Hot Tickets

In 2010, University of Kansas officials were shocked to learn that the FBI and IRS were on campus investigating Rodney Jones, former head of the Athletics Ticket Office, for stealing Jayhawks basketball tickets and selling them to brokers. Investigators found that for more than five years Jones and a small ring of university officials had conspired to loot the university of $2 million in tickets, reselling them for $3-5 million. In what was perhaps the biggest scandal in college sports history, all seven members of the “Kansas Ticket Gang” pleaded guilty to RICO Act indictments. Five went to prison–two were given probation for turning state’s evidence.

H. George Frederickson is the Edwin O. Stone distinguished professor of public administration at the University of Kansas, president emeritus of Eastern Washington University and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

H. George Frederickson
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 264
Bibliographic Info: 20 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2019
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7787-3
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3748-8
Imprint: Exposit

Acknowledgments vi
Preface 1
Introduction: The Kansas Ticket Gang 5
1. Rodney Gets a Job 11
2. Lawrence, the University of Kansas and Basketball 18
3. Basketball 27
4. Changing Athletics Directors, Coaches and Conferences 33
5. Tickets: A Brief Biography 38
6. Charlette Coble and the University of Oklahoma 42
7. Rodney “Tickets” Jones: Ticket Whisperer of Mass Street 49
8. Junction City 57
9. Money and the AD Shuffle 64
10. Charlette: When Home Becomes Work and Work Becomes Home 69
11. Perkins 72
12. Charlette Comes to Town 88
13. It Worked! 101
14. Complimentary Tickets and Ticket Ownership 103
15. The Ticket Gang Scales Up 109
16. The Greatest Year in the History of KU Athletics 114
17. Big Trouble Visits Big D 128
18. Coming Apart 134
19. Everybody Knows 146
20. Cooperation 155
21. Adieu, Lew, Adieu 158
22. Indictment: A True Bill 165
23. Here Comes the Judge for the Family Blubaugh 172
24. Here Comes the Judge for Rodney “Tickets” Jones 178
25. Judgment for Kassie Liebsch and Ben Kirtland III 187
26. Reciprocity at Home: Tickets for Tickets 193
27. The Oklahoma Connection and Poor Accounting 203
28. Summing Up: The Box Score and the Original Rules 211
Epilogue 228
Appendix A: Code of Ethical Conduct, Kansas Athletics, Inc. 235
Appendix B: Federal Sentencing Guidelines 237
Chapter Notes 239
Bibliography 247
Index 253