Travel back to the past with Pipe Dream Sports as we reach into our archives, digging up past sports articles. Who wrote those articles? How were the sports teams back then? Could we finally find the answer to why Binghamton University does not have a football team? What other sports issues were on everyone’s minds? Those questions and more will be answered as we look back to a time when the America East Conference did not exist.

The date is Jan. 15, 1985.

SUNY-Binghamton’s men’s basketball season was underway, and so was criminal case of Gregory Fleming, a senior star on the team.

Fleming had been charged with third degree grand larceny, a felony, after he was arrested for allegedly using false identification when renting several video tapes from a local shop. Fleming pleaded innocent to the charges.

According to the article, the chain of events began on the evening of Nov. 17. Binghamton had held a basketball invitational tournament. That night, Binghamton, Fleming included, had played in the consolation game, which tipped off at 6 p.m. and ended around 8 p.m. Two hours later, Fleming was on hand to accept an all-tournament award at the end of the tournament.

It was between 8 and 10 p.m. that November night when events occurred which led to Fleming’s arrest nearly two months later.

Fleming allegedly used a driver’s license belonging to Paul Dorfman, a fellow BU student, to rent 15 video tapes from The Video Library, a store located in Binghamton in 1985. The tapes, worth over $600, were not returned.

Clare M. Coffey, an employee of The Video Library, said in a statement filed with the city of Binghamton that on the night of Nov. 17, Fleming rented the tapes from her at 8:55 p.m. Coffey identified Fleming from several photographs that the Johnson City Police Department showed her.

Dorfman, who at the time was studying abroad, had reported his wallet stolen to the J.C. police the previous semester.

Binghamton’s athletic department and the men’s basketball team, including head coach Dave Archer, told the Press & Sun-Bulletin that they were standing behind Fleming, treating him as innocent until proven guilty.

Archer said the media had already convicted Fleming of the crime.

“I think that it is a horrendous injustice what the media is doing to Gregory Fleming, because he’s been accused of a crime, not convicted. That when this is all said and done he’s going to be proven innocent and there’s going to [be] an awful lot of people who are going to [be] saying ‘I’m sorry,’” Archer told the Press & Sun-Bulletin.

Stay tuned to future issues of Pipe Dream as we continue to uncover this incident.