager in the academic counseling unit and as a tutor. The documents, which she says contain course work she did for players, are downloaded from her computer and discs at a Danbury, Wis., cafe.

March 1: Russ Archambault becomes the first former player to confirm that Gangelhoff did course work for him.

March 6: After an analysis of the documents revealed at least 225 examples of purported course work that Gangelhoff said she did for players, the Pioneer Press finds evidence of duplication among papers allegedly turned in by different players, including identical typographical errors.

March 8: The Pioneer Press asks the university’s sports information office to set up a meeting with Vice President for athletics and student development McKinley Boston, athletics Director Mark Dienhart, basketball coach Clem Haskins, basketball academic counselor Alonzo Newby and NCAA compliance director Chris Schoemann. Reporters also attempt to contact all former players and coaches implicated by Gangelhoff. That evening, Newby calls Gangelhoff, demanding an explanation for her decision to go public, and telling her Haskins has learned of the story and is livid.

March 9: The team’s traveling party leaves for Seattle, the site of its NCAA tournament game, without speaking to the Pioneer Press. The allegations are detailed to university President Mark Yudof, who says the school has called in legal counsel. By the end of the night, Haskins and Boston speak to the Pioneer Press.

March 10: Gangelhoff’s allegations are published, including claims that Haskins paid her $3,000 to tutor in spring 1998. Gov. Jesse Ventura and hundreds of angry callers accuse the paper of timing the publication to maximize publicity and hurt the team’s NCAA chances.

March 11: After meeting with the four current players implicated by Gangelhoff, the university suspends them from the game as Boston acknowledges "prima facie evidence’’ of NCAA violations. The Gophers lose to Gonzaga.

March 12: The Pioneer Press reports former academic counselor Rick Marsden stated in an affidavit as part of his sexual harassment lawsuit against the school that in 1986 a basketball coach asked him to do course work for players. He said the coach was Haskins.

March 14: The Pioneer Press reports that six years ago a faculty committee urged the school to crack down on athletic department officials’ intrusion into academic counseling and tutoring for athletes. The report was ignored.

March 19: Gangelhoff says the $3,000 came from Haskins through an intermediary, later identified as Newby.

March 19: The university hires Bond, Schoeneck & King of Overland, Kan., and a Minneapolis law firm to handle the investigation, which will take at least six months.

March 21: The Pioneer Press reports that Haskins once signed a glowing letter of recommendation for Gangelhoff, praising her ability to perform "above what is required of her.’’

March 22: Haskins issues a denial described by his attorney as "all-inclusive.’’

March 23: Gangelhoff says Haskins knew she was doing course work for players and advised her about how to make it appear authentic.

March 24: The Pioneer Press reports a graduate student’s allegation that she wrote a class paper in 1995 for player Courtney James during her first tutoring session. She said when she told Newby and Haskins that she would not do it again, Newby said she would not be offered a contract to continue tutoring.

April 1: Gangelhoff supplies the Pioneer Press with 54 additional examples of alleged course work she said she did for eight of the players implicated earlier.

April 4: The Pioneer Press reports Newby requested and was granted disability leave from his job as the team's academic counselor.

April 8: A computer analysis by the Pioneer Press reveals that the Gophers had the worst basketball graduation rate in the Big Ten, 23 percent, for players recruited between 1983-91.

April 9: Gangelhoff meets with investigators and clears one player, Jermaine Stanford, of cheating, but not of possible NCAA violations. She brings more than 350 examples of course work she said she did, having found 90 more earlier in the week.

April 14: A 20-page report by former academic counseling director Elayne Donahue obtained by the Pioneer Press alleges that the program intervened with faculty members on behalf of several Gophers players, some of whom needed help to remain eligible.

April 16: The Pioneer Press reports Haskins' contract allows for a broad interpretation of his responsibility and would make it difficult for him to be fired without receiving a substantial payment.

April 28: The Pioneer Press reports that the university failed to report to the NCAA a cheating incident involving former player Kevin Loge, even though Loge and Gangelhoff said they told Chris Schoemann, the university's director of NCAA compliance, about the incident.

An extensive analysis of documents obtained by the Pioneer Press finds that star former player Bobby Jackson was awarded credits for a course earlier than school rules allow, was never enrolled in basic courses he needed to graduate, such as math and a foreign language, and once received an "A'' in a directed study course in which the only assignment was to type the word "basketball'' into a database and list the articles that appeared. The paper also reports that a member of the Golden Dunkers has been charged with running a bookmaking operation.

May 25: Minneapolis black leaders say they believe media coverage of the scandal is racially biased and cite a Pioneer Press editorial cartoon titled "The Plantation'' as an example of prejudice. Editors of both newspapers deny the charge.

May 27: Newby's lawyer, Ron Rosenbaum, announces his client will not talk to investigators looking into the allegations of academic fraud.

June 10: The Pioneer Press reports not only that a week earlier the U began negotiations with Haskins' lawyer, ostensibly to seek a settlement that would remove him as coach, but also that the Board of Regents would meet that morning to discuss terms of a potential buy-out.

June 11: The Pioneer Press reports that Haskins, using a personal check, paid for Gangelhoff to go to Hawaii, where the team was playing in a tournament.

June 15: Rosenbaum says Newby may be willing to talk to investigators in return for money or a severance package.

June 25: Haskins leaves the university, agreeing to a $1.5 million parting of the ways. In a series of tough and revealing comments, University of Minnesota President Mark Yudof left no doubt about why Haskins' 13-year tenure as Gopher men's basketball coach had come to an abrupt end: Convincing evidence exists of "numerous, numerous, maybe even massive incidents of academic misconduct'' in the men's basketball program, the president says.

July 25: Dan Monson, formerly of Gonzaga University in Washington, is hired to a seven-year, nearly $500,000-per-year contract as the Gophers top men's basketball coach.

Oct. 26: University of Minnesota President Mark Yudof announces a one-year ban on postseason play and puts the team on probation for an undetermined amount of time. He also says to expect more sanctions.

Oct. 27: The Pioneer Press reports that all 11 Gophers head coaches delivered a letter to Yudof in support of Dienhart and other department officials, but not Boston.

Oct. 29: Former academic counselor Alonzo Newby, in his first public statement, admits he did not "play by the rules'' and "allowed himself to give in to an administration's desire to win at any cost.''

Nov. 5: A special student and faculty subcommittee recommends eliminating the position of vice president of student affairs and athletics, the job currently held by Boston. The committee also recommends that academic counseling and student services report to a provost who reports directly to Yudof and that the athletic director report to a special assistant to the president.

Nov. 11: Athletic director Mark Dienhart faults Haskins publicly for the first time, telling the full student and faculty Senate committee that Haskins was a "power coach'' who only "answered to God.'' Also, the committee recommends the earlier subcommittee recommendations calling for major changes in the administration of the athletic department, to further separate it from academics.

Nov. 16: State Sen. Cal Larson, R-Fergus Falls, calls for Boston and Dienhart to step down. He also sends a letter to the NCAA, in which he calls Yudof's actions so far "inadequate and misguided.''

Nov. 19: The university releases a 1,000-page report and 1,500 pages of supporting documents from the university's investigation. Yudof also announces his "action plan'' for dealing with the crisis.

Here is a link to even more of this material:

Here is Minnesota President Mark Yudof as part of his remarks during a news conference after the scandal broke and the investigations investigated: "...While nothing in the report demonstrates that either Dr. Boston or Dr. Dienhart knew of the cheating, the facts show that they had strong reason to be suspicious of the operation of the basketball counseling program. Plenty of warning signals were sent. Despite signals of irregularities, no adequate investigation was ever launched. Although the circumstances may have been difficult, given the power-coach culture surrounding Clem Haskins, I believe both Dr. Dienhart and Dr. Boston missed opportunities to act aggressively, particularly after I became president in July 1997..."

To be fair, Yudof also offered praise to Boston and Dienhart along with delineating the missed opportunities to explore concerns further.


Switching locations and ignoring the recent legal entanglements of several current members of the New Mexico State men's basketball team, there was Boston's Orwellian double-talk (how else can it be described?) surrounding the sordid matter of Tyrone Nelson and his doofus-like robbery of a pizza deliverer.

Nelson dismissed after no contest plea in robbery charges
Associated Press
July 31, 2007

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Senior forward Tyrone Nelson was dismissed from the New Mexico State basketball team Tuesday after he pleaded no contest to charges stemming from an August 2006 robbery of a pizza delivery man.

Nelson, 21, was set to be tried this week on charges of robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and bribery. Under a plea deal with prosecutors, he avoided a trial and possible jail time.

"I have made some bad decisions that I am saddened that I have to live with," Nelson told state District Judge Stephen Bridgforth as he entered his plea. "I'm asking for a chance to further my career as a student at New Mexico State."

Bridgforth ordered Nelson to serve four years' probation and perform 100 hours of community service. Nelson would have faced more than seven years in prison had he been tried and found guilty of the charges.

Nelson was arrested days after a Domino's Pizza delivery man was struck on the side of the head and robbed of a pizza and hot wings on Aug. 22, 2006, at an apartment complex near campus.

Athletics director McKinley Boston testified Tuesday as a character witness on Nelson's behalf, but the court decided not to accept a proposal for Nelson's conditional discharge, which would have allowed him to participate on the team under a behavior contract.

Disappointed with the decision, Boston said he believes basketball would have provided the motivation for Nelson to complete the academic credits he needs to graduate.

School officials said Nelson was dismissed from the team because he violated the student-athlete code of conduct, which calls for permanent dismissal from the team following a conviction, a guilty plea or a no contest plea to a violent felony or serious drug offense.

"Tyrone's no contest plea was not an admission of guilt but it does identify him as a convicted felon and as athletic department policy states he will not be a member of the New Mexico State University basketball team," Boston said.

Boston gives Nelson a run for his money -- er, pizza in this case -- in utter nonsense. Nelson lied to Boston and lied to then Coach Reggie Theus when asked early on about his involvement in the robbery yet Boston chants about Nelson good character and pleads that Nelson needs to remain representing New Mexico State in athletics in order to have the motivation to finish his degree. As Dr. Phil sometimes offers when a guest offers a version of something not even remotely connected to reality: "Do I have stupid written on my forehead?"

After Nelson was initially charged, a charge of bribery was later added when it was determined by the police that Nelson offered a neighbor drugs and money to take the fall for him. There was no word if the neighbor was anywhere close to 6-9 in height nor his nationality. But here's a Boston quote about the added-on bribery charge, encapsulating his approach to the entire matter: "We hope all of our student-athletes are model citizens, but that's not reality. I'm disappointed and coach (Reggie Theus) is disappointed," Boston said. "But at this point, we'll just let the legal system play itself out."

Then there was this group and the work they performed soon after the initial robbery and conspiracy charges. They apparently never got back together when the bribery charge was added later:

The Associated Press
August 30, 2006

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) -New Mexico State forward Tyrone Nelson was reinstated to the basketball team Tuesday, just days after he he had been suspended pending an investigation into allegations that he robbed a pizza delivery man.

A committee that looks into allegations of student-athlete misconduct met Monday and recommended that athletic director McKinley Boston reinstate Nelson immediately.

"On a review of the reports, the committee felt that there was no evidence that Tyrone (Nelson) was involved in the crimes committed and thus recommended to Dr. Boston that Nelson be reinstated to the men's basketball program," said the committee's chairman, Charley Johnson...

Now it's not clear what reports this committee was provided with or what the reports contained but why was one simple yet incriminating fact overlooked or ignored? That being the pizza deliverer was at a Las Cruces shopping mall in the days after the robbery and noticed someone in the vicinity who he thought looked a lot like the person who robbed him. The pizza deliverer then used his cell phone to dial up the phone number (apparently he had saved it) provided by the individual who originally ordered the food.

Guess what happened next?

Tyrone Nelson -- the individual standing near the pizza deliverer at the mall -- then answered his cell phone.

Checkmate.