While Texas Tech's QB Scandal Explodes, On SI Tulane Remembers Jon English

A Tulane head coach's son challenged both his school and the NCAA in court.

Tulane quarterback Jon English and his father, coach Wally English | Sports Collectors Daily

As Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby works his way through the courts to determine whether or not he can continue to play college football, Tulane football fans can look back and remember the day a situation that was sort of similar happened to them. Well, not including the gambling aspect. That was basketball, and it's a story we'll save for another day.

In 1983, as the football season got underway, Jon English, son of Tulane's first-year coach, Wally English, challenged the NCAA's transfer rule by suing the NCAA and the school that hired his dad. The younger English said the NCAA rule in many cases requires transfer students to sit out a year before becoming athletically eligible. English's lawsuit contended he had met the NCAA requirements.

In five seasons, English played at Michigan State, Iowa State, and then Tulane. He also attended Allegheny Community College in Pittsburgh and Delgado Junior College in New Orleans. His lawsuit contended he had met the NCAA requirements because Iowa State, where he was the second-string quarterback in 1981 and 1982, was not his first four-year college, and he had the junior college credits necessary to transfer without sitting out a year.

According to a Washington Post article in October, 1983:

An administrator at Tulane interpreted the NCAA rule as making him eligible to play this season (1983). So he gave up his scholarship at Iowa State and went home, now New Orleans, because his father had just become head coach at Tulane. He attended Delgado JC, getting 25 credit hours in the spring and summer.

To make sure he was eligible, Tulane asked the NCAA Council for a ruling. That came in late August (1983). "So I did what I had to do," Jon English said. On Sept. 1 (1983), his lawyer filed suit against the NCAA and Tulane, claiming English had been denied due process and claiming NCAA antitrust violations.

The younger English had two-out-of-three Louisiana courts rule in his favor, earning him a temporary restraining order allowing him to play in the first six games of the season for Tulane. The Green Wave was able to claim two victories in that six-game span, which included wins over Ole Miss and then-ninth ranked Florida State. English completed 97-of-his-184 passes in those contests for a 52.7% completion rate. He totaled 1,258-yards with six touchdowns and 13-interceptions.

English continued the legal process as the season wore on, but both he and Tulane ended up on the losing end. English was denied his extra year of eligibility, and his father's team had to forfeit the two victories Tulane had earned against Ole Miss and Florida State for playing an ineligible player in those games.

Jon opened a sports memorabilia store in Shelbyville, Tennessee in 2020.

Wally was fired from Tulane in 1984 two years into his four-year contract after a spying scandal rocked his coaching staff. He went on to coach in various semi-pro football leagues in the United States and Italy. He passed away in April, 2024, at the age of 89.