Purdum, David. Suspenseful music plays and the trial begins. Columbia University names Nemat Shafik as first woman president. 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. In this case, while the spread was as high as 5, the syndicate was able to lay just 2 points, and therefore pushed when Holy Cross won by 2. "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. 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. They had Kuhn approach Ernie Cobb, the leading scorer on the team, but it has never been proven if Cobb agreed to cooperate. The teams coach, Tom Davis, kept his job and led the Eagles to a few more strong seasons, including a 1982 Elite Eight appearance, before jumping at a big offer from Stanford and then later moving on to Iowa. 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. The goal for making some real money is to get the character a TV gig with ESPN, NBC Sports, or another major sports network. I walk in the bathroom, and who was in there but Peter Vario, the big-time mobster that was on trial with Ernie, said Alswanger. Hill revealed his involvement in the point-shaving scheme, offering to relate the full story if federal officials would guarantee him full immunity and would agree to intercede on his behalf to convince state officials to drop the drug charges pending in state court. Fourteen hours later, I arrived in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.. While Jim Sweeney is also introduced, hes the other captain from a better upbringing: the poster child for BC. It is similar to how they captured Al Capone on tax evasion, the smaller of his many crimes that would ultimately put him away. Sweeney has won several FIMBA tournaments as a player in the 50-plus division. Prosecutors say man accused in wife's disappearance Googled how to dispose of a body. Enraged by their gambling loss, the Perla brothers, along with Mazzei, Burke, and Hill, decided to recruit additional Eagles players to enhance their control over the outcome of the games. 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. Convicted with Kuhn, 26, of conspiracy to commit racketeering and sport bribery and violation of the Travel Act were James Burke, 50, of New York, a reputed organized crime figure who is serving time for parole violation on a 1974 extortion conviction; Paul Mazzei, 37, of Pittsburgh, in jail on a narcotics conviction, and brothers Anthony Perla, 31, and Rocco Perla, 26, of Pittsburgh. Sweeney knows hell probably never completely escape the association to the scandal, something he learned to live with years ago. The narrator explains that the strength of how Henry Hills testimony is would determine if Burke was going to be convicted. The players as well as the mobsters believe that this failed fix would be their last, the players graduate and the mobsters move on. But my high school coach got his friends to take my case, pro bono. "Boston College's tradition in athletics rests upon the accomplishments of many thousands of men and women. Twice, in 1951 and 1961, the sport was rocked by scandal. The Providence game was played on December 6, 1978, and Boston College was favored to win by six to seven points. Kuhn was thus expected to keep the score below the six- to seven-point margin. 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. 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. The problem was Cobb. 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. Intentional point shaving on the floor was never proven, and if Hill hadnt later confessed the scheme to prosecutors after getting busted for his other crimes, the whole ordeal might have passed without notice. I was like, Yeah, whatever. Sure enough, a few weeks later, he hands my girlfriend an envelope. We werent really checking for B.C. Thats why I got into education and coaching. You understand? Ernie Cobb played professional basketball in Israel for 17 years, where he learned to speak fluent Hebrew. He just kept swishing them in, 30 or 35 points, I dont remember., Hill went on to say, And they (Kuhn and Sweeney) were still saying, We got to have Cobb. I realized that and so I passed the word through Tony (Perla), At all costs, talk to him. Next thing I heard Cobb was all set, but it was going to take another $2,500 for his share. 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. 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. 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. Hes a good person. (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. The Boys of Dunbar, A Story of Love, Hope and Basketball. 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. Kuhn explains to Sweeney that they are both going to get killed after not successfully fixing a game against Providence. For Cobb, the result was far worse. 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. He turned to me and said, Coach, Im glad youre sticking up for your kid. It was a path that led them to Hills underworld higher-up, Jimmy Burke (the Robert DeNiro character in Goodfellas). At this point in the film, we stray away from the actual point-shaving and more into the consequences and investigation after the fact. The mobsters Paul Mazzei and Henry Hill met in a nearby jail stayed in touch after serving their time. On June 23rd, 1983, more than four years after hed played his final game at Boston College, Ernie Cobb was indicted and charged with taking cash bribes to alter the outcomes of games against Harvard, Rhode Island and Fordham. He said Hill told him he was backed by powerful interests in New York, and he was afraid of what might happen to him if he refused to cooperate. 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. Web197879 Boston College Eagles men's basketball team. "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. They could have probably gotten away with the fix if they handled certain things better. indictments charged against them. I took every single practice and every single game seriously, said Cobb. The conspirators decided that these games presented especially good opportunities because New York bookmakers generally accepted large bets for New York teams. It was all so positive.. Tennessee church holding prayer as FAA investigates plane crash that killed 4 members. The Texas woman who owned the ring thought she had misplaced it, but it was actually stolen and admitted as evidence in a 1986 drug trial. When the evidence came up at the first trial, it didnt match up, but they still came after me a few years later. 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.. The audience is left to make their own judgment on how involved Sweeney and Cobb were in the fixes, but Sweeney missing a free throw when he is the best in the nation is some serious evidence of his involvement. 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. We see it all come out and the mobsters being held accountable. Rick Kuhn, the former Boston College basketball player who was convicted last November, and sentenced last February for his involvement in the point shaving Jason Avant Chief Operating Officer at ASTAR, Inc. I had my own place to live and all the food I wanted to eat. I had everything I could have possibly asked for. In 1978, Rick Kuhn was in his final season at Boston College,amarginal player with little going for him. 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. But I never agreed to fix any games or shave any points. 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! Burke had Hill fly to Boston on November 16, 1978, to meet with Mazzei, Kuhn, Tony Perla, and any other member of the Eagles team interested in participating in their scheme. Paul Mazzei explains that there is no time to change your mind in their business. Danois, Alejandro. Being at Boston College, when I first got there, was so amazing, said Cobb. However, Kuhn saw only limited playing time. None of them know that this is only the beginning, as Henry Hill would talk to the FBI launching a massive investigation that would lead to the arrest of famous mobster Jimmy Burke. Regardless of what the audience thinks, the eyes of the law he is not guilty. ESPNs 30-for-30 sports documentary series is many of our last hopes at seeing historic events from our favorite sports. 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. 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. Do you recognize him? And my answer every time was, No! I didnt recognize any of those mobsters because I had never met them. Today, Cobbs relationship with Boston College remains strained. The film goes on to show how nobody really made a lot of money from the fix. 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. If you missed Part I, you can read it here.
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