I had one guy in Manhattan who would lay off in Connecticut who would lay off in Cleveland who would lay off in California. 30 Years After His Exoneration, Former BC Hoops Star Ernie Cobb Is Still Fighting to Clear His Name Pt. Over all, he said, the scheme failed. And in that article in Sports Illustrated, Henry Hill says, The word came back that Cobb was enthusiastic. The key phrase there is The word came back. I dont know what Rick Kuhn was telling Henry Hill or the Perla brothers. Hill said in Wiseguy, Jimmy and I put a few bucks down; in Playing For The Mob, Tony Perla says New York were cut down for over $250,000.. (Sadly, Liotta, who was brilliant in Goodfellas and Field of Dreams, among other films, died Wednesday at 67.). Mr. Kuhn will become eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence. Nothing in sports comes with a guarantee, though. '', ''This crime has reminded millions of sports fans that athletes can be compromised,'' Judge Bramwell said. Said Hill, "I asked the players which of the upcoming games they felt we could shave. Acknowledged taking $500 from conspirators, but claimed he acted under duress and was never charged. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. The game was televised so Hill and Burke watched together, having staked $85,000 between them. By my junior year, it was show-time, said Cobb. Almost $6 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry was stolen at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Dec. 11, 1978. Bet with your head, not over it. What made it worse was that the champion City College of New York were one of them. I was so thankful, and was willing to work as hard as I possibly could, both in my studies, and in basketball, to be able to get the most I could out of the experience.. They were aware that bookmakers generally accepted large bets on this game both because Boston College and Holy Cross were traditional rivals and because the game was being nationally televised. Especially those who, as far back as they can remember, always wanted to be a gangster. Kuhn recounted that in the summer of 1978, a Pittsburgh bookmaker he knew, Anthony Perla, offered him $2,500 a game if he could ''see to it'' that in games Boston College was favored to win, the margin of victory did not exceed the point spread. Kuhn apologized to his family, fiancee and college, and vowed to counsel high school and college athletes about the dangers of gambling after he is freed from prison in December. Some had connections to various upper-level gambling circles and some were connected to the mob as we take a look back at one of the biggest betting scandals seen during the 1980's in America. Democrats, Republicans remain split on debt ceiling plan. Mr. H ill subsequently identified the other figures involved, includ ing Mr. Kuhn. Its gonna be no contest. But I dont feel any bitterness toward the prosecution. His snitching stream began then, and during one conversation with law enforcement, he casually mentioned the Boston College scheme. In 2014, the ESPN-produced 30 for 30 series debuted Playing for the Mob,[6] the story about how Hill and his Pittsburgh associates, and several Boston College basketball players, perpetrated the point-shaving scheme during the 197879 season, an episode briefly mentioned in the movie Goodfellas. Yet when Sweeney retold his story for ESPNs Playing For The Mob documentary in 2014 [3] he claimed to be stringing Hill along. Henry Hill avoided going to prison, and he went off into the sunset of the governments Witness Protection Program, said Alswanger. A forward for Boston Colleges basketball team, he wasnt the strongest player and was more interested in partying. Rick Kuhn, the former Boston College basketball player convicted with four other men last November of taking part in a point-shaving conspiracy, has told Federal authorities that he was threatened . TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Thats the real strength of his story, that you pick yourself up and make something of yourself.. They couldnt stop him. College basketball's 30 biggest cheaters that tainted the game Theres a whole network., The odds were set in Sin City. '', See the article in its original context from. As the wallets, Burke and Co. ultimately became the schemes kingpins. If you missed Part I, you can read it here. Who was asking and how much they were paying probably influenced what Hill revealed each time. After he interviewed him, he fell in love with him and told me, Hes innocent. Hill mentioned the point shaving scam, which the FBI were completely unaware of. The Providence game was played on December 6, 1978, and Boston College was favored to win by six to seven points. }Customer Service. SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches following aborted mission, delays. He turned to me and said, Coach, Im glad youre sticking up for your kid. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Hill turned state's evidence in exchange for avoiding prison and possible execution by Burke and the Lucchese family. Kuhn said he spent much of the game on the bench, unable to affect the outcome. Kuhn and Sweeney knew exactly what I was there for, Hill later told Sports Illustrated. "I'd call Rick (Kuhn), I'd tell him the point spread on the Boston College game, and Rick would say if they'd have a chance or not." Fixing The Games Hill had no issue telling people what they wanted to hear, as was seen when he spoke to the FBI in order to save his own skin. He said, these guys were irate. You probably recognise that line of dialogue. You want to tell people what they want to hear, then you want to go away.. Jim Sweeney was not charged. However, he later told McDonald that everything said at the trial was true except for one thing: despite his denials, Sweeney was an active participant in the scam. Rocco Perla was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. He didn't want to be bothered with these kids anymore." Also involved were bookmakers across the East Coast. And yeah, I took that money. '30 For 30' tackles BC point-shaving scandal - Boston Colleges - ESPN We werent really checking for B.C. The ex-girlfriend of a former Boston College basketball player - UPI The FBI didnt have to prove the games were fixed, only that there was a conspiracy to manipulate the scores. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Hill reportedly cleared over $100,000 ($373,400 today) and bettors higher up the line were said to have made up to $250,000 ($933,400 today). According to Dr. Roy Nicks, chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents, the investigator, Ben Hale, will direct an inquiry into published reports that athletes at the school have been given money and special favors. ----Wider Inquiry at Memphis State A former FBI agent hired by Memphis State earlier this year to adviseathletes on how to stay away from drug dealers and gamblers is now taking his job a step further. I said, If this dude has cash like that to burn and wants to give me $1,000 because I told him wed destroy Stonehill, sure, Ill take it. Maybe he was trying to cultivate a relationship with me and soften me up for something down the road. ''Rather,'' Judge Bramwell said before imposing sentence, ''he emerges as a somewhat greedy individual. Cleanly summarizing this story feels futile, but well try. Can I play slot games for free? When he returned to the United States, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he became a Special Education teacher and high school basketball coach. To Cobb, it felt like he was being asked for insider info on the team and their prospects. All of Henry Hills and the Perla brothers information was coming from Rick Kuhn, and who knows what he was saying to them to cover his own skin., (Jim Sweeney, Photo Credit: tampabay.com), Kuhn and Sweeney got in over their heads, Cobb continued. For example, if the Eagles were favored by 10, the mobsters would want the players on the take to make sure the team won by nine points or less. The syndicate was very happy with this result, and Kuhn was given cash to distribute to the players for their efforts. I took every single practice and every single game seriously, said Cobb. Also indicted in US District Court in Brooklyn, New York were: James Burke, a reputed organized crime leader, Anthony and Rocco Perla of Pittsburgh, and Paul Mazzei. Rick Kuhn was an older player who was friends with Sweeney and a tough, street smart kid with a different upbringing than Sweeney. Golub was a brilliant lawyer, and he told me that hed have to interview Ernie first to see if he was gonna take the case on. The story of the infamous Boston College Basketball Point Shaving Case. She knew the terrain in terms of what I needed to be doing, said Cobb. His girlfriend, whom hed met during his first week on campus, was an upperclassman that knew how to navigate the schools academic landscape. May 1 (UPI) -- Elon Musk's SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy rocket with a payload of satellites from the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday after having to abort the mission days earlier. Federal investigators first learned of the point-shaving scheme while looking into Mr. Burke's suspected role in the $5.8 million robbery of the Lufthansa freight terminal a t Kennedy International Airport in December 1978. Boston College Men's Basketball's 1977-1978 Season - Getty Images The headlines in Boston, and around the country, said that Cobb and fellow senior Michael Bowie, the teams two African-American stars, were the players that were implicated. 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. (Rick Kuhn, Photo Credit: bostonglobe.com). Kuhn was sentenced to 10 years in prison, later reduced to 28 months. A former Boston College basketball player who has spent two years in prison for conspiring with professional gamblers to rig games told a Federal commission on crime yesterday about his role in the scandal and warned college athletes not to ''jeopardize their futures'' by succumbing to the temptations of ''big money.''. Boston college basketball gambling scandal, rick kuhn boston college I didnt like dealing with a third party I didnt know and had never metBut the word came back that Cobb was enthusiastic and, dont worry Henry, nothing can screw up now., In the 30-for-30 documentary that ESPN just aired, Henry Hill admits that he never talked to me, said Cobb. Rick Kuhn, the 28-year-old former Boston College basketball player who is serving a 10-year prison term for participating in a point-shaving conspiracy, has asked the sentencing judge to. In early February, Boston College was scheduled to play two New York State teams, Fordham and St. John's. So, in very basic terms, if B.C. Mazzei and the Perlas were particularly hopeful that Hill would enlist the support of his associate, James Burke, to finance the payments to the players and to set up a network of bookmakers who were in on the scheme. All of those guys walkedin his footsteps., He was the African-American guard in the modern era of B.C. 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. Best Massachusetts Sports Betting Promos Coming In March, DraftKings To Launch Streaming Service Of Sports Betting Content, Kentucky Derby 2023 Basic Bets And Tips For Beginners, Proposed Encore Boston Harbor Expansion Draws Mixed Opinions, Pro Sports Leagues Form Responsible Sports Betting Advertising Coalition, NFL Draft Betting Rules Set By Massachusetts Gaming Commission, Online Lottery Seemingly A Matter Of When, Not If In Massachusetts. Thats why I got into education and coaching. I was having a lot of success, we were turning around the fortunes of the program and I was getting a lot of press in the Boston Globe and area newspapers. Alswanger, my high school coach inspired me to rise above my circumstances, he continued. This page is not available in other languages. Perla and Kuhn had gone to high school together and were good friends. But Kuhn was a player of limited ability, so he recruited his roommate and best friend, who also happened to be the most important player on the floor, the teams senior point guard, Jim Sweeney. Edwin McDonald, who prosecuted the case for the Justice Department, said that he had recommended the incarceration of Mr. Kuhn but had not suggested any specific term. Standard editorial rights. I hadnt seen Ernie for several years, Jack Hennessey, a psychologist at Boston College that had served as an informal academic advisor during Cobbs days as a student, told the New York Times in April of 1984. I continue to feel like I have to defend myself, all these years later, even after the government tried their case against me and I was found innocent. According to Hill, Jimmy went nuts. The scheme was hit or miss early on. Loughery told me that I had the ability to play in the NBA. Today, Cobbs relationship with Boston College remains strained. The distinguished paper later retracted the story. Shaved down, one could call the story simple: A few college hoops kids helped take down a deadly gangster. Fourteen hours later, I arrived in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.. Remembering The Boston College Point Shaving Scandal - Gambling And who better than the teams top scorer, Ernie Cobb? In imposing what are believed to be the stiffest punishments ever given to a college athlete for fixing games, Judge Bramwell rejected an appeal for leniency by Gary Zimmerman, Mr. Kuhn's lawyer, who had asked the judge to consider an alternative sentence, such as publicservice work. Nobody will ever know the full truth, as everyone involved has their own story. Rick Kuhn College Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com Rick Kuhn Position: Forward 6-5 (196cm) School: Boston College (Men) SUMMARY Career G 75 PTS 4.9 TRB 3.9 AST 0.6 FG% 48.8 FT% 48.6 Kuhn Overview On this page: An ad blocker has likely prevented this video content from loading. Julie loves lakes, bonfires, Dachshunds, coaching Little League and carrying on her Dads fantasy football legacy that he started in 1987 before there was an app for that. Mr. Kuhn, who is 26 years old, showed no emotion and would not comment after Judge Henry Bramwell of United States District Court in Brooklyn had imposed concurrent terms of 10 years for violation of Federal racketeering statutes and five years each for conspiracy and interstate gambling. Boston College confirmed the investigation on Friday. Point shaving is a form of fixing. Confident from their recent success, the conspirators viewed the February 10 game against Holy Cross as an opportunity to reap the full benefits of their scheme. Nobody knows for certain how much money was made. He recruited teammates Ernie Cobb and Jim Sweeney into the ring, after becoming connected with ex-convicts Paul Mazzei and Henry Hill. When he did play in games that were supposed to be rigged, Kuhn said he did not concentrate on the point margin until ''the last five minutes of the game, when it was really important.'' On February 10, Boston College faced Holy Cross. When he arrived on campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, Cobbs internal mantra was, I gotta stay eligible. With those persistent affirmations dancing through his mind, he took his academic responsibilities seriously from day one. In among the many questions he asked, McDonald enquired as to why he had been going to Boston so frequently. 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. NEW YORK -- The ex-girlfriend of a former Boston College basketball player accused of trying to rig games testified that her former boyfriend and another player once joked about how they. Sweeney spoke with a very nervous Kuhn afterward. We publish narratives intentionally and specifically to enlighten and transform the world. I had told him I'm not interested in doing this. He is appealing Mr. Kuhn's conviction, and the defendant will remain free on $50,000 bail pending the outcome of that appeal. Hill claimed to have earned about $400,000, but Rocco Perla said he pocketed thousands of dollars, not tens of thousands, while Mazzei only succeeded once. We had a good old time. I admitted to receiving that money, and spending it. It had to cost around $200,000 at the time to defend me.. Kuhn is angry and hurt and has no respect for the game because of . The characters and events were later immortalized by the actors Ray Liotta and Robert DeNiro in the classic film, Goodfellas. First Republic seized by regulators and sold to JPMorgan. Sent Weekly. Rick Kuhn, the former Boston College basketball player who was convicted last November, and sentenced last February for his involvement in the point shaving scandal during the 1978-79 basketball season, told Federal authorities last May that his life had been threatened because of his decision to cooperate in the case, according to The . 1 killed in shooting at Massachusetts house party. Surprise! To this day, both Sweeney and Cobb admit taking money but say they didnt really participate. He graduated on time with a degree in sociology. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. So I guess the thought process was, Well, if there were criminal activities going on, it had to be the brothers! My name and picture, and Michael Bowies as well, was on the front page of every newspaper in the country.. Your email address will not be published. Bookmakers, on seeing the heavy action, moved the line as high as twelve to discourage bets on the favorite (St. John's) and attract more bets on the underdog. As a freshman, he played sparingly and averaged 4.5 points per game while the Eagles finished with a disappointing 9-17 overall record. He dreamed of walking away from Boston College at seasons end as one of the schools most revered sons before embarking on what he hoped would be an accomplished, financially rewarding career in the NBA. This is Part II of The Shadow League's feature story on former Boston College basketball player Ernie Cobb. He was the polar opposite of Kuhn, which made him perfect in Hills eyes. You're going to get us killed, Sweeney recalled. He put his foot through his own television set. In the movie, Liotta played Hill and DeNiro played Jimmy Conway, whose character was based off Hills real-life mob associate Jimmy Burke. He tried to subsist as a substitute teacher, and even caddied at the Fairview Country Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, the affluent suburbs where hed previously been arrested for stealing bikes as a kid.

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