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. San Francisco Bay Area. These bookies could handle large bets and lay them off and spread the bets among a number of unsuspecting bookmakers around the country so as not to arouse suspicion. 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). The same channels would be used for the passing of the point spread from Burke and Hill to the players. 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. When the story first broke, it said that Michael Bowie and I were the ones implicated, said Cobb. Help Debby Get Into Clinical Trial. McDonald said the government never tried to prove the players manipulated the outcomes of those games. WebKuhn would be responsible for ensuring, by his play on the court, that Boston College fell short of the point spread. Ex-convict at center of scheme, was connected to Kuhn by one of the players high school friends. 
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. The only clue that Kuhn occupies a bungalow here, deep in deer country, is a worn basketball hoop rising from the snowpack. Kuhn and the others received sentences ranging from 10 to four years. Jim Sweeney admits that Kuhn gave him cash. 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. 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 scheme was hit or miss early on. But for many, there is a fierce bitterness that still lingers to this day. Based on the 30for30 ESPN documentary on this scandal, Kuhn's story changed multiple times regarding this. He wanted to be able to say that one of BCs own was prosecuting it, McDonald said. 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. And Daniel Simones forthcoming book, The Lufthansa Heist, takes a new look at the BC crime, which the Goodfellas gangsters. A light snow swirls in the night, 35 winters after Rick Kuhn inspired a prosecutors Judas reference by conspiring with mobsters to betray his school, his teammates, and his sport. Their actions separated them from the BC community, and they need to seek forgiveness from their teammates, whom they betrayed and who paid a price for their actions.. By 1990, he was married with two children, who are now serving in the military. Point Shaving Scandal: Exterior view of the Logan Airport Hilton Hotel. While the line may have been as low as 13 at some point, the syndicate had to lay 15, and therefore lost their bet when Rhode Island won by only 13. Various members of the operation were arrested and sentenced. Rick Kuhn. After he interviewed him, he fell in love with him and told me, Hes innocent. 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. Finally, as dusk settled over the valley, Patti Jo returned. He recruited teammates Ernie Cobb and Jim Sweeney into the ring, after becoming connected with ex-convicts Paul Mazzei and Henry Hill. Then Cobb found himself in the crosshairs. Cobb, an NBA prospect who was BCs 1979 Eagle of the Year as an outstanding citizen, admitted accepting $1,000 from the conspirators, though he insisted it was not for helping to fix games. They left, and that was that.
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. 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. Kuhn filed three bankruptcy petitions in 2002, fought a foreclosure attempt on his home in 2006, and was ordered by a judge last year to pay a $5,030 doctors bill. The Eagles managed to lose by 22 points, 10381, with the syndicate winning its bet. Mazzei needed a large network of bookies for the scheme to work, as well as underworld protection. He was a murderer and a horrible human being. NEW YORK -- The ex-girlfriend of a former Boston College basketball player accused of trying to rig games testified that her former boyfriend and another player once The Perla brothers mobilized a betting syndicate to maximize their potential gain from the scheme. 
But by the next summer, in 1980, he sparkled while playing for the New Jersey Nets during the pre-season. You gotta tell me the truth, because I gotta know how to go on this?. Richard (Rick) Kuhn. like that until he got there.
WebRick Kuhn & Associates. 
I had my own place to live and all the food I wanted to eat. She said Kuhn would contact the reporter that night. On Sunday, the 68-team field for the NCAAs annual March Madness tournament will be selected, triggering a betting frenzy that is expected to generate roughly $2.5 billion in illegal wagers. They kept saying that they liked the idea of just shaving points and not blowing the games." The December 16 game against Harvard was chosen as the second test for the scheme.
Rick Kuhn Kuhn was a BC player at the center of the controversy. The conviction of former Boston College basketball player Richard Kuhn for his involvement in the point shaving scandal during the 1978-79 basketball season was All Kuhn had to do was ensure that the Eagles fell short of the point spread in the games that they bet on. Loughery told me that I had the ability to play in the NBA. He stopped in my office with his bike with the flat tire and borrowed $20 to get it fixed and to get home. My regret is, I eventually spent it, Sweeney said. Hed brought along a small box of chocolate samplers to thank Kuhns friends for dinner. The syndicate was very happy with this result, and Kuhn was given cash to distribute to the players for their efforts. 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. 
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.. I didnt know what that was all about. This has gone on for four years.
In this case, while the line may have opened, or at one time gone to two, because of the heavy betting on Holy Cross, the syndicate had to lay as many as seven points, and therefore lost their bet. Kuhn agreed to participate, and brought in his teammate Jim Sweeney.[1]. I have no question that Ernie took the money, said Mackey, now a scout for the Indiana Pacers. won the gangsters some serious money by falling short of the spread. Being at Boston College, when I first got there, was so amazing, said Cobb. Five years later, he accepted McDonalds invitation to address the nations top high school basketball prospects about decisions that could derail their dreams, and their lives. 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. Out of everything that happened, thats one thing that hurts me tremendously, Cobb said. 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. But that had nothing to do with shaving points., At the time, I was nave, Cobb continued. My girlfriend and I bought a new stereo, television and some furniture.
They had Kuhn approach Ernie Cobb, the leading scorer on the team, but it has never been proven if Cobb agreed to cooperate. WebRick Kuhn (born 18 September 1955) is an Australian Marxian economist, political analyst and reader at the Australian National University in Canberra. 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. He knew what the money was for. For Kuhn, basketball was his second sport. See Photos. After perhaps his greatest moment during the preseason, when he had that outstanding game against the Celtics right before the regular season tipped off, Cobb was relaxing in his hotel room when he heard a knock at the door. Those could have been my bones, Sweeney told the Globe, in his first newspaper interview about the BC scandal. Several years ago, Sweeney said, a marketing partner dropped him after searching the Internet.
Rick Kuhn. I just had to be alone, Cobb told the reporters afterwards. I was thinking, Im not going to let this [cheating] happen on my watch. Isnt that the irony of ironies?. 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. white basketball player named Rick Kuhn, who has hopes of playing in the NBA. 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.
Dasani Water Ph, Articles R