Butts and Bryant meet as friends, exchange warm greetings before the Georgia-Alabama game at Legion Field, Birmingham, Alabama, in 1960.

It’s a story that refuses to lie down and be quiet, even half a century later. In 1963, James Wallace “Wally” Butts, former coach of the University of Georgia’s football team, sued Curtis Publishing, the Post’s parent company, for libel. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which decided unanimously against Curtis Publishing. Fifty years later, there is growing doubt that it was the right decision.

To understand the doubt, you need to know the background of what the Post claimed was the most shocking sports story since the Chicago Black Sox scandal—a story that began with an overheard phone call and ended by damaging the credibility of America’s most popular magazine.

On September 13, 1962, George Burnett, an insurance salesman in Atlanta, called a friend at a local public relations firm. As sometimes happened in those days, the phone lines became ‘cross-connected.’ Instead of hearing his friend’s voice, he heard a telephone operator identify two famous college football coaches. One was Butts, the athletic director and former coach at the University of Georgia; the other was Paul “Bear” Bryant, coach at the University of Alabama.

Instead of hanging up or announcing his presence, Burnett remained on the line and listened. Over the next 15 minutes, according to what Burnett told the Post, he heard Butts give Bryant details about Georgia’s plays and strategies. In particular, he described the formations that his school’s football team would use against Georgia in the opening game, just eight days away.

Burnett feverishly took notes. When the conversation was done, he had six pages in all.

After the coaches hung up, Burnett redialed the number he originally called. This time the call didn’t get crossed over, and he reached his friend at the public relations firm. Burnett told him what he’d just heard. The friend replied that Butts was, in fact, at the firm and using a phone in a back office. Both men knew Butts and liked him, and after discussing the matter, they agreed to forget the whole business.

The next week, Alabama defeated Georgia, to no one’s surprise. Bryant’s team had been widely expected to win. What was unusual was the score: 35-0. Few gamblers would have bet on which team would win the game. Most of the betting action would concern the difference between the teams’ scores. A gambler who knew the point spread would have been particularly large could have made a lot of money. And Butts was close friends with gamblers.

The lopsided win bothered Burnett. He broke his silence and mentioned the matter with another friend, who passed it on to the new Georgia coach, who informed the University of Georgia’s administrators. They asked Butts about the incident. Butts didn’t deny the charge; in fact he admitted he’d discussed Georgia’s plays with Bryant. But he said the whole incident had been misinterpreted. The next day, Butts resigned from the university.

The university’s regents then called Burnett to a meeting, where they grilled him on what he’d heard. They brought up the fact that Burnett might not be a credible witness since, they’d learned, Burnett had written some bad checks in the past. Perhaps he was hoping to gain by making these charges.

Burnett left the meeting convinced the university was going to dispose of the problem by discrediting him. Expecting to face an accusation of slander from Butts, Burnett spoke with his attorney, who suggested he take his story to The Saturday Evening Post.

Solemnly Wally Butts leads a Georgia football team in locker-room prayer.

“The Story of a College Football Fix” appeared in the March 23, 1963, issue. On March 28, Butts sued Curtis Publishing for $10 million.

The case was heard in the Atlanta federal court, where a jury awarded Butts $60,000 in damages, and $3 million in punitive damages. Stunned, Curtis Publishing appealed the verdict. The 5th Circuit Court upheld the decision in 1965.

Curtis appealed again, believing it could get a favorable hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court, which had recently handed down an important decision concerning the rules of libel. In that case, L.B. Sullivan, the public safety commissioner in Birmingham, Alabama, had sued The New York Times for libel after the paper ran an appeal for Martin Luther King Jr.’s legal defense fund. He believed the wording of the appeal, which criticized the city’s police, had defamed him personally. At the time, several southern states had libel cases pending against newspapers they felt were unfairly reporting on their racial problems.

When the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of The New York Times, Justice Hugo Black explained that malice “even as defined by the court, is an elusive, abstract concept, hard to prove and hard to disprove.” In this instance, the Supreme Court declared that a public official could not be libeled unless a publication showed intentional malice; that is, acting with reckless disregard for the truth.

Which is what the court decided the Post had done. They upheld the lower court’s decision for Butts. But the award of $3 million was appealed, and eventually Butts accepted $460,000.

Over the past 50 years, journalists have revisited the case, wondering how the Post managed to lose the case. There was proof the phone call had taken place. Burnett was a credible witness. Butts was not. Other investigators, both at the University of Georgia and the state attorney general’s office, corroborated what Burnett reported. So why did the Post lose all three trials? The reason might be one, or several, of the following:

• The Post’s attorney was not nearly as good as Butts’ lawyer, who was very skillful in diverting suspicion away from his client.
• The Post‘s attorney knew little about football, while Butts’ attorney had an incredible knowledge and could use this knowledge to discredit the value and usefulness of Burnett’s notes.
• The jury was unfavorably impressed that the Post editors didn’t bother to attend the trial but sent depositions of their testimony instead.
• The Post didn’t pass the story for review among its other editors, who could have caught several minor errors in the story, and would not have approved the sensationalistic tone in the introduction, which stated, “The corrupt here were not professional gamblers but two men—employed to educate and to guide young men. … How often do teachers sell out their pupils? We don’t know—yet. For now we can only be appalled.”
• The magazine was operating out of its depth. It had been trying to rebuild its popularity by engaging in what its publisher called “sophisticated muckraking.” It had successfully dug into several political scandals, and had often run stories about college athletics. But when challenged in this case, they mounted an indifferent defense with the wrong lawyer, and never even showed up in court to speak on their own behalf.

Yet none of these factors changed the fact the phone call took place, other inquiries backed up what Burnett said, and the fact that during the opening game, Georgia players had taunted the Alabama team by calling out the code names of their plays before they were run.

The Supreme Court’s decision in this case still baffles students of journalism law. So the question remains: why did the Post lose the case?

To further understand why doubt lingers, we recommend Fumble: Bear Bryant, Wally Butts and the Great College Football Scandal (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1986). The author, James Kirby, taught law at the University of Tennessee and had been dean of Ohio State University’s law school. In 1963, he investigated the Post’s allegations on behalf of the Southeastern Athletic Conference.

Why Did the Post Lose its $10 Million Libel Case? The Saturday Evening Post

New York City’s media elite gathered at Michael’s New York to honor the winner and finalists of The Saturday Evening Post’s first-ever Great American Fiction contest.

Last Tuesday, January 8, I had the opportunity to attend The Saturday Evening Post’s event at Michael’s restaurant in New York City. The purpose of the event, which was co-hosted by Publishing Executive, was twofold: to toast the winner and finalists of the Post’s first annual Great American Fiction Contest while also celebrating the recent redesign of the magazine.

Michael’s Garden Room was packed with people when I arrived a little after 6 p.m., a palpable sense of excitement already hovering in the air. Writers, editors, agents, and reporters were crowding around the oversized reproduction of the Post’s Jan/Feb cover, complimenting the vibrant painting of Shirley MacLaine and—inspired by one of the magazine’s cover lines—debating the U.S. prison system. Servers were navigating the crowd, delivering plate after plate of hors d’oeuvres while the lines for both bars snaked around the room.

Ignoring the tempting food (and alcohol), I decided to wade into the fray to talk to some of the short story writers in attendance. As a graduate of an MFA creative writing program myself, I was anxious to talk to some other “storytellers.”

The first writer I talked to was a fellow named Jonathan Blackwood. (Good name for a writer.) He had written a short story called “Kin,” which was selected as one of the contest finalists and is also being published in the print collection. We talked about the craft of writing for quite a while. For such a young writer (he’s a recent college graduate) he certainly seemed to have a lot of the basics figured out. He also told me that “Kin” is his first published story. Starting out in a collection from The Saturday Evening Post is a pretty good place to begin a writing career!

Of course, I also spent some time talking with the amazing Lucy Jane Bledsoe, the author of the winning short story, “Wolf.” I particularly enjoyed her comments on the state of contemporary short fiction and literary journals. She made an interesting observation about happy endings, and how she feels that it’s easier (from a writer’s standpoint) to have everything go to crap at the end of the story because it’s inherently more dramatic to indulge in tragedy. In her view, crafting a positive or even neutral ending that doesn’t smack of sentimentality is a much tougher achievement.

The night ended with comments from Steven Slon, editorial director and associate publisher of the Post, as well as from Ms. Bledsoe.

All in all, the evening as a tremendous success, setting the stage for the Post’s future and launching the magazine’s 2014 Great American Fiction Contest, which is already accepting submissions now.

Photos from the event:

The Post Honors American Fiction Contest Finalists The Saturday Evening Post

After citing the number of deaths that had occurred in college games, sports writer Furman Bisher concluded that the game was definitely getting rough. “It seems to me that the effort to knock an opponent senseless has become more and more obvious in coaching intent.”

In his story, he paid particular attention to the University of Alabama’s team, then coached by Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant.

‘Bear’ Bryant, as seen in the days when he coached the University of Kentucky team.

He never said Bryant encouraged or condoned violence, but the implication was there. And Bryant thought the inference was strong enough to be considered libel. On January 4, 1963, he launched a $500,000 suit against the Post.

This lawsuit was still pending when the Post published another exposé on college football. In “The Story of a College Football Fix,” which appeared in March 1963, the Post charged that James Wallace ‘Wally’ Butts, Jr.—the University of Georgia’s athletic director, and recently demoted football coach—had given away game secrets to Bryant that affected the outcome of a Georgia-Alabama game. From this sprang another lawsuit against the Post. This time, Bear Bryant and Wally Butts both sued the Post for libel, each man asking for $10 million in damages.

Coming Up: Curtis Publishing Company vs. Butts 

50 Years Ago: Bear Bryant Sues the Post for a Football-Violence Article The Saturday Evening Post

It’s been a great year for the Post, editorially speaking. We’ve covered a broad range of issues, from hot-button political topics like the wealth gap and social security to unique finds in our archives on mysterious crimes, the Titanic, and Rockwell paintings.

Amidst the trove of content we’ve provided our readers in the last 12 months, 10 stories had more traffic on our website and social media than all the rest. Here are the Post‘s top stories of 2012.

1. The Cholesterol Conundrum

Statin drugs benefit some people immensely but are taken by millions more. If you’re at low risk for heart disease, taking drugs to lower your cholesterol may be doing you no good. Is it time we took a second look at statins?

Sharon Begley examines the pros and cons of the statin pill push, and finds that many doctors are staunchly against their widespread use.
Read more »

2. The Boy in the Box: Still Unsolved after 55 Years

Despite a half-century of inquiry, the circumstances surrounding the death of an 8-year-old boy are still a mystery. What makes this case even more bizarre is that this boy, by all accounts, never existed. To this day his name, birthplace, and even his lineage are unknown.
Read more »

3. Classic Covers: Rockwell Kids of the ’40s

Thinking of taking the plunge? That’s exactly why director Steven Spielberg keeps this Rockwell painting in his office.

Historian and archivist Diana Denny divulges interesting facts about the models, the climate of the era, and Rockwell himself.
Read more »

4. From our Archives: How You Can Survive an A-Bomb Blast

This 1950 article claims that, in the event of an atomic bomb, “there are protective measures you can take—and proof that the blast is not always so fatal and frightful as you think.”
Read more »

5. The Organic Food Paradox

As consumers increasingly demand organic produce, and as massive industrial farms rise to meet their needs, will it spell the end of the family-run, lovingly tended, earth-friendly farm?

Barry Yeoman analyzes the challenges and pitfalls grocers and small organic farms alike face in the wake of the growing demand for healthier foods.
Read more »

6. Rockwell: The War Years

In honor of Memorial Day, we gathered some of Norman Rockwell’s most iconic art from both world wars.
Read more »

7. The Inevitable Tragedy of the Titanic

One hundred years after the Titanic sank, we explore the Post‘s 1912 editorial on the great tragedy. Were the British and American governments to blame for the 1,500 deaths? Our coverage explored the oversights, shortcomings, and outrage in the wake of the ocean liner’s horrific end.
Read more »

8. Social Security

You’ve heard the rumors. Here are the facts. The Post examines the timeline of social security from its advent, parsing why it was started, what it aimed to do, how it helped Americans, and why there’s such a fuss about it in the current political climate.
Read more »

9. America’s Painful Divide

The country is polarized and embattled to the point of dysfunction. What will it take to bring us back together?

A self-described “one-time liberal atheist,” Jonathan Haidt discusses the differences between conservative and liberal worldviews, how he came to understand the other side, and asks whether or not this country can find a tolerant middle ground.
Read more »

10. America’s Grand Hotels

Betsa Marsh took Post readers to the somewhat forgotten land of stately, grand hotels, where unlike today’s varieties, the opulence comes from the resort’s history and refined elegance, not its glitz and glamour. To stay at any of these lodgings is to venture back to another, more genteel time.
Read more »

A Year in Review: The Top 10 Stories of 2012 The Saturday Evening Post

The Roe family before going to Panama.

This 1905 photo was recently sent to us by Matt Kindred. The lives of the Roe family of Iowa were about to change dramatically, as the following year, the father would land a good-paying job on a major project: the building of the Panama Canal. The little girl holding the flowers was Matt’s grandmother, and the boy in the dark suit was her brother Otis Edward Roe. Young Master Roe would have a new job, too: selling issues of The Saturday Evening Post to workers at the Panama Canal.

Otis Edward Roe at the construction of the Panama Canal.

While researching family history, Matt discovered a 1972 Saturday Evening Post story about former newsboys. His Great Uncle, Otis Edward Roe, had sent in a photo from his newsboy days in Panama. The canal was not a project taking a few weeks or months, but years, and Otis and his siblings spent a portion of their childhood in Panama. The photo shows young Roe standing on the edge of the Gaillard Cut, “which sliced through the Continental Divide and was the most hazardous phase of the canal project.” The 1972 issue reported the Roe had “a brisk business, selling the Post to those workers who were so far from their homeland for so long.”

“It appears in the above photo young Roe is holding this April 3, 1909 issue of the Post. Post staffer Ron Dowdy points out that a five-cent issue in Panama “was not an inexpensive purchase for the American worker. The common laborer was paid 90 cents per day. The workers worked 9 hour days. So the magazine would be worth a half an hour’s wage.” The fact that you could get three meals a day for about 30 cents adds perspective. So does the fact that in the days before radio, the Post with its many fiction stories, serials and welcome news from the States would have been one of the few sources of entertainment and distraction, so it was well worth that hard-earned nickel!

Otis Edward Roe in 1972.

Like his father, Otis Roe had worked for a railroad, and at the time of the ’72 article, he was retired and living in Tallahassee, Florida. He recalled that among his Post customers was the man in charge of the canal construction, Lieutenant Colonel George Washington Goethals. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Goethals chief engineer of the Panama Canal in 1907. Construction was completed in 1914.

Selling The Post at "the Canal" Construction payday.

Young Roe wasn’t the only Post presence at the building of the great canal. This 1908 photo from Our Teams, a magazine for newsboys, shows a boy making collections at a pay-car. A large posted sign reads “The Saturday Evening Post—5 Cents a Copy.” “One thousand copies weekly are sold this way in the Canal Zone,” Our Teams reported, proudly boasting “Our Boys Are Everywhere.”

If you know of someone who was a Post newsboy or girl, we would love to share their story on our website.

A Post Newsboy at the Panama Canal The Saturday Evening Post

The cartoons may be a little corny or considered politically incorrect today (the dangers of women drivers, the problems of cigarette rationing), but they were a treat for soldiers overseas during World War II. Tiny as they were, the booklets contained three selections from the full-sized Saturday Evening Post, a mixture of articles and short stories, which could fit into a uniform shirt pocket. According to the Post editors, these pieces were not condensed articles, or “literary C rations.” By leaving out advertising, the Post was able to get a lot in a tiny package.

Although servicemen referred to them as “dehydrated Posts,” they were immensely grateful for them. “It is seldom that we G.I.’s over here in Burma have the time to write all the letters that we often plan to. However, I must take this moment to tell you how much pleasure is derived from reading these Post Yarns which you are sending overseas to us,” one wrote. “This little booklet is just the answer for a quick snack of reading out in the field after chow or during a few minutes of rest anywhere.” Another wrote, “Recently, a rather battered copy of Post Yarns came into my possession. After reading the three stories it contained, I became quite curious about this excellent publication. I traced back through the fellow who gave it to me as well as I could. I found that eight of my shipmates had read it before me. None of them knew how it got aboard or where it came from.”

The complete set.

“It was a good idea,” the Post editors wrote in 1946, “and we’re proud of our share in it, but there are single letters in our files which would dampen any tendency toward preening. We had a good many letters from uncomplaining men who found the little books especially useful because these readers cannot handle a book requiring two hands.”

Some letters gave pause for other reasons. A paratrooper wrote that he read them “to help relieve the tension” just before making a jump. Another soldier guarding a building noted that they were “easy to carry, easy to read, and easy to hide from the officer of the watch.”

The Saturday Evening Post was happy to report in the June 22, 1946 issue that Post Yarns had gone to press for the last time. “Thousands of its readers,” they cheerfully noted, “no longer are wearing the shirts that the edition was designed for. And they aren’t doing their reading under the special and outlandish conditions which made Post Yarns popular.”

To see more images of our Post Yarn set, click here.

In the GI’s Shirt Pocket The Saturday Evening Post