Inside a Halifax university's battle to save face after spending nearly $500K on a football game

As Saint Mary's University fought a costly and public legal battle to play in a 2017 football game, the Halifax university hired a high-profile public relations company to get advice on how the institution could improve its public image.

The dispute over a player's eligibility played out in courts in Nova Scotia and Ontario, and included a Remembrance Day hearing over whether the Atlantic championship game known as the Loney Bowl would go ahead, leading to legal bills that almost reached $500,000 for the university.

CBC News obtained documents in an access-to-information request that took almost four years for the university to fully answer. The records reveal details about the frustration felt by officials and the university's public relations approach, which included locking the gates at a team practice to prevent the media from talking to players and coaches.

"We need to keep the gates locked," wrote the university's associate vice-president of external affairs, Margaret Murphy, in a Nov. 13, 2017, email to several school officials.

"I will come down to manage the media. We will let media get photos of the team from a distance. I will still be the only one doing media interviews.

"The coaches and players need to focus on the game and we want to keep the comments to what we agreed yesterday."

CBC requested invoices and records in 2018 relating to Archelaus Jack, who suited up for the Saint Mary's Huskies in the 2017 season. His eligibility was called into question because of time he previously spent as a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders' practice roster in 2016.

The eligibility issue prompted Atlantic University Sports (AUS) to cancel the Loney Bowl game between Saint Mary's and Acadia University just days before