'84 Chronology-Boris Ruling

Event Date: March 1st, 1984

Event Description: Boris Wins Case

Source: UPI

The U.S. Football League's policy against drafting college underclassmen violates federal antitrust law, a judge ruled Wednesday in a decision that could alter the structure of professional sports.

Although the National Football League and Canadian Football League were not involved in the case, their college eligibility rules are identical to the USFL policy against drafting a collegiate player before his four years of eligibility have expired.

Officials of the NFL and CFL had no immediate comment.

The ruling made formal a decision U.S. District Judge Laughlin Waters announced after hearing arguments Jan. 30 in the case of Bob Boris, a former punter for the University of Arizona.

USFL lawyer Don Meyers said the decision could clear the way for the signing of Marcus Dupree, 19, who has reportedly agreed to a five-year, $5 million contract with the New Orleans Breakers. Dupree was a sophomore this year but dropped out of the University of Oklahoma and Southern Mississippi.

Waters consented to a USFL request to allow an immediate appeal of the ruling while other issues raised in the suit await trial later this year. A league attorney said papers would be filed with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal within 10 days.

Boris left Arizona in 1982 and signed with an agent, which made him permanently ineligible for college sports. Ignored by the CFL, Boris became frustrated when the USFL signed college standout Herschel Walker after his junior season and then said it would make no more exceptions to its eligibility rule. Boris sued the league and its Arizona Wranglers' franchise.

In a brief summary judgment, Laughlin ruled the USFL's eligibility rule, as applied to Boris, “constituted a group boycott” and was therefore a “per se violation” of antitrust law.

Story-(UPI)