Any recount of the BC points-shaving scandal should come with a free CharlieCard for a story with more twists and turns than the citys T system. You gotta tell me the truth, because I gotta know how to go on this?. Hes a good person. Confirm your email address in the email you will receive shortly. The government presented telephone records showing evidence of extensive communications between the conspirators during the 197879 season and records provided by Western Union and various hotels which further corroborated government testimony. Henry Hill avoided going to prison, and he went off into the sunset of the governments Witness Protection Program, said Alswanger. 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.. An obvious lesson here: Crime doesnt pay. Federal prosecutor who investigated the case and BC graduate. If you missed Part I, you can read it here. Terms and Conditions 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. Mr. Kuhn, a reserve forward on the 1978-79 Boston College team, and four other men were convicted last November of a plot to manipulate the scores of six games that season to provide betting coups for gamblers. When he first stepped on the hallowed parquet floor at the legendary Boston Garden, where B.C. Regulated operators also have safety checks in place to help protect those with gambling addictions. Their strategy was effective Boston College, a five-point favorite, covered the spread with a 9080 win over Connecticut. 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. The fixing was over. 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). Many details of the scandal remain murky. In 1949/50, 33 players across seven teams shaved points. The distinguished paper later retracted the story. If you missed Part I, you can read it here. 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. Of course, of course I was upset, but what could I do? Cobb says he received $1,000 in an envelope but said he didnt really know what it was for. I knew that I was suddenly in a situation in which I was already underwater, he said. Rick Kuhn was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment yesterday for his part in a point-shaving scheme that was hatched during the 1978-79 season, when he played basketball for Boston College. The abbreviated version of events reads like this:the Perlas brought in a Pittsburgh hood named Paul Mazzei, who contacted his friend Henry Hill, an associate of New Yorks Lucchese crime family that had befriended him during a stretch in federal prison. I dont know if they recognize it, but 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. SpaceX Falcon Heavy launches following aborted mission, delays. After the investigation was completed, Cobb was not named as a defendant in the initial trial, U.S. vs Burke, which opened to a circus of media attention on October 27th, 1981. But as a drug-using gangster who feared for his life, its unsurprising that his recollections were inconsistent. The Perlas had a high school pal they thought might want to earn some extra dollars. Or vice versa? Enter Rick Kuhn, a senior forward for the Boston College basketball team during the 1978-79 season. 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. #ada-button-frame { When he was implicated in the scandal, I was shocked.. 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. It was like a paradise to me, coming from where I came from. Whats going on? The same channels would be used for the passing of the point spread from Burke and Hill to the players. He is appealing Mr. Kuhn's conviction, and the defendant will remain free on $50,000 bail pending the outcome of that appeal. 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. 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]. NEW YORK -- Former Boston College basketball forward Richard Kuhn and four other people were indicted today on federal racketeering and bribery charges in a point shaving scheme, the FBI announced . At the trial, the Government argued that Mr. Kuhn and two other Boston College players that season, Ernie Cobb and Jim Sweeney, had been paid to manipulate the team's margins of victory or defeat. The point-shaving allegations surfaced during an unrelated investigation into the 1978 theft of $5.8 million from the Lufthansa cargo terminal at New Yorks Kennedy Airport. Mr. Zimmerman called the length of the sentence ''outrageous.'' Kuhn, whose 10-year prison sentence for his part in the 1978-79 Boston College scheme was reduced to four years after he testified against a teammate, will be released from federal prison in. The game was televised so Hill and Burke watched together, having staked $85,000 between them. After Cobb was not charged, he thought he was finally past the sordid affair. The season was drawing to a close and the criminals were tired of a scam which didnt always pay off. In Sports Illustrated's expos, Hill claimed it was against Harvard on December 16. I watched the boys throw the ball out of bounds, and it was gorgeous, he said. Boston College Men's Basketball's 1977-1978 Season. Law enforcement officials were ecstatic. Can I play slot games for free? When the evidence came up at the first trial, it didnt match up, but they still came after me a few years later. May 1 (UPI) -- First Republic Bank was sold Monday to JPMorgan Chase, as regulators seek to calm a turbulent banking sector that has now seen three U.S. banks fail in less than two months. Burke instructed Hill to warn the players to keep to their end of the deal because "you can't play basketball with broken hands.". The motley crew next ensnared Boston Colleges leading scorer, Ernie Cobb. Sweeney was not charged. There were times when the work got really hard, when I wanted to give up, when I had to stay up all night reading or studying or writing papers, and shed be right there pushing me, telling me, You cant give up! 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. Kuhn was sentenced to 10 years in prison, later reduced to 28 months. A Cooperative Kuhn Has Life Threatened. ''It looked like big money,'' said Kuhn, who is 29 years old, and whose 10-year sentence has been reduced to a scheduled 28 months after he appealed for a reduction. Mizzougrad96, Aug 31, 2011. Day Five of the Punchestown Racing Festival boasts another afternoon of top-class horse racing. So, in very basic terms, if B.C. 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. Further successful bets followed in games against Fordham and St. Johns. 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. And as black kids who loved ball in Boston, he represented something for us, giving the younger generation something to aspire toin terms of their basketball skillsbecause he was putting in some serious work.. Everything Id worked so hard for was coming to fruition.. 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.'' Hill brought in his mentor, Jimmy Burke, to finance the operation and set up a network of bookies who could advance the financial potential of the scheme. According to Hill, Jimmy went nuts. It wasnt until I actually saw him play that I realized how special he was as an offensive talent. I was a senior in high school when Ernie Cobb was a senior at Boston College and Id heard that he was a very good player, said Lemuel Mills, a Boston area hoops aficionado, coach, community mentor and historian. Theyd taken my passport and I had to stay here and face these charges, said Cobb. 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. He was furious. Its very hard to detect. In 1981, forward Rick Kuhn was convicted of conspiracy in a point shaving scheme in which he, guard Jim Sweeney, and possibly other members of the team attempted to manipulate the scores of some games on behalf of organized crime. I was so frustrated at one point that I got on my bike in Stamford, Connecticut and just started riding. The Perlas figured Kuhn would be up for making a quick buck, and susceptible to their advances. He worked hard in class. Being at Boston College, when I first got there, was so amazing, said Cobb. I was forthright and honest with them. The story of the infamous Boston College Basketball Point Shaving Case. Perla and Kuhn had gone to high school together and were good friends. He said he was approached in the summer before his senior year. In 1978, Hill was introduced to Tony Perla, who told Hill that he had a friend on the Boston College men's basketball team. I don't question $1,000, give it to me.. His lifes dream of making it to the NBA, which was where he belonged, was taken away from him. I took every single practice and every single game seriously, said Cobb. Convinced that Cobb was innocent after his mentee walked him through everything that had transpired, and certain that he was being used by the federal government to send more organized crime figures to prison, Alswanger began working the phones. You realize that you cant play if you dont do this. I opened up the door and it was these guys from the F.B.I., said Cobb. 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. 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. As he said regarding point shaving, the shit I was doing, that was going on in my life? Ernie, and anybody who truly knew him, who knew about his character and what type of young man he was, we were all heartbroken. This has gone on for four years. I told him, I think were gonna blow them out, we look really good. Kuhn would be responsible for ensuring, by his play on the court, that Boston College fell short of the point spread. Admitting he accepted $1,000 for the game only fuels the speculation. 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. Adding more legal operators to choose from also means bettors wont need to risk their money with illegal, and possibly dangerous, bookies. and I were the victims of the same circumstances that were beyond our control. Sweeney has said Kuhn told him this would be the final fix. Sweeney spoke with a very nervous Kuhn afterward. The aim is to manipulate spread betting, rather than deliberately losing. I felt like, You put my name out there, so let me clear my name! When they investigated me, I told them straight up about the $1,000 that Rocco Perla had given me. May 1 (UPI) -- The 2-year-old daughter of Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Shaquil Barrett has drowned in the pool of their Florida family home, authorities said. The 197879 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal involved a scheme in which members of the American Mafia recruited and bribed several Boston College Eagles men's basketball players to ensure the team would not win by the required margin (not cover the point spread) or win by the required margin (cover the point spread), allowing gamblers in the know to place wagers against that team and win. A forward for Boston Colleges basketball team, he wasnt the strongest player and was more interested in partying. Beautiful, as Hill told SI. But my high school coach got his friends to take my case, pro bono. Also, maybe dont do business with mobsters? The second. As he walked across the scenic campus, marveled at the schools architectural splendor or ate until his hearts content in the dining hall, hed often pause to quietly give thanks for his fortunate circumstances. 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. The other defendants were all found guilty, with Kuhn, Mazzei and Tony Perla sentenced to 10 years, while Rocco Perla got four. More regulations and laws results in more eyes scrutinizing each game. Leopards dont change their spots. In the movie, Liotta played Hill and DeNiro played Jimmy Conway, whose character was based off Hills real-life mob associate Jimmy Burke. A look at who the key figures were in the Boston College point shaving scandal: Kuhn was a BC player at the center of the controversy. (Sadly, Liotta, who was brilliant in Goodfellas and Field of Dreams, among other films, died Wednesday at 67.). Jimmy loved to beat bookmakers and Paulie liked to beat anybody., Hill flew to Boston in December 1978 for a meeting with the men involved. The other vital parties were the bookmakers, and it was very much a plural, as Hill explained. It would also increase the likelihood of scandals like the BC one, they say. They said they were trying like hell but they couldnt get the job done because Cobb was the key man on the team., After Boston College beat Holy Cross 89-87 in the first game between the two schools that season, Hill said in SI, Well, B.C. I had told him I'm not interested in doing this. He graduated on time with a degree in sociology. She knew the terrain in terms of what I needed to be doing, said Cobb. Oh, yeah. The conspirators chose the January 17, 1979, game against Connecticut to implement this plan. He hugged his tearful mother before walking out into the hallway for a few moments. Nothing in sports comes with a guarantee, though. Pope Francis says Vatican involved in ongoing effort to end Ukraine war. Ernie, dont lie to me, Alswanger instructed him. The spread was for them to win by seven though, so the bet lost. Theres no way you can tell if a referee or player is shaving points, absolutely no way, he once told Sports Illustrated. 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. I had everything I could have possibly asked for. "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.". Democrats, Republicans remain split on debt ceiling plan. The Perla brothers proposed a simple scheme: they, along with Kuhn, would select certain basketball games where the projected point spread separating Boston College from its opponent was expected to be significant. Yet in Wiseguy, published four years later, Hill claimed he attended the opening game of the season against Providence on December 6, which Boston won 83-64. Four Others Convicted. 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. I thought he might have been a student, because he was young and I saw him hanging around Rick Kuhn all the time. Im not angry at the school. Forty-four years later, the full truth about the Boston College points-shaving scandal is still unknown. 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. When Henry Hill started threatening Kuhn and Sweeney, promising that they couldnt play with broken limbs, the players, according to Hill, claimed that they were doing their best, but the scheme would never work unless Ernie Cobb was in on the fix. The gambling gangsters needed to spread out the wagers since, the story goes, many back then had limits of $25,000. 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. Ultimately, nothing happened. Yet when Sweeney retold his story for ESPNs Playing For The Mob documentary in 2014 [3] he claimed to be stringing Hill along. You're going to get us killed, Sweeney recalled. talked to the Nets, their head coach Kevin Loughery called him in and said, You know why I have to let you go, said Alswanger. Boston College was favored by twelve to thirteen points, but won the game by only a three-point margin, 8683. That friend was Rick Kuhn, a 6-foot-5 senior forward on scholarship with the Eagles. The true story of the famous Boston College point shaving scandal. So the scam continued. 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. While the season of points-shaving unfolded, an even bigger crime went down that year. Boston College's basketball team ended their 197879 season with a 229 record. 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. But its the points that Cobb and teammate Michael Bowie didnt score during the 1978-1979 season which has spawned a federal investigation. When he returned to the United States, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he became a Special Education teacher and high school basketball coach. I have suffered. Three of Mr. Kuhn's co-conspirators were sentenced by Judge Bramwell on Jan. 22. 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. By Brian Carome. 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. He didn't want to be bothered with these kids anymore." He was determined to prove that he could do the work, which would enable him to further chase his athletic dreams. See the article in its original context from. Sign up to receive The Shadow League Newsletter in your inbox. They couldnt stop him. He told me to keep playing and working hard and that one day I might get another chance., When the story first broke in January of 1981, Cobb was in shock. When New York mobster Jimmy Burke got involved,. In among the many questions he asked, McDonald enquired as to why he had been going to Boston so frequently. Boston College confirmed the investigation on Friday. Sports Promos. He traveled throughout the world, getting paid to play the game that he loved. | Knicks Win Their First Playoff Series In 10 Years But Can They Stay Back On Top In The Big Apple? [ii] Holy Cross ultimately won by only two points, as Cobb scored eight points in the final minute to bring the Eagles close, and everyone involved lost a substantial amount of money. The pair reunited once Hill was released in 1978, and Mazzei introduced him to his friend, Tony Perla. You just say, yeah, I'll do it with no intention of doing it. But that didnt matter. Also a BC captain, Sweeney claims he reluctantly agreed to be recruited into the scheme. white basketball player named Rick Kuhn, who has hopes of playing in the NBA. Unlike Kuhn, Sweeney had a clean-cut image. A mobster met a drug dealer in prison and their friendship continued after their release. Kuhn was thus expected to keep the score below the six- to seven-point margin. I feel like I did all that fighting after I lost my dream of playing in the NBA, and it was all in vain.