SMU’s football rise from NCAA’s “death penalty” to playoff success is captured in ESPN’s new documentary, Thunder On.
DALLAS — SMU returned to national prominence for the first time in nearly 40 years after the Mustangs received arguably the harshest punishment the NCAA has issued.
A superpower in the early 1980s, SMU’s dominant run came to an end after WFAA’s Sports Director Dale Hansen and WFAA’s investigative team reported on illegal payments to players in the SMU football program, which ultimately led to “the death penalty” from the NCAA. The sanctions included:
- The 1987 season was canceled; only conditioning drills were permitted during the 1987 calendar year.
- All home games in 1988 were canceled. SMU was allowed to play their seven regularly scheduled away games so that other institutions would not be financially affected.
- The team’s existing probation was extended until 1990. Its existing ban from bowl games and live television was extended to 1989.
- SMU lost 55 new scholarship positions over four years.
- SMU was required to ensure that it had no dealings with George Owen and eight other boosters previously banned from contact with the program, or else face further punishment.
- The team was allowed to hire only five full-time assistant coaches, instead of the typical nine.
- No off-campus recruiting was permitted until August 1988, and no paid visits could be made to campus by potential recruits until the start of the 1988–89 school year.
This unprecedented NCAA punishment dismantled one of the most competitive football programs in the country. In 2010, ESPN documented the fall of SMU in Pony Excess. Now, after a their trip to the College Football Playoff, ESPN is releasing a sequel to Pony Excess, a new feature documentary titled Thunder On: Resurgence of the SMU Mustangs.
Produced by Texas Crew Productions in conjunction with Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, the new SMU documentary film revisits SMU’s fall and resurgence to the top tier of college football.
“This is a remarkable story about the resilience of the SMU community and the people who stuck by us,” said SMU Director of Athletics Damon Evans. “Given what we have been through as a university and as an athletics program, it is incredible to see the rise back to where we are today. Thunder On will make the people of this great institution proud of what we have already done and what we’ll continue to accomplish as we elevate this program to even greater heights.”
According to the university, Thunder On: Resurgence of the SMU Mustangs features many of SMU’s beloved former players and coaches, like 1980s Mustangs greats Eric Dickerson and Craig James, as well as SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee and quarterback Kevin Jennings, incoming SMU President Jay Hartzell, Evans, sports analysts Kirk Herbstreit and Jay Bilas, and legendary college football coach Mack Brown.
Watch the trailer below: