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. Point-Shaving Trial Starts Today The Heights, Volume LXI, Number 35 Boston College Men's Basketball's 1977-1978 Season. After Cobb was not charged, he thought he was finally past the sordid affair. Boston College Men's Basketball's 1977-1978 Season - Getty Images Sign up to receive The Shadow League Newsletter in your inbox. Was it due to great defence or did he have an off night? H e refused comment yesterday on whether any attempt had been made to get Mr. Kuhn to cooperate in this investigation for consideration s in his sentencing. 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 197879 Eagles team. I dont know if they recognize it, but B.C. He says he took it under duress though, with Kuhn telling him he needed him to be involved, whether he liked it or not. Mazzei, Hill and the Perlas devised a plan to rip off bookies without having players throw games. NEW YORK -- Former Boston College basketball player Rick Kuhn, jailed for his 1981 conviction in a point-shaving scandal, has asked for a reduction of his 10-year prison sentence. The fact that I went to court and fought for my name, that I stood up for myself and cleared my name, that I was exonerated and acquitted, its a travesty that Im still associated with this., My name is indelibly linked to it, Cobb continued. Sweeney was a businessman like me. Opponents of legalized college sports betting argue that adding regulations will only encourage irresponsible gambling. The fixing was over. Burke was allegedly the ringleader behind the heist, then the largest to happen on U.S. soil, though he was never charged. 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. Did it start out with a loss for the gamblers on Dec. 6, 1978, when Boston College handily beat Providence, 83-64? After reading this I feel its the right story to add in to existing script. The bookies began to smell a rat, and not just the one Hill himself would become 18 months later. When he finished with his testimony, he made a beeline straight for the restroom. The syndicate was able to lay nine points when the game was first available to be bet, and therefore pushed. Learn how your comment data is processed. Cobb's trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 31 before Judge Leonard Wexler. Thats why I got into education and coaching. Of course, of course I was upset, but what could I do? . The ringleaders knew having just one player wouldnt ensure the desired outcome. Also a BC captain, Sweeney claims he reluctantly agreed to be recruited into the scheme. I know he lost about fifty thousand dollars.. Hill went into witness protection and died in 2012 of a heart attack. The centerpiece of today's hearing was the testimony of Kuhn, who was convicted in 1981 along with four gamblers for conspiracy to commit sports bribery and other crimes stemming from a point-shaving plot at Boston College during the 1978-79 season. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/06/sports/rick-kuhn-sentenced-to-10-years.html. We were all so excited for him. Many details of the scandal remain murky. Mr . Day Five of the Punchestown Racing Festival boasts another afternoon of top-class horse racing. A Cooperative Kuhn Has Life Threatened - Boston College His girlfriend, whom hed met during his first week on campus, was an upperclassman that knew how to navigate the schools academic landscape. Jack Molinas engineered a larger scheme in 1961, which resulted in 37 arrests of students from 22 colleges. He quickly thrived and was recognized as one of the leagues best players. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Overall, more legality increases transparency, making it more difficult for shady characters to hide. Required fields are marked *. Three of Mr. Kuhn's co-conspirators were sentenced by Judge Bramwell on Jan. 22. The true story of the famous Boston College point shaving scandal. Early on, before the season got underway, Cobb says that he was approached by a man from Pittsburgh named Rocco Perla, who hed seen hanging around campus with his teammate, senior forward Rick Kuhn. The initial informa tion came from Henry Hill, a Government informant in the Lufthansa case, who casually toldthe investigators that Mr. Burke had been inv olved in a collegebasketball point-shaving scheme. But I found out that I wouldnt be allowed to leave the United States because the government was going to bring me to trial.. He was the polar opposite of Kuhn, which made him perfect in Hills eyes. Man City treble odds are in demand and Parimatch are offering new customers a price boost on it. At that point, I was looking forward to a trial, said Cobb. In testimony before the President's Commission on Organized Crime, the former player, Rick Kuhn, said he thought college basketball players were most vulnerable to offers from gamblers ''in their junior and senior years, when it becomes reality that they're not going to have lucrative careers as players.'' Self-described Boston College basketball fixer, he confessed the conspiracy to agents investigating the signature crime of his mob crew, the Lufthansa heist immortalized in Goodfellas. Recruited into scheme by Mazzei. A few blocks from Boston College, the place that held so much meaning to him, where hed worked so hard to create his lifes purpose, the symbolism was inescapable when he found that he had a flat tire. 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 process, in which some BC. It was one of the most tremendous feelings Id ever experienced.. 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. Kuhn allegedly made $2,500 per fix. I understand that they want to disassociate themselves from the scandal. And yeah, I took that money. The Boston College (BC) team of 1978/79 were far from the first to get entangled in a scam. To this day, both Sweeney and Cobb admit taking money but say they didnt really participate. The same channels would be used for the passing of the point spread from Burke and Hill to the players. But for many, there is a fierce bitterness that still lingers to this day. Once the FBI arrested Hill the following year though, it all came out. I never got to realize my dream of playing in the NBA, but Ive been all over the globe and have experienced so many different and beautiful cultures. In the summer of 1978, Rocco Perla and his older brother Anthony, back in Pittsburgh, were the ones who initially conceived the point-shaving scheme that would later rock the college basketball world. April 30 (UPI) -- Intense Russian shelling took place overnight in Kherson and Kharkiv, Ukraine, pounding residential areas and killing a 58-year-old civilian. It would also increase the likelihood of scandals like the BC one, they say. As it was, BC were beaten 98-96 and the money was lost, thanks to Cobb scoring eight points in the final minute. Hello I am making a movie on the scandal and my Director would like me to pursue the story as told by the players. The Boston Globe story was initially investigated and written by a young Boston College alumnus named Leslie Visser, who would go on to become a very accomplished, groundbreaking journalist and role model for women who aspired to work in the field of sports media. 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. Please play Responsibly. I don't question $1,000, give it to me.. Theyre no match for us. He told me, Well good, I plan on betting on those games and if you guys win and it turns out like that, Ill take care of you., Man, I was one of the most recognizable athletes on campus and people would come up and talk to me all the time, people I didnt know, Cobb continued. I needed a string of bookmakers, maybe 10 or 15. If the limit is $25,000, then anything above that, they call somebody else and get them to take it. Jimmy said he was finished. The December 16 game against Harvard was chosen as the second test for the scheme. Terms and Conditions McDonald has answered questions about Mr. Cobb's status by say ing that the Justice Department's investigation is continuing. Rick Kuhn Sentenced to 10 Years - The New York Times BOSTON - FEBRUARY 14: Rick Kuhn (#50) during Boston College men's basketball's 1977-1978 season. Sports Promos. It wasnt until I actually saw him play that I realized how special he was as an offensive talent. 1 killed in shooting at Massachusetts house party. The spread was +12 on Boston College, so as they won 86-83, Hill was in the money. He bet $35,000 on a game with Connecticut and it paid off. 197879 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal. Apparently, someone called into the online editor the second to inform them of the "miss." I think you could poll a lot of people in the business and the Boston College scandal is off their radar. They knew how to shave, because when I tried to explain to them, they said, Naw, we know all that shit.. The other defendants were all found guilty, with Kuhn, Mazzei and Tony Perla sentenced to 10 years, while Rocco Perla got four. The characters and events were later immortalized by the actors Ray Liotta and Robert DeNiro in the classic film, Goodfellas. They couldnt stop him. This page is not available in other languages. Cobb was acquitted of any wrongdoing, despite Kuhn giving Cobb's girlfriend an allegedly unsolicited envelope with $1,000. I was eating Rory Sparrow up, who went on to have a decent NBA career, in that camp. Alswanger, my high school coach inspired me to rise above my circumstances, he continued. The scheme continued to work successfully in the December 23 game against UCLA. Playing for the Mob: The Story of College Kids Breaking Bad The story of the infamous Boston College Basketball Point Shaving Case. 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. An obvious lesson here: Crime doesnt pay. The FBI were unable to prove that fixing had occurred from examining the games. The FBI didnt have to prove the games were fixed, only that there was a conspiracy to manipulate the scores. My girlfriend and I bought a new stereo, television and some furniture. Red Auerbach coached the Celtics to nine NBA championships between 1957 and 1966, and knew all there is to know about basketball. Remembering The Boston College Point Shaving Scandal - Gambling ESPN's latest 30 for 30 film tackles the Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal. 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). They left, and that was that. With echoes of the downfall of Al Capone half a century earlier, Jimmy Burke was convicted for fixing basketball games when prosecutors were unable to construct a case against him for his most notorious crimes, which included the Lufthansa heist and his alleged role in the cover-up murders which followed. I didnt know what that was all about. Confirm your email address in the email you will receive shortly. He traveled throughout the world, getting paid to play the game that he loved. Edward A. McDonald, who coincidentally had graduated from Boston College in 1968 and who had played briefly on the basketball team, prosecuted the case.[2]. Oh, yeah.
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