alumni who, as military personnel, lost their lives in service to the United States. NCAA violations and resignation On March 8, 2011, Ohio State suspended Tressel for the first two games of the 2011 season and fined him $250,000 for failing to notify the school of NCAA violations involving Ohio State football players. The players had a financial arrangement with Edward Rife, owner of a local tattoo parlor, who was at the time under investigation by the FBI for drug trafficking. The arrangement, which resulted in five Ohio State football players being suspended, involved trading championship rings, jerseys, and other football-related awards for tattoos. That arrangement was a violation of NCAA rules, and would have rendered the players, including star quarterback Terrelle Pryor, ineligible to play for portions of the 2010 season. Tressel was first notified of the arrangement in April 2010 when he received several e-mails from Chris Cicero, a local attorney and former Ohio State walk-on football player. Tressel never forwarded the e-mails, nor the information contained in them about potential violations, to his school's compliance office or the NCAA. Although Tressel had held the position of Athletic Director at Youngstown State, Tressel's excuse was that he did not know whom to contact when he learned of the alleged violations. Tressel also later claimed not to have acted because of concerns about the confidentiality of the information, yet he immediately forwarded the first e-mail to Terrelle Pryor's mentor. On December 7, 2010, Ohio State was notified by the Department of Justice that it had in its possession many items of Ohio State sports memorabilia seized from Edward Rife's tattoo parlor. In the ensuing investigation, Tressel was questioned by Ohio State on December 16 concerning his knowledge of the activities disclosed by the Justice Department (the sale of rings, jerseys, and football memorabilia to Rife). Tressel denied any specific knowledge of the violations, and claimed that he could not remember who had given him the vague information. A week later Tressel exchanged text messages with Cicero, the attorney who had originally notified him of the activities back in April. Tressel verified that the Justice Department matter involved the same players and issues as the April e-mails. Tressel remained silent, his long-time knowledge of the violations (and his subsequent intentional fielding of ineligible players throughout the season) revealed only when Ohio State inadvertently discovered the April 2010 Cicero e-mails in