The Globe, quoting an unnamed source in New York, said the three games in which point-shaving was alleged were a Feb.3 game against Fordham, a Feb. 6 game against St. Johns and a March 1 game in the ECAC Regional Playoffs against Connecticut. A career-ending shoulder injury returned him to basketball, and as the 6-foot-7-inch Kuhn entered his final season at BC in 1978 under coach Tom Davis, he was a marginal player with little going for him, on or off the court. Hill, too, was livid. This is Part II of The Shadow League's feature story on former Boston College basketball player Ernie Cobb. Sweeney said he could teach BCs current athletes about the risks of corruption. Cobb also was accused of conspiring to fix two other BC games, against Rhode Island on Jan. 10 and Fordham on Feb. 3. Of course, of course I was upset, but what could I do? He married there, had children, and played professionally into his 40s. Davis did not respond to interview requests. See Photos. At Holy Cross, fans mocked the point-shaving scandal by playing the Gillette theme song and waving razors at BC players. No, I didnt know about him, Ligonier Township constable Robert Amicone said, echoing others in the community. A film documentary is in production for ESPNs 30 for 30 series. And in that article in Sports Illustrated, Henry Hill says, The word came back that Cobb was enthusiastic. The key phrase there is The word came back. I dont know what Rick Kuhn was telling Henry Hill or the Perla brothers. Absolutely terrifying news! The only clue that Kuhn occupies a bungalow here, deep in deer country, is a worn basketball hoop rising from the snowpack. Rick Kuhn. Then Cobb found himself in the crosshairs. As Holland entered the room, Carolyn wrote in her community blog, Kuhn walked enthusiastically up to Santa., Dad! Kuhn shouted, Im your long lost son.. I think BC was as much as a victim in the scandal as I was.. 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. Kuhn apologized to his family, fiancee and college, and vowed to counsel high school and college athletes about the dangers of gambling after he is freed from prison in December. The second day of the three-day hearing on organized crime's involvement in gambling operations focused on sports betting, particularly in college basketball. Kuhn received a 10-year prison sentence, the longest ever for an American athlete convicted of sports racketeering. Sign Up. After Cobb was not charged, he thought he was finally past the sordid affair. Im stuck. My girlfriend and I bought a new stereo, television and some furniture. It was all so positive.. And they receive e-mailed alerts before the Super Bowl and March Madness about the ban on gambling, according to Dunn. Its gonna be no contest. and I were the victims of the same circumstances that were beyond our control. Ex-convict at center of scheme, was connected to Kuhn by one of the players high school friends. The FBI investigated all of us, Mackey said. His girlfriend, whom hed met during his first week on campus, was an upperclassman that knew how to navigate the schools academic landscape. We were looking good as a team and my goal was to be the best player I could possibly be. He stopped in my office with his bike with the flat tire and borrowed $20 to get it fixed and to get home. He worked hard in class. 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. Few in town seem to know that Kuhn once fell in with the notorious Goodfellas gangster Henry Hill in a plot to manipulate the outcome of BC basketball games for corrupt gamblers. Enter Rick Kuhn, a senior forward for the Boston College basketball team during the 1978-79 season. Leading scorer Ernie Cobb was accused but acquitted. He killed people. Boston College Accused of Point Shaving, was the big headline on the UPI wire. And look what he did to the lives of those kids. Hill later confessed the BC conspiracy to agents investigating the signature crime of his mob crew the robbery of $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewelry from Lufthansa Airlines at Kennedy International Airport in 1978, then the largest cash robbery in US history. His lifes dream of making it to the NBA, which was where he belonged, was taken away from him. If you missed Part I, you can read it here. Those later betters on St. John's lost money because they laid more than the eventual nine point margin of victory. 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. He turned to Hill, a former prison pal connected to New Yorks Lucchese crime syndicate. She said Kuhn would contact the reporter that night.
Time was expiring on Kuhns chance to cash in on his athletic career when a high school friend connected him with Paul Mazzei, an ex-convict in Pittsburgh. He was hopeful that hed have another chance to make it in the NBA. 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. 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. 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. Sweeney said he was frightened but also painfully naive about his new acquaintances. All BC athletes are reminded of BCs gambling scandals and warned about the enduring temptations and dangers, Dunn said.
He pushed all the right buttons at BC.. Angelo Pizzo, who wrote the screenplays for Hoosiers and Rudy, has agreed to tell Cobbs cinematic story. I hadnt seen Ernie for several years, Jack Hennessey, a psychologist at Boston College that had served as an informal academic advisor during Cobbs days as a student, told the New York Times in April of 1984. I probably could have acted more wisely as a 20-year-old kid. McDonald triumphed by securing a 20-year prison term for Burke, his prime target. A lot of kids could find themselves in the same boat as Rick Kuhn, said McDonald, who graduated from BC a decade before the scandal. Said Hill, "He wanted me to fly up to Boston. Not true, Cobb said. Sign Up. Tell me what you did and what you didnt do. When he finished with his testimony, he made a beeline straight for the restroom. 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. BC also weathered a football gambling scandal in 1996. By the time the FBI came for them, Kuhn, Sweeney, and Cobb had left Boston. Bob Hohler can be reached at hohler@globe.com. The syndicate was able to lay nine points when the game was first available to be bet, and therefore pushed. They mentioned the $1,000 that Rocco Perla gave my girlfriend and I told them the truth. When he was implicated in the scandal, I was shocked.. He paid a steep price not only by losing his NBA career, but, more important to Ernie, his name.. 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. Ernie, dont lie to me, Alswanger instructed him. The very next day, the Nets cut me., When the F.B.I. Suddenly, retrospectives on the BC saga are in vogue. 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 had total confidence that I would be exonerated. Cobb, in his first interview about the case in 30 years, said he is working on a movie and a book about his life. Sign up to receive The Shadow League Newsletter in your inbox. Other times, they didnt deliver as promised, which caused some very dangerous and ill-tempered men to lose large sums of cash. Boston College confirmed the investigation on Friday. Find your friends on Facebook. To allay any suspicions of foul play, they decided to bet on Boston College to win by more than the point spread ("cover the spread") in a game that they were confident the Eagles would win handily. The Nets quickly dropped him. Richard (Rick) Kuhn. Pizzo considers Cobbs life an inspirational lesson in perseverance. And after they put my name out there, and after I admitted to taking that $1,000, they didnt have enough evidence to prosecute me. Hill, who died in 2012, later turned informant and testified against everyone charged in the BC and Lufthansa cases. I was so frustrated at one point that I got on my bike in Stamford, Connecticut and just started riding. 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. 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.. Help Debby Get Into Clinical Trial. Self-described Boston College basketball fixer, he confessed the conspiracy to agents investigating the signature crime of his mob crew, the Lufthansa heist immortalized in Goodfellas. Recruited into scheme by Mazzei. His basketball heart still beating, Cobb launched his renaissance in Israel. A high school sophomore, she shares Kuhns athletic interests and has played varsity basketball and softball. All Kuhn had to do was ensure that the Eagles fell short of the point spread in the games that they bet on. By his senior year, Sweeneys leading supporters included Davis. now all well past their primes after serving their time, including the gangster Ray The gang lost money on three other games, against Rhode Island Jan. 10, St. Johns Feb. 6, and Holy Cross Feb. 10. See Photos. Contribute to The Shadow League today and help us share our narratives. Jimmy said he was finished. Loughery told me that I had the ability to play in the NBA. If the venture succeeds, Sweeney said, it will represent the fruit of a lot of perseverance and maturity, a lot of growing up on my own. 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. Alswanger, my high school coach inspired me to rise above my circumstances, he continued. The case certainly curtailed his future opportunities, Zimmerman said. 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. Yet the plot proved as ineffective as it was insidious. rick kuhn boston college now. In addition, they were given the opportunity to bet the money they were paid and double their winnings. [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. 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. Kuhn is angry and hurt and has no respect for the game because of this let down. He was determined to prove that he could do the work, which would enable him to further chase his athletic dreams. He recently replied to a friend of BC basketball e-mail from coach Steve Donahue by noting that BC never contacted me after the trial regarding my purported involvement and never inquired to learn anything from me about the ordeal to guard against it happening again.. won the gangsters some serious money by falling short of the spread. WebThe official PGA TOUR profile of Rick Kuhn. Nor did Kuhn answer his cellphone or respond to letters. But I dont feel any bitterness toward the prosecution. I saw Ernie score 28 points against the Celtics in one of the final pre-season games when he was with the Nets, said Alswanger, Cobbs former high school coach. rick kuhn boston college now.
He also connected with Hill to power the ring. My family has suffered. At the same time, my heart goes out to him.. WebD. Rocco comes up to me and says, Hey, sometimes I bet on games and I wanna know how you think you guys are gonna do against Stonehill and Bentley? said Cobb. WebScheme proposal. Holland and his wife, Carolyn, who live less than three miles from Kuhn, said they knew nothing about his past. Kuhn divorced in the 90s and married Patti Jo Bean. It was a tremendous blessing in terms of my integrity and growth and who I am today.. Cmon, you can do it. She was a remarkable individual that helped me so much, in terms of establishing the study and work habits that allowed me to be successful in the classroom.. When the story first broke, it said that Michael Bowie and I were the ones implicated, said Cobb. It was like a paradise to me, coming from where I came from. I understand there is culpability on my part, Sweeney said. I dont know what went down because I wasnt involved. I told him, I think were gonna blow them out, we look really good. See Rick Kuhn (No. The scandal is still held over his head, even though he was acquitted, said Ron Brienes, who is producing Cobbs movie. He quickly thrived and was recognized as one of the leagues best players. After building a thriving business in computer sales, he walked away several years ago to create a cartoon that centers on a sports media commentator (theemike.com).
He turned to me and said, Coach, Im glad youre sticking up for your kid. The system can't perform 
Monte Holland, who strode into the facility dressed as Santa Claus. Can the schools Jesuit leaders forgive him? The Globe's most recent sports headlines delivered to your inbox every morning. Of course, the damn players had a million excuses, Henry Hill wrote in Sports Illustrateds bombshell story, How I Put The Fix In, which was the magazines cover story on February 16th, 1981. Rick Kuhn. Kuhn apologized to everyone he harmed in the episode. Perla and Kuhn had gone to high school together and were good friends. 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. like that until he got there. 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. I want to be disassociated from it as well. It wasnt an absolute disaster but it was a cousin. Cobb admitted receiving $1,000 from his girlfriend, who had taken an envelope containing 50 $20 bills at the Garden from a conspirator after BC defeated Harvard, 86-83, to clinch a gambling win for the Goodfellas. McDonald said he nearly stepped aside as chief prosecutor because he felt compromised, being a BC grad. But he recalled the Rev. Fourteen hours later, I arrived in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.. They treated me great. Led by All-Big East forward Danya Abrams and sophomore point guard James "Scoonie" Penn Boston College won the 1997 Big East Tournament with victories over Pitt, Georgetown and Villanova. Boston College's basketball team ended their 197879 season with a 229 record. The ex-cons found a willing conspirator in Kuhn, who soon was recruiting teammates, beginning with Sweeney, an honors student who rarely drank and served as a lector at the campus church. I was this poor kid with no financial resources, going on trial with a member of the mob. But I found out that I wouldnt be allowed to leave the United States because the government was going to bring me to trial.. It would have been fantastic if I had an NBA career, Cobb said. In all, Kuhn and the mob crew were charged with trying to fix at least six games. He said I had ties to the Mafia and he didnt want his wife and children around me, Sweeney recalled.
Sometimes, B.C. WebRick Kuhn Boston College during Boston College men's basketball's 1978-1979 season. February 27, 2023 new bill passed in nj for inmates 2022 No Comments . The scheme was conceived by Rocco Perla and his brother Anthony in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1978. In the national media, BC endured a storm of embarrassing coverage, some generated by the schools alumni, including the Globes Lesley Visser (class of 75). Jim Sweeney is the most outstanding young man with whom Ive worked during 19 years of coaching, Davis wrote to the Rhodes committee. Conspirators paid Boston College players, mainly Rick Kuhn and Jim Sweeney, to shave points depending on the spread and opponent. I was relishing that moment. Come back tomorrow; he will be home all day.. 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. He is benched in his final year. But that had nothing to do with shaving points., At the time, I was nave, Cobb continued. Thats why I got into education and coaching. No story was complete without a reminder that Boston College was involved in a point-shaving scandal 17 years ago. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Kuhn was too big to sit in Santas lap, so Holland settled on Kuhns knee. (Hill later helped prosecutors secure a life sentence for Burke in the slaying of an alleged Lufthansa accomplice.) Sweeney said he is close to a national television deal for an animated sports media program inspired in part by the scandal. The players involved in the scandal were paid between 500-10004 each game and were given the chance to double it betting on the games. Kuhn told a Newsday reporter afterward, I sent myself to prison the night I thought I was bigger than the game, the night I agreed to get involved in the scheme.. Hill allegedly coerced Sweeney by telling him he knew where his parents lived and that his girlfriend Maura, now his wife, was in Spain on a semester abroad. The next day, no one answered the door on numerous occasions.
Serious that I broke a promise to Boston College and myself.. Being at Boston College, when I first got there, was so amazing, said Cobb. 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. WebPeople named Rick Kuhn. 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. After he interviewed him, he fell in love with him and told me, Hes innocent. 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 forgot I had been convicted of a serious crime, Kuhn said. #ada-button-frame { Hes innocent., When they indicted me, they wanted Peter Vario, the mobster, so they tried us together, said Cobb.
But its the points that Cobb and teammate Michael Bowie didnt score during the 1978-1979 season which has spawned a federal investigation.
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