Despite the resources of the university and the football team's boosters, the reward for information leading to an arrest [in the Bryan Pata murder] is $1,000, the minimum amount offered in all homicides. ... [The head of the local Crime Stoppers said] he had not yet been contacted by the university or by any of Miami's famous alumni, like former Dallas Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin, who attended the campus memorial last week.

... After eating a catered meal [on the last day of his life], Pata left practice in his black 2005 Infiniti QX56 with personalized license plates, driving down U.S. 1 to Colony Apartments in suburban Kendall....At the University of Miami, he lived a lifestyle more associated with professional athletics than with the academic world. Most conspicuously, he drove that Infiniti with customized rims and an on-board navigation system. On his MySpace Web page, which was still active Wednesday afternoon, Pata referred to the Infinity as "the Big Boy truck."

The Palm Beach Post reported that the Infiniti had been a gift to Pata from his sister's husband, Kahane Andrew Lynes, according to a family member. Yet when Lynes unsuccessfully appealed a trespassing conviction in Miami-Dade County last year, he employed a public defender. Lynes declared himself indigent upon his arrest on trespassing and battery charges in 2003, and again in 2004 as his case worked through the system, according to court records.

Pata arrived at the university in 2003 driving a customized "candy" blue Chevy Tahoe with 24-inch spinners and an on-board television monitor. The truck was a gift, he said, from his mother and his sister. Driving either of the cars, he racked up close to $1,000 in parking tickets and traffic citations, records show.

Although several of the tickets were for speeding, Pata told The Miami Herald that he had yet another car he drove for speed. Customizing cars and selling them on eBay was a hobby, he said.

Another of his hobbies was guns. The police confiscated at least two guns from Pata's apartment after the shooting. ...The culture of gun violence even made its way into the Pata memorial. After speeches by friends and coaches, including Coker, an audience of about 500 students, teammates and family members was presented a video reflection. A song by Tupac Shakur played over photographs of Pata on the field for the Hurricanes. There were images of Pata standing in the water off South Beach with his girlfriend, then a shot of them posing, with wide smiles, on the steps where the fashion designer Gianni Versace was killed.


...After the memorial, members of Pata's large family stood outside speculating about who had killed him. A family friend, wearing a helmet because he had been shot in the head, railed against the Florida International team. His theory was that the shooting was related to the on-field brawl.

Following nearly eight months of scrambling, Eastern Michigan University officials on Monday announced what they believe will be at least a temporary solution to a football attendance problem that, if not dealt with, may have affected the school's standing with the NCAA.

The EMU Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation that oversees the university's $145 million endowment and fundraising efforts, allocated $116,000 of its $2.9 million budget to purchase enough football tickets to ensure Eastern Michigan's football program will meet an NCAA minimum attendance mandate.

The announcement comes less than a year after Eastern ranked last among the country's 117 Division I-A programs in per-game attendance, averaging just 5,219 fans - well short of a standard that requires schools to average 15,000 per home game.

"We could not allow an attendance issue to jeopardize our good standing in the NCAA,'' said Darryl Sczepanski, vice president for advancement and executive director of the EMU Foundation. "We saw a major need, and we felt like if (money) needed to come from somewhere, there was no better option than the foundation.''

The $116,000 will be used to purchase 23,000 tickets for Eastern Michigan home games as a way of helping the football program avoid NCAA consequences that could include being put on probation.

The tickets - 5,000 of which were used for Eastern Michigan's homecoming win over Toledo earlier this month - will be distributed to area students who excel in the classroom. Tickets will be given to students attending Ypsilanti, Willow Run, Lincoln and Canton, according to Eastern Michigan athletic director Derrick Gragg. All participate in the university's Football Community Outreach Program.

"For me, this is definitely a win-win,'' Gragg said Monday. "It gives the university affiliation with the community and provides a huge community service piece.''

Gragg, who was hired in April, said the attendance issue has been a top priority since his tenure began. Monday's action comes nearly two years after an internal university committee determined that former athletic director Dave Diles inflated attendance figures, nearly tripling the actual number of fans who were attending Eastern football games.

Last season, under interim athletic director Bob England, actual attendance figures demonstrated that the school was nowhere close to the figures it had reported. After turning in diminished numbers last season, Eastern became part of a list of 12 schools that must average at least 15,000 this season to avoid further NCAA action. Five of the schools on the list - Eastern Michigan, Ball State, Buffalo, Bowling Green and Akron - represent the Mid-American Conference.

The NCAA provided its institutions the option to report either actual or paid attendance, providing schools like Eastern Michigan with a loophole. Gragg said university officials have been searching for a solution for several months, leading to Monday's announcement. Gragg said Eastern Michigan is not alone in using administrative assistance to help boost football attendance.

Eastern Michigan, which has averaged 16,474 in paid attendance, hosts Ohio on Saturday before playing two of its remaining three games at home. The Eagles' Nov. 11 game with Navy will be played at Ford Field in Detroit, which has aided Eastern Michigan's overall attendance the last two years.

But to be safe, Gragg opted to take advantage of the foundation's gift.

"With this purchase, this should put us over the (15,000 per game) threshold,'' Gragg said. "That, in essence, gives me as a new leader here another couple of years to better plan for this going forward.''

Sczepanski said Monday night that no university funds were used for the ticket purchase. Instead, the tickets were purchased by using monies from investment income and Eagle Crest Management Corporation dividends.

In the past, those funds have been put toward a Foundation reserve or to help pay its operating costs. About 65 percent of the Foundation's budget comes from the university, while the remaining 35 percent come from rental income from space leased out in its building and from a for-profit organization.

Gragg said based on attendance projections and the addition of the foundation tickets, Eastern will meet the attendance requirement, taking it off the NCAA list for at least another year. Gragg said Eastern faces no danger of losing its Division I-A football status, which school officials agreed was too important to put into jeopardy.

"This isn't about saving one sport,'' Gragg said. "This is about preserving our entire athletic program and giving our student-athletes the best experience possible."