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]. Bowies reputation was immediately sullied and he subsequently lost his job playing pro ball in Europe when the story broke. Kuhn's sentence was the heaviest ever imposed on a college player convicted of point shaving. Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. On October 7, indictments charged against them. Ultimately, nothing happened. Fourteen hours later, I arrived in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.. 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. This has gone on for four years. In 1978, Rick Kuhn was in his final season at Boston College,amarginal player with little going for him. The film goes on to show how nobody really made a lot of money from the fix. This past August, the International Maxibasketball Federation (FIMBA), the governing body for global organized basketball tournaments for age groups beginning at 30, named him as its USA Ambassador. 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. 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. 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 For over 30 years, hes been living in Clearwater, Florida, married to his college sweetheart. It wasnt until I actually saw him play that I realized how special he was as an offensive talent. Barbara Reed, 25, Kuhn's former girlfriend who was living with him at the time, testified that Kuhn uncharacteristically began buying her presents -- a stereo set, a television set and jewelry -- during the winter of 1978-79. She also recalled Kuhn saying that Cobb was too into his own game to cooperate with the betting thing, but the New York gangsters were adamant about getting him involved. Burke, through Hill, would front the money to pay the players, forwarding the money through Mazzei and the Perla brothers. Kuhn told people at Boston College later With Roccos high school buddy Rick Kuhn entering his senior year at Boston College, where he was expected to be a contributor to the schools basketball team, the Other times, they didnt deliver as promised, which caused some very dangerous and ill-tempered men to lose large sums of cash. Kuhn tells Sweeney that the mobsters in New York and Pittsburgh want this win and that this will be the last fix. The final player involved in the fix, Rick Kuhn, is introduced. Sweeney claims that hes heard network execs at a sports business conference in Florida express a desire for such a character to pop up with occasional humorous commentary. Out of everything that happened, thats one thing that hurts me tremendously, Cobb said. The phone calls flooded in from his friends and family in Boston and Connecticut, with despaired voices on the other end asking, Did you do this? Everything Id worked so hard for was coming to fruition.. Professional wrestler Jay Briscoe dies in car accident at 38, Sister Andre, world's oldest living person, dies at 118, Ukraine's interior minister, other officials killed in helicopter crash near school, Qantas flight lands safely after engine trouble prompts mayday call, Meditation may alter gut microbes, study of Tibetan monks suggests. He said he would have done that if the sides were reversed. 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. Ernie, and anybody who truly knew him, who knew about his character and what type of young man he was, we were all heartbroken. The Providence game was played on December 6, 1978, and Boston College was favored to win by six to seven points. FRANK OBRIEN/GLOBE STAFF/FILE 1978 Sweeney, Cobb, and 2015, www.recorder.com/Archives/2015/01/spt-KeepingScore-GR-012415. When the evidence came up at the first trial, it didnt match up, but they still came after me a few years later. He said he was brought in on the deal for his ability to maximize profits through his contacts in the gambling world. 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. I was eating Rory Sparrow up, who went on to have a decent NBA career, in that camp. 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 Boys of Dunbar, A Story of Love, Hope and Basketball. The scheme continued to work successfully in the December 23 game against UCLA. It is unclear how much money the players involved in the point-shaving scheme were paid. "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. Hill and Burke both were convicted of extortion in 1972 in Florida and have been prime suspects in the Dec. 11, 1978, robbery of almost $9 million from the Lufthansa Cargo Terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The 80-minute documentary tells how BC forward Rick Kuhn conspired with two of his hoodlum friends from Pittsburgh to bet against the Eagles. Whenever the Boston College scandal comes up, he tends to remind people that theres always more than one side to a story, and leave it at that. ESPNs 30-for-30 sports documentary series is many of our last hopes at seeing historic events from our favorite sports. The scheme was conceived by Rocco Perla and his brother Anthony in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1978. Hill turned state's evidence in exchange for avoiding prison and possible execution by Burke and the Lucchese family. Riper, Tom Van. When one of his links leads to a purchase of, say, a LeBron James Fathead, he gets a 15% commission. We were looking good as a team and my goal was to be the best player I could possibly be. now all well past their primes after serving their time, including the gangster Ray The FBI finds all the players and begins asking questions. hoops that blazed a trail, Mills continued. I was nervous because I didnt know what was going to happen. The Nets coaches were telling me, Coach, hes gonna be a great pro., I had a great camp with the Nets and was poised to make the team, said Cobb. Hill and Burke were brought into the scheme, after receiving approval from Lucchese family capo Paul Vario. At this point in the film, we stray away from the actual point-shaving and more into the consequences and investigation after the fact. Jim Sweeney was not charged. According to Hill's testimony, he met with Kuhn and cocaptain Jim Sweeney in a hotel room near Boston's Logan Airport in November of 1978 to cement the deal. By my junior year, it was show-time, said Cobb. He sold copy machines and paved driveways for an asphalt company, which was ironically the same job his father found when hed relocated from North Carolina to Connecticut some twenty years earlier. Testifying for the government, Sweeney acknowledged meeting with Hill but said that although he agreed to participate in the scheme he never intended to go through with the deal. ESPN The syndicate was able to lay nine points when the game was first available to be bet, and therefore pushed. 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. But that had nothing to do with shaving points., At the time, I was nave, Cobb continued. Man, I would watch Jo Jo White, Dave Cowens and John Havlicek playing on television, on that same famous floor where Bill Russell and Bob Cousy and all of those great Celtics teams won all those championships, said Cobb. Jason Avant Chief Operating Officer at ASTAR, Inc. 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. 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. He worked hard in class. With Sweeney making it out with no sentence, the mystery still remains of how involved he really was. Rocco and Tony Perla were giving money to Rick Kuhn. 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]. Sweeney agreed to cooperate claiming he was forced to help with the fix, Kuhn came clean about the whole operation, and Cobb was cut from the Nets after the FBI visited him despite him not having any real information. But my high school coach got his friends to take my case, pro bono. With the focus limited to the specific players involved, BCs basketball program didnt suffer at all. Sweeney knows hell probably never completely escape the association to the scandal, something he learned to live with years ago. She knew the terrain in terms of what I needed to be doing, said Cobb. would play a few games each year, Cobb was awash with emotions. Contact Me. The fixing begins to wear into Sweeney, who confides in his roommates but never seeks out the proper authority. The audience learns about Boston Colleges rival Holy Cross and its huge significance to the players and the alumni. He was a murderer and a horrible human being. Rocco says Sweeney told him he missed it to avoid a pair of cement shoes. Kuhn explains to Sweeney that they are both going to get killed after not successfully fixing a game against Providence. He talks about how he wanted to be an NBA player. Bruce Pearl, a normal student in the class of 1982, is introduced and talks about the smart, diverse basketball players. The jury of eight women and four men reached its verdict after three days of deliberations and a trial that lasted five weeks. Kuhn and two money men were The jury is scared to be connected to this case because Burke was so powerful and violent in the mob. The campus was so beautiful. But I found out that I wouldnt be allowed to leave the United States because the government was going to bring me to trial.. 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. On Friday morning, March 23rd, the jury came back with a unanimous innocent verdict for Ernie Cobb, exonerating him of all charges. When he finished with his testimony, he made a beeline straight for the restroom. The move on and they all thought the fixes were history. He really set the tone in terms of being a strong, dynamic, willful player that wondrous talents like John Bagley, Michael Adams and Dana Barros, all of whom went on to play ball in the NBA after their careers at B.C., followed. However, Kuhn saw only limited playing time. Id led the pro league in scoring over there and signed a very nice contract. 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. Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Columbia University has announced economist Nemat "Minouche" Shafik will become the university's 20th president and the first woman to serve in the role in its 268-year history. He continues to be involved in sports and is in an older mens basketball league that competes around the world. The government contended that Kuhn was paid $2,500 per game to manipulate the spread in six games and also was given cocaine and Quaaludes. 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. 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! 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. Rick was born on October 14, 1966, in Jamestown, ND, to Timothy Kuhn and Marretta (Deede) Kuhn. They were just doing their jobs. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. You realize that you cant play if you dont do this. It would fit with ESPN, which reports sports but also has an underlying self-deprecating humor, is basically his pitch. Rick Kuhn, James Burke, Rocco and Anthony Perla, and Paul Mazzei now face up to thirty years in prison possibly to twenty As a freshman, he played sparingly and averaged 4.5 points per game while the Eagles finished with a disappointing 9-17 overall record. The conspirators chose the January 17, 1979, game against Connecticut to implement this plan. Boeing's fuel-efficient aircraft design wins $425 million award from NASA. 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 Des., University of Florida; MArch, Harvard GSD Professional interests: My passion lies in all things design but specifically in higher education, cultural and civic projects. They could have probably gotten away with the fix if they handled certain things better. Kuhn was thus expected to keep the score below the six- to seven-point margin. Mazzeis connection to Kuhn was through fellow gangsters Rocco and Tony Pearla. But for Bowie, it was too little, too late. Hill casually brings up and admits to fixing basketball games at Boston College. 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. He hugged his tearful mother before walking out into the hallway for a few moments. There were a lot of rich kids who went to Boston College. Hes a good person. At one point, he said accepted $500 from Kuhn, but only to give the illusion of cooperating in the scheme. For added effect, ESPN landed Liotta, whose character served as a narrator in Goodfellas, to narrate its film. With Roccos high school buddy Rick Kuhn entering his senior year at Boston College, where he was expected to be a contributor to the schools basketball team, the brothers figured they could make a ton of money. All Kuhn had to do was ensure that the Eagles fell short of the point spread in the games that they bet on. 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. I feel it.. Suspecting that some bookmakers might be getting wise to the scheme, the conspirators temporarily revised their strategy after the UCLA game. 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. I understand that they want to disassociate themselves from the scandal. Ernie Cobb played professional basketball in Israel for 17 years, where he learned to speak fluent Hebrew. I just had to be alone, Cobb told the reporters afterwards. Boston College Accused of Point Shaving, was the big headline on the UPI wire. [3] Kuhn was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment,[4] later reduced to 28 months. Art. BC basketball players Rick Kuhn, Joe Streater and Jim Sweeney were persuaded to fix nine Eagles games during the season. This is Part II of The Shadow League's feature story on former Boston College basketball player Ernie Cobb. They had Kuhn approach Ernie Cobb, the leading scorer on the team, but it has never been proven if Cobb agreed to cooperate. The Providence game was played on December 6, 1978, and Boston College was favored to win by six to seven points. 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. 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. Sweeney, who went on a year later to win the Naismith Award as college basketballs top player under six feet tall, says he was initially recruited into the fix by Kuhn without his knowledge and that he never intentionally threw an errant pass, missed a shot or did anything else to alter a game. Henry Hill avoided going to prison, and he went off into the sunset of the governments Witness Protection Program, said Alswanger. They would also ensure protection for the enterprise in the event that the unsuspecting bookmakers, all of whom had toughs at their disposal to collect unpaid debts, discovered they were being swindled. 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. The FBI had all the evidence they needed and were going to try and swing that Jimmy Burke played a large role in the scandal in order to convict him. 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. I didnt think anything of it. He talks about the fix and how Jimmy Burke participated even though he wasnt the ringleader. I didnt know what that was all about. Bets in this column are given in the format ", Winner is given as either Opp or BC and the margin of victory. In the 1979 NBA Draft, Magic Johnson was the first overall pick of the Los Angeles Lakersafter leading Michigan State University to the National Championship over Larry Birds Indiana State team. His girlfriend, whom hed met during his first week on campus, was an upperclassman that knew how to navigate the schools academic landscape. U.S. District Judge Henry Bramwell set sentencing for Jan. 8. We get home, I open it up, and theres $1,000 in there.. ESPN Looks Back On Boston College Point Shaving Scandal And A Player Speaks Out. Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 1 Oct. 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2014/10/01/espn-looks-back-on-boston-college-point-shaving-scandal-and-a-player-speaks-out/#3f03989d26b8. The scheme thus ended on an unsuccessful note. Rick Kuhn, 10 years, Rocco Perla (fixer) four years and a $30,000 fine. If you missed Part I, you can read it here. At trial in 1981, the government's case consisted primarily of the testimony of Hill and three other witnesses: Sweeney and Joseph Beaulieu, both Boston College players, and Barbara Reed, a 23-year-old nurse who lived with Kuhn during the 197879 Eagles season. Kuhn, who ultimately served four years in prison for conspiracy and racketeering, hatched a plan with Hill associates Tony Perla, his brother Rocco Perla, and Paul Mazzei to shave points - losing by more than the point spread or winning by less than the point spread - in several BC games between December 1978 and March 1979. The next step in the saga is how these players get connected to the mob. I just thank God there is justice.. If youve seen the famous mafia flick, you probably remember Liotta making several references to his Pittsburgh connections, his main partners in a drug ring, among other things. We have decided to cover the most scandalous of all 30-for-30s, Playing for the Mob. 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