It wasnt until I actually saw him play that I realized how special he was as an offensive talent. 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. Boston College confirmed the investigation on Friday. Rick Kuhn - College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com If betting sites set the spread believing a team will by win seven points, the fixers bet against them and the corrupt team tries to win by six or fewer. Former Boston College basketball player Rick Kuhn, jailed for - UPI When he finished with his testimony, he made a beeline straight for the restroom. I had a relentless type of game.. As such, its impossible to be certain which game was the first they attempted to fix. 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. 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. 2011-2023 May 1 (UPI) -- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is urging Texas Gov. Julie Walker has written, edited and designed words at five Michigan newspapers and websites. Gambling.com is tracking sport cancellations (and eventual resurgences) on an interactive map below. | The conspirators chose the January 17, 1979, game against Connecticut to implement this plan. A forward for Boston Colleges basketball team, he wasnt the strongest player and was more interested in partying. Greg Abbott to not follow through with his "inhuman and dangerous" plan to send more migrants and asylum seekers from his southern state to her city. Their strategy was effective Boston College, a five-point favorite, covered the spread with a 9080 win over Connecticut. 197879 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal. But by the next summer, in 1980, he sparkled while playing for the New Jersey Nets during the pre-season. Tony and his brother Rocco were pals with Rick Kuhn. white basketball player named Rick Kuhn, who has hopes of playing in the NBA. He said, these guys were irate. The other defendants were all found guilty, with Kuhn, Mazzei and Tony Perla sentenced to 10 years, while Rocco Perla got four. 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. The second. Hill and Burke were brought into the scheme, after receiving approval from Lucchese family capo Paul Vario. Also, maybe dont do business with mobsters? I had everything I could have possibly asked for. In another, he says the fixing began with a big win for the wise guys when Boston College, favored by 12 points, beat Harvard by just three, 86-83. They showed me these pictures of these mafia guys and were asking me, Do you know him? This page is not available in other languages. Admitting he accepted $1,000 for the game only fuels the speculation. All say that when watching the games, its impossible to determine if muffed plays were done purposely or just honest mistakes. The scheme continued to work successfully in the December 23 game against UCLA. If there was a poster of what a student athlete at Boston College is supposed to look like, it was Jim Sweeney.. 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. But in the first game the scheme was tested, against Providence College, Boston College won by nearly double the point spread. His snitching stream began then, and during one conversation with law enforcement, he casually mentioned the Boston College scheme. The very next day, the Nets cut me., When the F.B.I. I didnt know what that was all about. 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.. That includes Rick Kuhn, the former minor league baseball player who started the scandal and who . I was shining at the camp. Mazzei, Hill and the Perlas devised a plan to rip off bookies without having players throw games. 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. Theres no way you can tell if a referee or player is shaving points, absolutely no way, he once told Sports Illustrated. That really happened. Id call Rick (Kuhn), Id tell him the point spread on the Boston College game, and Rick would say if theyd have a chance or not.. I thought he might have been a student, because he was young and I saw him hanging around Rick Kuhn all the time. While Hill was being questioned, FBI agents inadvertently mentioned his frequent trips to Boston around the time of the Lufthansa heist. Bets in this column are given in the format ", Winner is given as either Opp or BC and the margin of victory. 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 . Rocco Perla received a four-year sentence and Rick Kuhn was sentenced to a ten-year bid as well, which was later reduced to 28 months. Yet when Sweeney retold his story for ESPNs Playing For The Mob documentary in 2014 [3] he claimed to be stringing Hill along. 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. It was all so positive.. Heavy shelling in Kherson, Kharkiv destroys residences. As a freshman, he played sparingly and averaged 4.5 points per game while the Eagles finished with a disappointing 9-17 overall record. Theyd taken my passport and I had to stay here and face these charges, said Cobb. The conspiracy unraveled in 1980 after Hill was arrested by New York State authorities on drug trafficking charges and was subsequently implicated in the Lufthansa heist, which occurred while the point-shaving scheme was underway. 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. Using Kuhn for an introduction, the men also lured in point guard Jim Sweeney. ESPNs Playing for the Mob, a 30 for 30 documentary narrated by Liotta, interviews all the living participants, including former coaches and law enforcement officials. Cleanly summarizing this story feels futile, but well try. On February 10, Boston College faced Holy Cross. Perla and Kuhn had gone to high school together and were good friends. I was doing well academically and the dream of playing professional basketball was getting closer.. Hill turned state's evidence in exchange for avoiding prison and possible execution by Burke and the Lucchese family. 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 just say, yeah, I'll do it with no intention of doing it. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Unlike Kuhn, Sweeney had a clean-cut image. After Cobb was not charged, he thought he was finally past the sordid affair. He now coaches high school basketball in Arizona. Today, Cobbs relationship with Boston College remains strained. 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. In 1949/50, 33 players across seven teams shaved points. They were touting me as the next sub-6-footer to have an impact in the NBA. Live Betting. I was like, You gotta be kidding me! Jim Sweeney and Rick Kuhns names werent mentioned anywhere. It was like a paradise to me, coming from where I came from. #10. I was eating Rory Sparrow up, who went on to have a decent NBA career, in that camp. I was nervous because I didnt know what was going to happen. Sweeney spoke with a very nervous Kuhn afterward. I just knew that not only was I going to make the team, but I was going to be a factor in the NBA. But by his sophomore year, when he was inserted into the starting lineup, it was apparent that the 5-foot-11 scorer brought a dimension to the Boston College squad that it sorely needed when he averaged 17.4 points per game. Kuhn was released after serving 28 months, and rarely speaks about what happened. I called my buddy Frank Melzer, who was an attorney, said Alswanger. Kuhn said the gamblers did not keep their promise to pay him $2,500 for every game, some of which Boston College lost. Shaved down, one could call the story simple: A few college hoops kids helped take down a deadly gangster. You probably recognise that line of dialogue. The FBI were unable to prove that fixing had occurred from examining the games. 1978-79 Boston College Eagles men's basketball team Burke instructed Hill to warn the players to keep to their end of the deal because "you can't play basketball with broken hands.". I just had to be alone, Cobb told the reporters afterwards. 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. Jimmy said he was finished. Kuhn is angry and hurt and has no respect for the game because of . When I got back and told Jimmy and Paulie about the scheme, they loved it, Hill recalled in Wiseguy. Hill also had to get approval from his bosses; Jimmy Burke, later played by Robert De Niro in GoodFellas using the surname Conway, and Paul Vario, portrayed by Paul Sorvino. 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. They kept saying that they liked the idea of just shaving points and not blowing the games." Id led the pro league in scoring over there and signed a very nice contract. 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]. like that until he got there. Key figures in the BC point shaving scandal - The Boston Globe It is your responsibility to check your local regulations before playing online. In addition, they were given the opportunity to bet the money they were paid and double their winnings. Day Five of the Punchestown Racing Festival boasts another afternoon of top-class horse racing. was favored to win a game by ten points, Kuhn had to make sure, if the game was in play with the mobsters and the bookies, that they won by less than ten in order for the gamblers to make money. The shavers only have to win by fewer points than the bookmakers think they will, not throw the game. When I think about my journey, it brings tears to my eyes. Hes innocent., When they indicted me, they wanted Peter Vario, the mobster, so they tried us together, said Cobb. I have suffered. What made it worse was that the champion City College of New York were one of them. 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. ''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. 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. Forty-four years later, the full truth about the Boston College points-shaving scandal is still unknown. The ringleaders knew having just one player wouldnt ensure the desired outcome. Sweeney had no doubts regarding the severity of what he was involved in. But that had nothing to do with shaving points., At the time, I was nave, Cobb continued. 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. The December 16 game against Harvard was chosen as the second test for the scheme. 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. Enter Rick Kuhn, a senior forward for the Boston College basketball team during the 1978-79 season. 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. The story of the infamous Boston College Basketball Point Shaving Case. 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 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. Sweeney was a self-confessed bookworm from an exclusive Jersey prep school, where he was all state in three sports. He was hopeful that hed have another chance to make it in the NBA. Your email address will not be published. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. You're going to get us killed, Sweeney recalled. 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. Im not angry at the school. The other two kids made whatever choices they made, but look what was done to Ernie. I had told him I'm not interested in doing this. 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. 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 said he was approached in the summer before his senior year. Mizzougrad96, Aug 31, 2011. All of those guys walkedin his footsteps., He was the African-American guard in the modern era of B.C. 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. If you missed Part I, you can read it here. Especially those who, as far back as they can remember, always wanted to be a gangster. Burkes gang had just successfully pulled off the Lufthansa airport heist at New Yorks JFK airport, where theyd stolen an estimated $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewels, the largest cash robbery in America at the time. Anyone can read what you share. They had Kuhn approach Ernie Cobb, the leading scorer on the team, but it has never been proven if Cobb agreed to cooperate. Hello I am making a movie on the scandal and my Director would like me to pursue the story as told by the players. Three of Mr. Kuhn's co-conspirators were sentenced by Judge Bramwell on Jan. 22. Almost $6 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry was stolen at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Dec. 11, 1978. The other vital parties were the bookmakers, and it was very much a plural, as Hill explained. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. I got through it on my own, and I didnt get whacked, is how Sweeney looks back on the matter now, which is probably the healthiest view to take. Betting big money on college basketball is very hard because very few bookies get into it seriously. RICK KUHN RECALLS POINT-SHAVING CASE - The New York Times 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. Hill was listed as a co-conspirator, but was not named as a defendant. I told him, I think were gonna blow them out, we look really good. But what was I going to do, take it to court?It was here that they began telling Perla we would have to have Cobb. Of course, of course I was upset, but what could I do? He stopped in my office with his bike with the flat tire and borrowed $20 to get it fixed and to get home. Cool and wet conditions return to California, West Coast. 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. Kuhn's attorney, Gary Zimmerman, said his client recognized the seriousness of his crimes and that his stiff jail sentence 'was a stern warning to other college athletes.'. Investigation Is Continuing. The Return Of Bing Bong? The story read, in part, as follows: Ernie Cobb tossed in 1,760 points in a stellar basketball career at Boston College and only two other Eagles scored more. 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. and I were the victims of the same circumstances that were beyond our control. Rick Kuhn was an older player who was friends with Sweeney and a tough, street smart kid with a different upbringing than Sweeney. I feel like I did all that fighting after I lost my dream of playing in the NBA, and it was all in vain. 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. 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. I was so frustrated at one point that I got on my bike in Stamford, Connecticut and just started riding. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/26/sports/rick-kuhn-recalls-point-shaving-case.html. 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 . 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. Instead, theyd shave points to win against the spread. April 30 (UPI) -- Cuba has postponed its annual International Workers' Day parade for the third time in more than 60 years as fuel shortages hamstring the country. "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.". Burke, through Hill, would front the money to pay the players, forwarding the money through Mazzei and the Perla brothers. Thats the real strength of his story, that you pick yourself up and make something of yourself.. Alswanger, my high school coach inspired me to rise above my circumstances, he continued. They were just doing their jobs. Whatever happened to Rick Kuhn? | SportsJournalists.com But its the points that Cobb and teammate Michael Bowie didnt score during the 1978-1979 season which has spawned a federal investigation. The gambling gangsters needed to spread out the wagers since, the story goes, many back then had limits of $25,000. Thats why I got into education and coaching. 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. 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. 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. See the article in its original context from.