36 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | SI.COM
The plan was simple. Center would recommend Schaepe’s
son for admission as a tennis player, though, for all he knew,
the kid didn’t know how to grip a racquet. Center’s recom-
mendation then would have to be approved by a long chain
of administrators—all of whom could have been expected
to note that the applicant did not play tennis (and in fact
hadn’t since he was a high school freshman). That chain
would include the academic support staff, the compliance
office, the sports supervisor and, ultimately, the athletic
director. The applicant would sign a national letter of intent
as a tennis player and receive a book scholarship. Then,
upon arriving in Austin, he would renounce his interest
in the sport and instead work as a basketball manager.
Coding the kid as a “recruited athlete” would reduce
the academic requirements, improving his chances of
admission. The basketball team would be getting a student
manager with high-octane connections. Center would not
lose a scholarship or roster spot, and, he notes, within the
athletic department, “I would be considered a team player.”
And, crucially, there was the sloshing of money. Fox,
by all accounts, the hub of communication for everyone
involved, told Center that Schaepe and his wife, Jennie Chiu,
were prepared to contribute $100,000 to Texas athletics,
earmarked for tennis. And that might be just the beginning.
In October 2014, the student—then a high school senior—met with Longhorns basketball coach Rick Barnes to
discuss becoming a manager, according to a person with
knowledge of the meeting. In March ’15, Barnes took the
head job at Tennessee and was replaced by Shaka Smart.
Center wondered whether this might squelch the plans.
It did not. Fox, says Center, quickly assured him that the
basketball program “[still] really wanted this to happen.”
And it did. According to Center, he met with UT’s academic
support staff and assured them that the kid would never play
tennis, that this was really a fundraising mission. Academic
support prepared the national letter of intent and sent it
to the compliance department. Center provided SI with a
screenshot of his text exchange with a compliance official
confirming that the prospect would never play tennis for
Texas and that he would relinquish his book scholarship
in the fall. Dated June 11, 2015, the official’s text read: “Is
Chiu-Schaepe even going to be a participant or will thatMA
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HOME ALONE
After 18 years of trying, a Center team
finally celebrated a national title in 2019.
The only catch: He had been fired and
was forced to watch from his couch.