Going dry
Kentucky enacts strict anti-alcohol policy
Posted: Tuesday November 24, 1998 05:25 PM
LEXINGTON, Kentucky (AP) -- Kentucky athletes convicted of drunken driving will be kicked off teams and lose their scholarships, and the school will sever all sponsorship ties with beer, wine and liquor companies, athletic director C.M. Newton said Tuesday.
The revised alcohol policy for Kentucky athletics comes in the wake of an apparently alcohol-related truck crash last week which killed one Kentucky football player and severely injured another. Another young man also died.
Newton said the decision not to renew contracts with Anheuser-Busch, Miller Brewing and Maker's Mark, a Kentucky bourbon manufacturer, will cost the school about $400,000 a year.
The ban covers advertising on Kentucky's television and radio networks, coaches' shows, posters, schedule cards, game programs and at venues where Kentucky home games are played. Newton said the last of the school's current contracts with alcohol manufacturers expires after the 1999-2000 school year.
Newton said any student-athlete charged with driving under the influence will receive an automatic temporary suspension from practice and games. He said the athletic department will then investigate the charge and will either lift the suspension or keep it in place, based on whether the charge appears to have merit.
If a student-athlete is convicted of DUI, he or she will be suspended indefinitely and will forfeit any athletic scholarship, Newton said.
In addition, Newton said, athletes charged with public intoxication or underage drinking will be at least placed on probation and required to complete an alcohol counseling program. Penalties may be more severe if the athlete is charged with damaging property or hurting another person, Newton said.
The policy covers all of Kentucky's approximately 400 student-athletes, whether or not they are on scholarship.
Newton said he was prompted to act by a number of recent incidents, including the November 15 crash involving football center Jason Watts.
Watts faces charges of drunken driving and second-degree manslaughter in the crash, which killed teammate Artie Steinmetz and another passenger, Eastern Kentucky student Scott Brock. Prosecutors have said Watts, who injured his arm in the crash, had a blood-alcohol level of 1 1/2 times the legal limit at the time of the crash.
In 1997, Watts accidentally shot a teammate in the buttocks while intoxicated. The teammate, Omar Smith, was not seriously injured, and Watts eventually pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm within city limits.
Other Kentucky athletes who have faced alcohol-related charges this year are basketball guard Ryan Hogan, who pleaded guilty in May to DUI, and football cornerback Tony Woods, who was dismissed from the team in February after being charged with DUI.
Newton said the policy would not be enforced retroactively.
"We're not dealing with professional athletes," Newton said. "We're dealing with 18- and 19-year-olds. You have to remember what it's like to be 18, 19, 20 years old."
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