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Parent contacted more Vols boosters Posted: Saturday April 27, 2002 10:21 AMKNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A former Tennessee player's father, who lodged accusations that brought self-imposed sanctions on coach Phillip Fulmer and two boosters, asked yet another booster for help getting a job and leasing a Ford Expedition, a letter shows. Richard "Juicy" Locke, whose son Eric transferred from Alabama to Tennessee in 1999, wrote a letter that year to David Parsons, a former Tennessee player and Murfreesboro real-estate agent. Now Locke says the Parsons letter was all a joke and none of it was true. In the letter, which was printed in Friday's Tennessean newspaper, Locke said Alabama paid the family's rent and for a Ford Expedition. The letter asked Parsons to find a Tennessee contact who could get a deal on another SUV and one who might help Locke and his wife find employment in case Tennessee's AFL-CIO president Jim Neeley didn't come through with a job. Locke also criticized Alabama's program and then-coach Mike DuBose. Neeley said he met with Locke but denied offering him a job as suggested in the letter. Locke has been at odds with the school since last spring when his son was suspended for stealing a teammate's ATM card and withdrawing $2,400. He has accused the university of using his son to testify in the NCAA's investigation of recruiting violations at Alabama. Last week, Tennessee told the Southeastern Conference it will give up two of its 25 football scholarships, ban Fulmer from recruiting evaluation trips in May and forbid two boosters from contributing to the athletics department for three years because of violations in the 1999 recruiting of Eric Locke. The SEC has accepted the penalties and forwarded Tennessee's report to the NCAA. In 1999, the elder Locke met with Fulmer even though his son was not released from his scholarship with Alabama and with Nashville booster Doug Mathews, who contacted another Tennessee supporter to help Eric Locke find a summer job. Parsons said he kept Locke's letter "because I figured one day Tennessee might need it, and lo and behold there it is." After Parsons received the letter in 1999, he told Mathews about it and gave him a copy, Parsons said Friday. "I knew about Juicy and his track record, and I didn't want anything to do with him," Parsons said. About three months ago, Mathews was questioned by an SEC investigator about the letter and also gave him a copy. With Parson's permission, Mathews gave the letter to The Tennessean after the announcement of the sanctions. Locke wrote, "People don't realize what we as a family are giving up here in Tuscaloosa and they don't need to know. David, they took care of us pretty good. Our rent was paid, we had a Ford Expedition leased and paid by Bama so that we could travel back to see our folks in TN as well as make the away games." Locke also wrote that top recruits should not make the same mistake his son did in going to Alabama. "The Bama coaches know I will hurt them in TN when I go back by just telling the truth -- not lies! I've been here a year and saw this mess unfold. ...I wouldn't want a kid who really wants to win come to Bama," Locke wrote. "Mike DuBose is a good guy but terrible coach. He had talent but is in too deep with the big wheels on who to play instead of trying to win." Locke claims he sent Parsons a second letter in which he explained some of the first letter was written out of frustration. "You'd have to know David Parsons," Locke said. "I knew he would go run with it because of our prior experiences. Alabama never did anything wrong." Parsons said he never got a second letter. Tennessee athletic director Doug Dickey said he did not know Parsons and was not contacted about the letter. He also did not know of any other boosters who had received letters from Locke.
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