Fix or Fiction?

"All I do," said Saturday Evening Post Editor Clay Blair Jr. in a recent speech, "is make speeches, deal with libel lawyers and raise hell about the telephone bill." Last week Blair was doing even less. Told by Curtis Publishing Co. President Matthew J. Culligan to quit talking to reporters, he hardly had time to look at the phone bill either. He was worrying about lawyers in an Atlanta courtroom where the Post was defending itself against a $10 million libel suit filed by former University of Georgia Football Coach Wally Butts.

The trouble was touched off last spring when the Post published "The Story of a College Football Fix," by Frank Graham Jr., an article alleging that Butts had given information to Alabama Coach Paul ("Bear") Bryant to help highly favored Alabama whip a second-rate Georgia team 35-0 in its first game of the 1962 season. In Georgia, where college football commands violent loyalties, such charges were no less than an accusation of treason. Butts raced into court. Right behind him came Bear Bryant, who was already suing the Post for $500,000 because of an earlier article that said he taught brutal football. Bear now wanted $10 million more for having been accused of participating in a fix.

Not So Simple. When Butts's suit came to trial last week, the Post led off, since the defense has the burden of proving truth. First major witness was Atlanta Insurance Salesman George Burnett, who claimed to have been an accidental eavesdropper on a pregame phone call between Butts and Bryant. It was Burnett's notes on what he said he heard that were the basis of the Post expose.

On the stand, Burnett stuck to his story. He had been trying to make an other call when he found himself listening to a conversation between the two coaches. He had heard Butts give Bryant "detailed information about the plays and formations Georgia would use." Georgia's present coach, Johnny Griffith, and his assistants testified next; they claimed that such information would almost surely have been helpful to any opposing coach.

But as testimony and cross-examination ground on, it became clear that the Post's case was not quite that simple. Writer Graham had already admitted that he had turned out the story without ever seeing Burnett's notes. Although the article accused Butts of telling Bryant that the Georgia quarterback tipped off pass plays by the way he placed his feet, Burnett said that he had never heard Butts mention that fact. Coach Griffith added that his quarterback was better than that, anyway.

The more he was questioned by Butts's attorney, former Notre Dame End William Schroder, the more mistakes Griffith remembered from the article. He denied that he had ever used a play called the "88 pop," a maneuver Butts was accused of reporting to Bryant. He denied that his team took a "frightful physical beating" from Alabama, as the Post article claimed. He denied ever telling University of Georgia officials that he would resign if Butts stayed on as athletic director. He denied that his players had come to the sidelines during the game and claimed that they had been sold out. Part of the stuff in Burnett's notes, said Coach Griffith, made no sense to him; part seemed to have no relation to the Georgia team; part was true but was no secret to any competent coach. Griffith could hardly have corrected any of those errors before publication. The Post, he said, never checked his quotes with him.

Even the article's final lament--" 'I never had a chance, did I,' Coach Johnny Griffith said bitterly . . ."--was pure fiction, Griffith said.

Not on a Technicality. Surprisingly, the defense chose to rest its case without calling any witnesses to attempt to connect Butts with known gamblers, to try to show that he might have been tipping Georgia's hand in order to ensure some bets. There was, said Judge Lewis Morgan, no question that the article was libelous. It would be up to Butts and his lawyer to convince the jury that the Post had not proved the story to be true.

"We are not going to rely on the technicality that the Saturday Evening Post has the burden of proving the truth," said Attorney Schroder. "We are going to show that Butts did not and could not have done these things." Schroder had got Georgia End Coach Leroy Pearce to admit that after reviewing movies of the game, he could find no evidence that Alabama had taken advantage of the Georgia weaknesses Butts supposedly gave away. Now Schroder called Coach Bryant to the stand.

A blunt, burly citizen, Bryant made a belligerent witness. "Absolutely not," he snapped in answer to Schroder's question. He and Butts had not rigged the game. "If we did, we ought to go to jail." Bryant admitted that he and Butts had often talked football over the telephone, but he insisted that for the most part they had been discussing changes in the interpretations of Southeast Conference rules. Did Butts give him any information about Georgia strategy? "Absolutely not," said Bryant. "And if he had, the first thing I'd think is that they're not going to use it. He's for Georgia and I'm for Alabama."

Schroder handed the witness some of Burnett's notes. The very first entry referred to "Bear" Bryant. "Butts never called me Bear," said Bear scornfully."He always called me Paul." As for the notation that Butts had reported Georgia to be "a well-disciplined ball club," Bryant was equally scornful. "If that was said, I think I would be the one that would be saying it." What about Coach Griffith's claims that Burnett's notes contained Georgia's two basic offensive formations, the "slot" and the "pro set"? asked Schroder. Movies of the game, Bryant answered, would show that Alabama had been completely unprepared for the pro set. The slot, he added with the assurance of a man who has scouted his opponent well, is old stuff at Georgia. In a spring game last year, Georgia ran 109 out of 113 plays from the slot.

All through his testimony, Bryant seemed to have a hard time keeping his rising anger in check. For a parting thrust he shouted: "Anybody who had anything to do with this story ought to go to jail. Taking their money is not good enough!"

Chalk-Talk Touchdowns. When his turn came, Butts was a far more relaxed witness--but no less emphatic. He had talked football with his friend Paul Bryant many times, he said. "In fact, I've talked football with every coach I've ever been around." But Butts insisted that he had never given Bryant any dope on Georgia football strategy; he had never given any coach any information before a game, he said. Burnett's notes, said Butts, were rife with error. To show why he would never have called the Georgia squad "well-disciplined," Coach Butts treated the jury to a chalk-talk explaining how lack of discipline cost Georgia at least three touchdowns as it lost to Alabama.

The case was scheduled to go to the jury this week. The verdict would affect the reputation of two of the South's most famous football coaches and that of a famous old magazine as well.

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