The scandal became explosive after former SMU player David Stanley went public with detailed allegations to WFAA-TV investigative reporter Dale Hansen and producer John Sparks in 1986. Stanley said assistant coach Bootsie Larsen offered him $25,000 to sign with SMU and then paid him $750 a month during the semesters from his enrollment in 1983 until Larsen's dismissal in 1985. According to Stanley, Larsen handed him $400 in cash on the first of each month while the remaining $350 was mailed to his family. After Larsen was fired, Stanley said athletic-department administrative assistant Henry Lee Parker continued the payments. Stanley's mother produced an envelope postmarked October 4, 1985—after SMU's latest NCAA probation—with Parker's initials, 'HLP,' written on it. Hansen confronted head coach Bobby Collins, athletic director Bob Hitch, and Parker, all of whom denied wrongdoing and portrayed Stanley as a disgruntled former player. Hansen then produced the envelopes; when asked whether he had sent mail to the Stanley family, Parker initially denied it, then recognized the evidence. The investigation was especially dangerous in Dallas, where SMU alumni held major influence in business and advertising. An earlier Dallas Times Herald investigation into SMU recruiting had cost the newspaper substantial advertising revenue, demonstrating the economic pressure surrounding the program. Stanley's account, the envelopes, and other evidence helped establish that SMU had continued paying players despite repeated sanctions, making the school a repeat offender under the NCAA's newly emphasized Repeat Violator rule.
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