The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "athletic" ...
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"Little Leagues, Big Costs"
This five-day series chronicles the experiences with youth sports of high school and college athletes and coaches. By establishing "baseline data" that has been previously unreported, Dispatch reporters found a "corrupted" sports program overrun with angry parents and practices that cause severe injury to young athletes. Rising costs and financial competitions are added pressures to the industry.
Tags: youth-sports; IRS 990s; NCAA; NCAA Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act; Nexis; Ohio State; Gene Smith; Ohio High School Athletic Association; OHSAA; OSU
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Trip to nowhere
“At least seven college sports teams, along with parents and boosters, lost a combined $544,000 in payments to a travel company”. This company scheduled a number of trips for these teams, which they never took because the company either cancelled or never booked the trip. The owner of the company denies any wrong doings and would not give an explanation to the teams, parents, and boosters as to where their money went.
Tags: Transports Athletics; Dale Brannan; transportation; financial; schools; universities; athletic departments; sports; athletic director
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NCAA: Mixed Messages
The phrase “student-athlete” has been used for a number of years, but recently it seems unsuitable for college athletics. In this series, a number of issues are spotlighted and they include “academics, the arms race, television money, the use of likenesses and images, and the myth of the four-year scholarship”. The main purpose of this series was to display the recent activities of college athletics and let you decide if the phrase “student-athlete” still applies.
Tags: athletic department; FOIA; Florida State; Rutgers University; sports; networks; money; grades; classroom; education
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Risky business; Bus safety an issue for colleges
The investigation found that "at least 85 Division I universities used charter bus companies during 2007 and 2008 with deficient federal safety ratings." Further, "about 35 have used companies with an overall conditional rating, which mean they have a more serious record of infractions." A number of things contributed to account for the companies’ bad safety records, these includes crashes, speeding tickets, unqualified drivers, and worn out vehicles.
Tags: FOIA; athletics; athletic department; transportation; sports; teams; travel; inspections; operations
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Failing our Athletes: The Sad State of Sports in Boston Public Schools
This series examined the state of athletics in the Boston public school district. The amount of problems discovered was both shocking and disappointing. Some of the discovered problems were the program was “underfunded compared to cities of similar size, staffing problems, poor facilities, safety of the athletes, and competency of many coaches”.
Tags: children; kids; sports; games; education; student-athletes; court; field; season; players; uniforms; city government
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Secrecy 101
"Universities hide information about their athletics departments behind a student-privacy law designed to keep grades private." Further, it hides athletes, who have done a number of unethical and some illegal activities. Also, coaches are using the law to hide their own bad behavior. All this information stunned the senator who created the law and he believes the "institutions are putting their own meaning into the law."
Tags: education; college; Senator James L. Buckley; NCAA; Ohio State; FOIA; Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); federal; sports; public records; censor; academics
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Football Scholarships
This story investigates how a number of football players that play for Kent State received full ride scholarships. They received these scholarships without the ACT scores to receive them or any scholarships for that matter. Furthermore, there are a number of other students who have the grades and ACT scores to receive these scholarships, but don’t because the money is all used up.
Tags: college; athletics; athletic department; students; education; football field; players; Kent State University; Director of Admissions
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Curse of the Class of 2006
This story explains how the class of 2006 became known as the “cursed class” due to the number of deaths during and following the 2006 school year. The school, Carol City Senior High, was one of the best based on the facility and placed in a location still considered farmland. But after students were bused in from surrounding neighborhoods, things began to change and academics fell to the back burner, while athletics excelled. Further, many students believed the atmosphere became very ghetto, which led to several deaths from the class of 2006, who were considered top students.
Tags: education; high school; public; murders; death; violence; Florida; violent; neighborhood; area
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NCAA: Mixed Messages
The series of nine stories focuses on the major changes in college athletics. “Academics and leaders of the reform movement have debated and lobbied for two decades about the need for change.” But the magnitude of college athletics suggests a change is impossible. This series focuses on, “the biggest and best football conference, looked at the money brought in and the issues raised by the rush to be successful, the disparity between coaching salaries and the scholarship money afforded the athletes, what top athletes might be worth in an open market, and the creative efforts universities go to in order to fund athletic programs.”
Tags: College; Athletics; Academics; Football; Southeastern Conference; FOIA
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Dykstra's Business a Bed of 'Nails'
Lenny Dykstra appeared to be the picture of success. He set out to build a “financial empire” based off of professional athletes and his own reputation as a former Major League Baseball star. “But an ESPN.com investigation discovered that Dykstra was a financial train wreck with a long history of skipping out on bills. Also, ESPN.com discovered that at least 24 legal actions had been filed against Dykstra over the previous two years.”
Tags: Baseball; Financial; Players; Lawsuit; Entrepreneur; Major League Baseball; MLB