Kuhn went on to live a quiet life only talking about the scandal to high school students encouraging them to not make the same mistakes. won the gangsters some serious money by falling short of the spread. For all I know, he told them I was in, that it would cost an extra $2,500 per game and he was trying to hustle the gangsters while pocketing the extra money. The film goes on to show how nobody really made a lot of money from the fix. will air the latest installment of its acclaimed 30 For 30 series with a look back at the infamous Boston College basketball point shaving scandal from the 1978-79 season. Jim Sweeney was not charged. In practice, he was the lunatic who his teammates sucked their teeth and rolled their eyes at when he told the coaches that they needed to run more sprints after an exhausting practice. (Joe Dennehy/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) Save PURCHASE A LICENSE Get personalized pricing by telling us when, where, and how you want to use this asset. I feel like if I can change one life, like he changed mine, man, it makes everything Ive been through worthwhile., Copyright 2009-2021, All Rights Reserved | The Shadow League. Playing for the Mob: The Story of College Kids Breaking Bad I cooperated willingly, and Im glad I did, Sweeney says. You realize that you cant play if you dont do this. The players as well as the mobsters believe that this failed fix would be their last, the players graduate and the mobsters move on. Seven schools and more than 30 players were implicated in the 1951 probe; more than 20 schools were involved in the 1961 incidents. He says that Hill once referenced his girlfriend Maura (now his wife) in one of his threats, asking Sweeney how would your honey feel if she saw your --- hanging in a bracelet? He also says that other mob clichs like references to cement shoes are not just the stuff of Hollywood. If this film has taught us anything, it is that it doesnt matter which side was more at fault, ultimately the decisions they made changed their lives forever. I loved it in Israel, the fans loved me and the people were so beautiful. Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Netflix wants to hire a flight attendant for one of its private jets, and says pay can reach $385,000, according to a job listing on the streaming service's website. It is similar to how they captured Al Capone on tax evasion, the smaller of his many crimes that would ultimately put him away. Its the same crew that had a connection to BC basketball player Rick Kuhn, who hailed from the area. After a four-week trial, each conspirator was convicted on charges of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) conspiracy, conspiracy to commit sports bribery, and interstate travel with the intent to commit bribery. I never lied about that. They treated me great. Hes a good person. I saw Ernie score 28 points against the Celtics in one of the final pre-season games when he was with the Nets, said Alswanger, Cobbs former high school coach. Even with the not guilty verdict, he still lost all hope of going to the NBA. When he first stepped on the hallowed parquet floor at the legendary Boston Garden, where B.C. When the story first broke, it said that Michael Bowie and I were the ones implicated, said Cobb. I just knew that not only was I going to make the team, but I was going to be a factor in the NBA. So I didnt even go on trial with Kuhn and the mobsters that put the whole thing in motion.. Paul Mazzei explains that there is no time to change your mind in their business. The final player involved in the fix, Rick Kuhn, is introduced. It wasnt an absolute disaster but it was a cousin. Mazzei in turn contacted Henry Hill, a Lucchese crime family associate from New York who had befriended Mazzei while both men were serving sentences in a federal prison. But he did take money. On August 12, 2008, an anonymous user edited the Wikipedia article on the scandal, naming former player Joe Streater as an accomplice in the point-shaving, recruited by Kuhn alongside Sweeney. Snitching is seen as one of the worst things you can do to a business partner, but to these people, it is just water under the bridge. Kuhn's attorney, Gary Zimmerman, said his client recognized the seriousness of his crimes and that his stiff jail sentence 'was a stern warning to other college athletes.'. 197879 Boston College Eagles basketball season, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, "Key figures in the BC point shaving scandal", "James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke, Gangster, 64, of 'Wiseguy' Fame", "Kuhn Gets 10-Year Sentence In BC Point-Shaving Case", "Guilt by Wikipedia: How Joe Streater Became Falsely Attached To The Boston College Point Shaving Scandal", 1946 NFL Championship Game bribery scandal, 2009 Melbourne Football Club tanking scandal, 2012 Olympics women's doubles disqualifications, 2002 Winter Olympics figure skating scandal, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=197879_Boston_College_basketball_point-shaving_scandal&oldid=1112461833, 197879 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, College basketball controversies in the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 26 September 2022, at 12:41. He worked hard in class. Kuhn, 28, was one of five people found guilty of conspiracy to engage in racketeering and other charges that stemmed from a point-shaving scheme hatched for the 1978-79 school season. Although Cobb maintains that he received money from Rocco, he claims it was just for winning the game even though Rocco claims he knew for sure. The Boston Globe reported on Friday that Cobb and Bowie are targets of the federal probe into allegations of point-shaving in three Eagles games. Kuhn would be responsible for ensuring, by his play on the court, that Boston College fell short of the point spread. Burke, through Hill, would front the money to pay the players, forwarding the money through Mazzei and the Perla brothers. No source was given for this claim, with Streater's last appearance for the team occurring in the 197778 season, but this claim remained for more than five years, resulting in a number of media sites including Bleacher Report, ESPN and Yahoo News erroneously naming him as a point-shaver.[5]. I was relishing that moment. But it wasnt a coincidence that one day, the F.B.I shows up asking me about gambling, and the next day Im no longer with the team. Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A man who posed as a cannabis billionaire plead guilty Wednesday to securities fraud for lying to investors about his wealth, education and business. But what was I going to do, take it to court?It was here that they began telling Perla we would have to have Cobb. I was nervous because I didnt know what was going to happen. Walgreens settles West Virginia opioid lawsuit for $83 million. "It really could be far more serious and more of an annual situation than anyone suspects," said Ralph Miller, basketball coach at Oregon State University. The scheme was conceived by Rocco Perla and his brother Anthony in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1978. Suspecting that some bookmakers might be getting wise to the scheme, the conspirators temporarily revised their strategy after the UCLA game. Suspenseful music plays and the trial begins. This scene gives the audience insight into the type of person Henry Hill was and how hard it was to testify against someone like Burke. After perhaps his greatest moment during the preseason, when he had that outstanding game against the Celtics right before the regular season tipped off, Cobb was relaxing in his hotel room when he heard a knock at the door. Hill and Tony Perla claim that they were all doing cocaine and Kuhn and Sweeney begin marking games that they are favored in and talking about all the money they will make. He made other African-American ballers feel like they could go there and really showcase what they could do on a national level. It is heartening, by contrast, that the integrity of our coaching and athletic staff, as well as that of our current team, was never in question. Fake cannabis billionaire pleads guilty to securities fraud. While Hill was trying to bury Burke, Sweeney was trying to bury Kuhn. The problem was Cobb. Everybody involved in the scandal got sentenced except for Hill and Sweeney. The Perla brothers mobilized a betting syndicate to maximize their potential gain from the scheme. . Teammate Rick Kuhn, a former minor league baseball player with connections to small-time Pittsburgh mobsters, conspired with the mobsters to initiate the point-shaving By my junior year, it was show-time, said Cobb. would play a few games each year, Cobb was awash with emotions. On the stand during the trial, Rick Kuhns girlfriend, Barbara Reed, with whom he shared an apartment during his senior year at Boston College, testified that she overheard Kuhn and Sweeney discussing the Fordham game, saying that they had to keep the ball away from Cobb because he shot the ball all the time. Cobb scores 8 points in the last minute of the game only to be blocked in the last seconds of the game. It was like a paradise to me, coming from where I came from. The government also contended Kuhn tried to recruit other players, including the team's leading scorer, Ernie Cobb, and Hill said in an article in Sports Illustrated -- for which he was paid $10,000 -- that he made payments to Cobb for his cooperation. Said Hill, "He wanted me to fly up to Boston. According to Ernest Volkman, a crime journalist, Hill learned everything from Jimmy Burke and wanted to reward him with a lucrative scheme which became the BC scandal. They reintroduced the original strategy, which proved successful for the February 3 Fordham game when Boston College, a ten-point favorite, won by seven points. Contact Me. The FBI agent is shocked and doesnt believe him, but begins to ask questions. But I found out that I wouldnt be allowed to leave the United States because the government was going to bring me to trial.. Sweeney says that he and Maura have almost recouped their costs in launching the character. II. The Shadow League, 29 May 2017, theshadowleague.com/30-years-after-his-exoneration-former-bc-hoops-star-ernie-cobb-is-still-fighting-to-clear-his-name-pt-ii/. The 197879 Boston College Eagles men's basketball team represented Boston College during the 197879 NCAA men's Im not angry at the school. Ernie, dont lie to me, Alswanger instructed him. But by his sophomore year, when he was inserted into the starting lineup, it was apparent that the 5-foot-11 scorer brought a dimension to the Boston College squad that it sorely needed when he averaged 17.4 points per game. I was so frustrated at one point that I got on my bike in Stamford, Connecticut and just started riding. And that kept him in Hills clutches. And he also cultivated interest, in the area's black community, in terms of being engaged and intrigued bywhat was going on with Boston Colleges basketball program. They had Kuhn approach Ernie Cobb, the leading scorer on the team, but it has never been proven if Cobb agreed to cooperate. His lifes dream of making it to the NBA, which was where he belonged, was taken away from him. Rick Kuhn, 55, passed away peacefully on September 12, 2022, in his home in West Fargo, ND, surrounded by his family. And look what he did to the lives of those kids. Thus, for example, if participating bookmakers determined Boston College to be an eight-point favorite in a particular game, Kuhn would be paid a bonus, usually $2,500, if they won by less than eight points. For added effect, ESPN landed Liotta, whose character served as a narrator in Goodfellas, to narrate its film. He took advantage of an opportunity that surfaced when a pro team from Israel offered him a spot on their roster. The test run for the scheme proved unsuccessful when Boston College's team established an early lead and ultimately won the game by nineteen points. We werent really checking for B.C. Being at Boston College, when I first got there, was so amazing, said Cobb. In this game, UCLA was favored to win over the Eagles by a fifteen to eighteen-point spread, so the syndicate bet on them to win by a margin greater than the point spread. I was shining at the camp. Hill stated that, at the time, he and Burke were watching the game on television at Burke's home in Queens, and Burke put his foot through the television in anger at having lost $50,000 ($186,700 today). After discussing their strategy with Kuhn and Sweeney, it was agreed that an upcoming game against Providence would be an appropriate test for their scheme. Film. He graduated on time with a degree in sociology. He was hopeful that hed have another chance to make it in the NBA. We have decided to cover the most scandalous of all 30-for-30s, Playing for the Mob. Jan. 18 (UPI) -- The Justice Department Wednesday filed a complaint against a sheriff's department in Cumberland County, Tenn., alleging it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when firing an officer with an opioid use disorder. With his name swirling down the vortex of the mob cesspool from the moment the story broke, Ernie Cobb found it difficult to make a living. Bets in this column are given in the format ", Winner is given as either Opp or BC and the margin of victory. He said he would have done that if the sides were reversed. With the focus limited to the specific players involved, BCs basketball program didnt suffer at all. Rick Kuhn during Boston College men's basketball's 1977-1978 season. It had to cost around $200,000 at the time to defend me.. In papers made public Monday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, Kuhn's attorney argued his client's sentence was 'excessive,' and should be reduced because Kuhn has been cooperating with prosecutors in the case. All Kuhn had to do was ensure that the Eagles fell short of the point spread in the games that they bet on. So, in very basic terms, if B.C. was favored to win a game by ten points, Kuhn had to make sure, if the game was in play with the mobsters and the bookies, that they won by less than ten in order for the gamblers to make money. Whats striking about the point shaving scandal from the perspective of 35 years is how different, i.e. The police have Henry Hill as an informant in hopes that he will have information on his boss, Jimmy Burke and other mobsters involved in the Lufthansa robbery, where five million dollars was stolen in the heist. I got through it on my own, and I didnt get whacked, is how he sums it up. Zimmerman also asked the court to consider Kuhn's 'crime-free background' and his cooperation with federal authorities in the Cobb case. The Providence game was played on December 6, 1978, and Boston College was favored to win by six to seven points. This is when the documentary transitions to the Pittsburgh mobsters and how they meet. Same here, and yet when they did their list of greatest sports scandals a few weeks back (when Miami broke) they didn't have it on there the first day. I have an incredible circle of supportive friends and have met some amazing people who have impacted my life in ways that I cant even begin to describe., Mr. Hill was listed as a co-conspirator, but was not named as a defendant. The former friends work hard to cast blame and the true conversations that went on between the mobsters and players will never be discovered. Kaskade, DJ Diesel (Aka Shaquille ONeal) Among The Headliners At This Years Indy 500 Snake Pit, Real Madrid Vs. Liverpool Is Already Make Or Break, The American Express Draws Flashy Field Despite Un-Elevated Status, Jake Paul And Tommy Fury Agree To Fight (Again) On Feb. 25. Who Is The NBA GOAT: Lebron James, Michael Jordan, Or Kareem? Needing an inside man, the brothers wanted to recruit Rick Kuhn, a high school friend of Rocco who was entering his senior year at Boston College and was expected to be a key member of the 19787 A federal jury in Brooklyn yesterday convicted former Boston College basketball player Rick Kuhn and four codefendants of conspiring to manipulate the scores of Boston College games during the 1978-79 season. Even after being informed of the investigation, he said he noticed nothing unusual after reviewing films of the games. Can anyone shed some "He said he had a betting thing set up in a way to make money during the season so that we could be taken care of," said Reed, now a nurse in Syracuse, N.Y. Reed also testified that Kuhn threatened to kill her if she ever told of the scheme. The margin of victory, theshadowleague.com/30-years-after-his-exoneration-former-bc-hoops-star-ernie-cobb-is-still-fighting-to-clear-his-name-pt-ii/, which was where he belonged was! 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