The University of Michigan basketball scandal, or the Ed Martin scandal, concerned National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules violations resulting from the relationship between the University of Michigan (or Michigan), its men's basketball program, and booster Eddie L. "Ed" Martin. The violations principally involved payments booster Martin made to several players to launder money from an illegal gambling operation. It is one of the largest incidents involving payments to athletes in American collegiate history. An initial investigation by the school was joined by the NCAA, Big Ten Conference, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). As a result of this investigation, Michigan's basketball program was punished with sanctions.
The case began when the investigation of an automobile accident involving Michigan player Maurice Taylor revealed a curious relationship between Martin and Michigan's basketball program dating back to the 1980s. Several Michigan players were implicated over the next few years and by 1999 some were called before a federal grand jury. Four eventual professional basketball players—Taylor, Chris Webber, Robert Traylor and Louis Bullock—were discovered to have borrowed a total of $616,000 from Martin. During the investigation, Webber claimed not to have had any financial relationship with Martin, but eventually confessed to taking loans from Martin. He was both fined in the legal system and briefly suspended by the National Basketball Association (NBA) after performing public service.
In 1997, Michigan coach Steve Fisher was fired for his involvement in violations relating to the scandal. Subsequently, the NCAA investigation did not find him culpable of significant wrongdoing related to the scandal. By the fall of 2002, it was obvious that the four players were in fact guilty of taking money from Martin, and had thus compromised their amateur status. In response, Michigan placed the basketball program on two years' probation, withdrew from postseason consideration for the 2002–03 season, vacated all or part of five past seasons and removed the players' names and achievements from its record book. A few months later, the NCAA accepted these punishments, doubled both the probation period and the postseason ineligibility, penalized Michigan one scholarship for four seasons, and ordered the school to disassociate from the three living guilty players until 2012 (Webber's ban extended through 2013; the fourth player, Traylor, died in 2011).
The punishment cost the 2002–2003 team its postseason eligibility, cost past teams the 1997 National Invitation Tournament and the 1998 Big Ten tournament championships as well as appearances in the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Final Fours. It cost Webber his All-American 1993 honors, Traylor his MVP awards in the 1997 NIT and 1998 Big Ten tournament, as well as Bullock's standing as the school's third all-time leading scorer and all-time leader in free throws and the Big Ten's all-time leader in 3-point field goals (surpassed in 2011). The additional year of postseason ineligibility was overturned on appeal. Mandatory disassociations with the surviving players ended on May 8, 2013.
Background In the early morning of February 17, 1996, a Ford Explorer driven by University of Michigan basketball player Maurice Taylor went out of control while returning along M-14 from a party in Detroit, east of Michigan's campus in Ann Arbor. Among the passengers was high school star Mateen Cleaves, who was on his official recruiting visit. When an investigation revealed that the trip included a visit to the home of Michigan team booster Eddie L. "Ed" Martin, Michigan investigated his relationship with their men's basketball program.
Martin was reportedly returning to Ann Arbor from Detroit with Taylor, Cleaves, Bullock, Ron Oliver, Robert Traylor, and Willie Mitchell after a party that included drugs, strippers and alcohol. Accounts of the party vary. By some accounts the party was hosted by Martin, but by other accounts Martin's house was a stop on the way to a party at Detroit's Westin Hotel. Martin, a retired electrician who worked at Ford Motor Company's River Rouge Complex, provided all the players with money. A 2003 profile in ESPN the Magazine detailed how Martin operated a numbers game in the Rouge factory:
During the rollover accident, Traylor broke his arm and was lost for the season. Mitchell transferred from Michigan to the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) after his junior season (1995–1996). Taylor, Traylor, Bullock, and Cleaves (who eventually signed with rival Michigan State) all went on to be drafted by National Basketball Association (NBA) teams. Bullock played in various foreign leagues but never in the NBA.
The NCAA uses a statute of limitations of four years. Thus, at any time the NCAA can open or re-open an investigation for an infraction occurring within the last four years. However, NCAA convention is to date violations based on when they learned about the infraction. Thus, events that had occurred far more than four years prior to the investigation came under its purview. The initial accident reports revealed several inconsistencies and violations that induced expanded investigation.
Michigan admitted to the secondary NCAA violation of transporting a recruit more than from campus. Questions were immediately raised about whether Taylor actually owned the vehicle involved in the crash. The NCAA asked for leasing documentation of Taylor's vehicle, and Michigan investigated the registrations of its players' vehicles. The university soon required that all the vehicles driven by its players be part of a special vehicle registration program.
Martin's relationship with the program In March 1997, Michigan and the Big Ten released the results of an investigation into Martin's relationship with the school. The investigation determined that Martin had nurtured a relationship that involved some minor violations. The violations that were published were that Martin was present at a recruit's home during a visit by head coach Fisher; and that he'd given a Michigan player a birthday cake. Fisher prevented Martin from committing serious additional violations by keeping him from placing a deposit on an apartment for a player. He also stopped Martin from buying airplane tickets for another player's family. A second October 1997 private investigation also failed to reveal any large violations.
1980s Martin befriended Perry Watson, coach for Southwestern High School of Detroit, and provided gifts to the team's players. When Michigan's Bill Frieder recruited a Southwestern High School prospect, Martin was present. Martin then began attending Michigan games with the prospect's father when the student enrolled. He also attended games and practices with Watson. Martin also developed a relationship with Iowa basketball coach George Raveling, who regularly recruited from Detroit high schools for Iowa. He also received complimentary tickets to Iowa games while Raveling was coach. Martin attempted to give gifts and cash to Frieder recruit Terry Mills. After Frieder left Michigan in 1989, Martin immediately formed an equally close relationship with his successor, Fisher, and gave Fisher's family gifts.
Webber Martin noticed Webber during a middle school game. Martin attended Webber's church, where Webber's father was deacon and began fostering a relationship by making frequent visits to the Webber family home. Between 1988 and 1993 Martin gave Webber about $280,000. Eventually, Webber would confess to having received and repaid only $38,200, an amount identified via a specific transaction tied to Webber.
1990s In September 1996, athletic director Joe Roberson learned that during the previous month Martin had tried to place deposits on apartments for Traylor and Louis Bullock. Martin had also offered airline tickets to Bullock's parents so they could attend a tournament in Puerto Rico. It emerged that Fisher had known about Martin's actions at the time. While Fisher had ordered the deposits retrieved and made sure the tickets weren't used, he didn't tell anyone in the athletic or compliance offices, as he was required to do. As a result of Roberson's findings, he ordered interviews of the basketball team and team coaches.
The March 1997 Big Ten report showed that official University phone records documented that the coaching staff called Martin's home 39 times. Between the 1991–92 and the 1993–94 seasons, records showed that Martin received 97 tickets to Michigan basketball games either for free or under his special arrangement to have tickets made available for purchase. Watson joined the Michigan basketball coaching staff in 1991. The October 1997 investigation revealed that Fisher had provided Martin with passes for sixteen complimentary tickets from 1994 to 1997, and that his secretary and other clerical workers made out ten more such passes. In addition, six passes were signed with the PW initials of departed coach Watson. Watson denied making such passes available and a handwriting analysis matched five of the six to Fisher. Fisher was fired when the investigation became public on October 10, 1997, just a week before the start of basketball practices.
In June 1997, the Detroit Free Press revealed sources that claimed both Chris Webber and Taylor had received at least $100,000 from Martin, but that Webber had repaid the money after turning pro. A pattern of Martin befriending young basketball stars eventually became clear. Martin paid $280,000 to Webber from 1988 (when he was a ninth-grader at Detroit Country Day School) to 1993 (his sophomore year at Michigan, after which he turned pro). Martin also befriended Traylor as a freshman in high school. Martin was at Traylor's home when Fisher made a recruiting visit. Between 1994 (his senior year at Murray–Wright High School in Detroit) and 1998 (his junior year at Michigan, after which he turned pro), Martin gave Traylor about $160,000. Martin befriended Taylor when he was in high school. Between 1995 and 1998 (during his time at Michigan), Martin gave Taylor about $105,000. Since Bullock went to high school in Maryland, he did not know Martin before coming to Michigan. Martin gave Bullock about $71,000 during his four years at Michigan which ended in 1999.
Roberson also learned that during the 1992 Final Four, Fisher made two of the limited supply of team rooms available to Martin. Martin gave one hotel room paid for by Michigan to Webber's father—a violation of NCAA rules. For his part, Martin denied any wrongdoing when questioned by an NCAA enforcement representative. However, he later refused to cooperate with the University or the NCAA, forcing Michigan to ban him from any contact with the athletic program in March 1997.
Raid and subpoenas