Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 1, 1994                   TAG: 9406010097
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TALLAHASSEE, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW WOE FOR FSU FOOTBALL

This marks the second recent article in Sports Illustrated alleging violations in a scandal that has shaken the Seminoles' national championship football team.

Coach Bobby Bowden, who turned down an interview request by the magazine before the second story, said the matter is being investigated by an independent law firm from Kansas City, Mo.

``If what they say in Sports Illustrated is true, they'll get to the bottom of it,'' Bowden said in a statement released by the university. ``I stand behind my program, my staff and the system we have in place to check on these things.''

In the latest story, the magazine quoted a Jacksonville woman who said a Florida State booster paid former All-Americans Lawrence Dawsey and LeRoy Butler for ficticious summer jobs.

The booster named by the magazine, Rick Blankenship of Jacksonville, originally told SI the players worked at a clinic he owned, but other employees could not remember them having worked there. The Jacksonville woman quoted was a former employee of Blankenship's clinic.

Butler told the magazine he had never worked for Blankenship; Dawsey did not return calls to SI. There was no answer Tuesday at Dawsey's Tampa home.

Butler, a Pro Bowl cornerback with the Green Bay Packers, left Florida State after the 1989 season. Dawsey, Tampa Bay's leading receiver before injuring his knee last season, played his final year in 1990.

Blankenship had left the clinic Tuesday night and was unavailable for comment. There was no home listing for him in the Jacksonville area.

Blankenship and his wife, Kandy, are listed by the Seminole Boosters Inc. as ``Golden Chiefs,'' who contribute $5,000 to $10,000 annually to the organization.

The four-page article, called ``Seminole Shame,'' also said a Florida State graduate and aspiring sports agent helped arrange a total of $23,000 in loans to Katherine Pondexter, mother of former Seminole star Tamarick Vanover.

Vanover and his mother denied she got any loans from the prospective agent, Doug Andreaus.

The article also consolidated the recent legal troubles of several other Florida State athletes and criticized the school's handling of charges, leaving the notion the ``program is rife with wrongdoing.''

Said Hogan: ``The attorneys will get to the bottom of this.''