ART SCHLICHTER

Art Schlichter's gambling was facilitated and covered up at Ohio State. Schlichter used to hang out at the track with former Ohio State head coach Earle Bruce. Earle Bruce may not remember that, but witnesses confirm it. Other players, like Murphy, were involved with Schlichter's gambling. Schlichter doesn't remember betting on Ohio State games. Ohio State doesn't think that a F.B.I. investigation isn't serious enough to inform the N.C.A.A.

Barry Bonds doesn't recall taking steroids. McGwire pleads the 5th.

Ohio State has no institutional control.

A Pattern of Gambling that Began In His Youth

By his senior season at Ohio State, at least three agencies - the Columbus Police Department's organized crime bureau, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the Ohio State University police department - had been aware of Schlichter's fondness for the race tracks, according to officials with the agencies. Steve Hall, a former O.S.U. police officer, said that Schlichter's fondness for the track ''was common knowledge around the campus.''

The athletic department first became aware of police interest in Schlichter in the winter of 1980, Schlichter's junior year. Jim Silvania, a detective under Dailey, and Steve Kane, an agent from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification, met with Hugh Hindman, the school's athletic director, on another matter. In the course of the conversation, Hindman said, the officers mentioned various ''street rumors'' - he would not elaborate - about Schlichter and his attendance at the local race tracks.

Once that meeting took place, the campus police stopped gathering information about Schlichter. Hall, the former campus policeman who is now a police detective in the Marysville, Ohio, a small town about 20 miles northwest of Columbus, said that the campus police expected the athletic department to take some sort of action on the matter.

As it turned out, the athletic department did nothing because, Hindman said, ''there was no foundation'' to any of the information or cause for alarm about anything regarding Schlichter.

''We were never concerned about Art because no one ever came to us with any hard evidence,'' Hindman said. ''Our basic premise has been that we would react if we were given solid evidence. The police had come to us simply with street rumors; they had nothing pinned down.''

For that reason, he added, no one from the athletic department felt the need to inform the National Collegiate Athletic Association that Schlichter's behavior had at least aroused the suspicions of local police departments.

Hindman said he was disturbed, however, by other reports during Schlichter's junior and senior years. One, confirmed by Hall, indicated that Earle Bruce, the Ohio State football coach, had been seen at local tracks with Schlichter and other Ohio State football players. Hall said that he had been told by race track security officers that Bruce and Schlichter and other players had been seen together at the track ''quite a bit.'' Bruce, in fact, had been a part-owner of two horses. But Hindman said that Bruce no longer owns the horses.

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Art of the Steal: The Life & Crimes of Art Schlichter

...Art Schlichter's racetrack of choice was Scioto Downs, a harness track not far from Ohio State. He started going in high school with Bill Hanners, one of his best friends, and his star receiver at Miami Trace High. Hanners' family trained horses and Art's parents bought a half-interest in a horse named Phantom Bret. Schlichter was often seen at the track with Earle Bruce, his Ohio State coach and the man who replaced Woody Hayes. All the messages Schlichter got were that this was okay. For somebody else it might've been.

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Paying His Debts

The football field wasn’t the only place where Bruce and Schlichter huddled. The Ohio State coach and his star were both regulars at the horse track. Both men say they never went together, but they occasionally would share a meal at the track or talk there about the races.

"I never took Art to the track. Let’s make that clear once and for all," said Bruce, who has stuck by Schlichter and visited him in prison several times. "I didn’t know Art had a problem with gambling back then."

Bruce might have been unaware, but many of Schlichter’s teammates knew.

There were dozens of latenight poker games. Constant trips to Scioto Downs and Beulah Park. And regular bets on football, basketball, baseball and boxing.

"We bet on everything," said Bob Murphy, former Ohio State defensive back and one of Schlichter’s closest friends on the team. "Art and I gambled together all the time. It was small amounts — $20 or $50, maybe $100 — whatever we had in our pockets."

Murphy, who lives in California, said his gambling with Schlichter included making small bets with bookies on college football games. "But we never bet on an Ohio State game," he said.

Murphy said Max Schlichter discovered that he and Art were making bets while Ohio State was preparing to play Penn State in the 1980 Fiesta Bowl. "Art said his dad cornered him in the basement back home and he confessed that we were gambling," Murphy said. "Art said his dad was looking for me at the Fiesta Bowl and wanted to have a little talk. He never did come see me, thank God."

Schlichter said he doesn’t remember betting on college football games while playing for Ohio State.

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