Provide names of other journalists involved.
Director of News: Vince Doria Sr. Coordinating Producer: Dwayne Bray Coordinating Producer: Carolyn Hong Reporter: Tom Farrey Producer: Nicole Noren Associate Producers: Nathan Hogan, Marc Lustig, Cody Shimek, Nick Waligorski
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
8-Apr-12
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Fight Night VI was billed as a boxing event for charity, with the main bout featuring two former college football players. But the event, hosted by Guts Church in Tulsa, Okla., was unsanctioned with no licensed referee or judges and no ringside doctor. When the bout was over, former University of Tulsa linebacker George Clinkscale — who had sickle cell trait — lost his life, leaving behind his pregnant fiancée and a young daughter. Using previously unseen video of the fight and unreleased medical records, Outside the Lines investigated the alarming lapses that led up to Clinkscale’s death at the unconventional mega-church, where its pastor preaches the gospel of toughness and sports. The story explores what could have been done to prevent the tragedy, and raises disturbing questions about the methods used by some churches today to recruit new money and members.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Using FOI to unearth critical facts was not an option, as all of the key records were held by private organizations. Yet early on in the reporting process, we knew it would be of vital importance to obtain the hospital records, ambulance records, and Tulsa University college medical records of George Clinkscale. We needed these records to see if steps could have been taken to save Clinkscale that night, so Clinkscale’s father (as executor of the estate) agreed to sign medical releases, paving the way for us to make records requests with the three organizations. We received some pushback from the ambulance company, and lawyers got involved, but by persisting we eventually were given the records from that night, as well as the dispatch recordings. We then had all the records analyzed by two independent trauma surgeons and their opinion was that the ambulance and hospital personnel had done everything they could to save Clinkscale. We also convinced a source to share video of the fight, images that were critical in helping viewers understand how the tragedy unfolded.
Explain types of human sources used.
The power and richness of this story was that it was multi-layered, requiring an understanding of such disparate issues as sickle-cell trait in athletes, evangelical religion in Tulsa, and state and sport governing body regulation of boxing. In the course of our four months of reporting, we spoke to dozens of sources, both on and off camera.
Results:
On June 8, two months after our story aired, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed George Clinkscale’s Law.” Designed to crack down on unsanctioned fights, HB2746 gave the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission regulatory authority over events such as the one that Guts Church organized and had claimed was neither amateur nor professional because it was for charity (with Guts as the charity). The bill more clearly defined promoters of such events as any person or entity that produces, states, sponsors, organizes or otherwise holds a “combative sports” event. Penalties for violations were also increased with the second violation qualifying as a felony.”
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No one has come forth to challenge the story’s accuracy. Lawyers for Guts Church, in defending the pastor and church against a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of Clinkscale, cited ESPN’s piece in filing a motion to prevent the plaintiffs from initiating contact with reporters. But a judge rejected that motion, after watching ESPN’s report.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Create a timeline to organize your reporting. On complicated narratives like these that included the use of medical documents and video clips that helped reconstruct events over the course of just a few hours, keeping a timeline is essential — both in terms of placing facts in a context and writing a script that could bring our investigative work to life as a compelling narrative.