Dwight Dasher is a 22-year-old senior quarterback for Middle Tennessee State University football. During his junior year he led his team to a record of 10-3 and won the MVP award in the New Orleans Bowl. Unfortunately for him, he’s not as skilled at poker as he is at football.
According to various sources, Dasher is in up to $1500 of poker debt to an 80-year-old Air Force veteran named Oliver Donnell, and is being investigated by campus police.
The two met in the York Veterans Administration Medical Center where Dasher was visiting a friend of his who is an employee there. After the two hit it off, Donnell began loaning Dasher low three-figure amounts to play poker with. According to Donnell, Dasher approached him asking for a stake after he found out Donnell was a gambler himself. They agreed that Donnell would loan Dasher $300 and that they would split Dasher’s winnings in the poker game.
After losing his stake a few times through ups and downs in poker games (after winning as much as $2500 some nights), he was eventually down $900 with Donnell overall, at which point Donnell asked for some sort of collateral on the loan. Apparently out of desperation, Dasher allegedly stole a check from teammate and roommate Colin Boss, crossed out Colin Boss’ name on the check, wrote in his own name, and wrote out a check to Mr. Donnell. Note that once Boss’ name was marked out on the check, the check is considering void.
Dasher continued playing under Mr. Donnell’s backing until he was $1500 in debt. At this point, Dasher stopped returning Donnell’s calls, which prompted the July 27 complaint with campus police. The complaint stated that Mr. Donnell contacted campus police and identified himself as a patient at the York Veterans Administration Medical Center. He said that he had loaned a football player for Middle Tennessee State University a sizable amount of money and the player was not returning his calls.
Donnell has been quoted as saying he’d left Dasher messages indicating that he would have Dasher arrested if the star quarterback didn’t pay his debt. According to the incident report, Dwight Dasher is part of an “ongoing investigation”.
ESPN lists Dasher at 5’10” and 202 lbs from Folkston, Georgia. In 2009 he threw for 219 completions and 2789 yards, with 23 touchdowns. He also had 14 interceptions and 17 sacks. MTSU has its first football game of the season next week on September 2 against the Minnesota Golden Gophers.