On Jan. 4, 1941 William Bradford Huie's first story in a major magazine was published and it immediately set off a firestorm of criticism. The University of Alabama graduate's piece in
Collier's: The National Weekly magazine, "
How to Keep Football Stars in College," accused the Crimson Tide football program of a litany of abuses.
Using a lively and colorful manner that became his hallmark, Huie alleged Alabama engaged in a regular practice of paying players, used local high schools to process ineligible players from out-of-state and a relentless purging of players who were unable to perform on the football field. Huie even claimed to have been hired by the school as a tutor charged with keeping academically inept athletes qualified scholastically so they could play.
"I guess I'm trying to kid myself into believing there is more good than bad in the collegiate football system," he wrote.
A university faculty committee
issued an exhaustive report a month later finding all the accusations in the article baseless. Three months later,
Collier's retracted the story and offered apology to the school for publishing it:
Huie would go onto a long and distinguished career as a muckraking journalist, screenwriter and author, including numerous groundbreaking works on the civil rights movement. He was inducted into the University of Alabama's College of Communication and Information Sciences Hall of Fame in 1998.
