MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A University of Alabama football supporter convicted of bribing a high school coach to get a top recruit was found dead in his home, police said yesterday.
Police would not say how Logan Young, 65, died, but they were investigating it as a homicide and had no suspects or motive, said Sgt. Vince Higgins. The killing appeared to have happened overnight Monday.
“The nature of the attack was brutal,” Higgins said. “The entire house is a crime scene.”
Young was free while he appealed his 2005 federal conviction on money laundering and racketeering conspiracy involving the recruitment of defensive lineman Albert Means.
Means' recruitment led to an NCAA investigation and sanctions against Alabama in 2002, costing the school scholarships and bowl appearances.
Former high school coach Lynn Lang, who avoided jail time after pleading guilty to the racketeering conspiracy, testified that Young paid $150,000 to get Means to sign with Alabama in 2000.
The NCAA has said it believed Means was unaware he was being brokered. Means transferred to the University of Memphis, where he finished his college career.
Young was sentenced in June to six months in prison, plus six months' home confinement and two years' supervised release.
His attorneys had argued against jail time because Young needed a kidney transplant and could not get proper medical care in prison. Final briefs in his appeal were to be filed July 14, according to court records.
Young, who was not an Alabama alumnus, was the original owner of the Memphis Showboats of the USFL in the early 1980s.
A Memphis attorney helping in a lawsuit stemming from the NCAA sanctions was attacked in his office and left unconscious in May 2004. Key documents were stolen, said Phillip Shanks, the attorney. No one was ever charged.
