Jim Sweeney, who now lives in Florida (above), has been trying to convince BC to allow him to reconnect with the school, where he was Eagle of the Year and nominated as a Rhodes Scholar. We werent really checking for B.C.
Their paths have diverged, Sweeney prospering in Florida, Cobb coaching high school basketball in Arizona after playing professionally in Israel, and Kuhn quietly making his way in southwestern Pennsylvania. Absolutely terrifying news! As for Kuhn, Sweeney expressed conflicting feelings about helping to convict his former friend.
I had my own place to live and all the food I wanted to eat. 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.
He knew what the money was for. 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.. Lets face it, it was Goodfellas, the FBI, federal laws broken, a pristine campus sullied all of that.. I look in the archives, and it seems like the history of BC started after I left, he said. 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.
They couldnt stop him. So, in very basic terms, if B.C.
But he testified that he repeatedly spurned requests to lay down or, deliberately play poorly for the gamblers.
Kuhn also attends the local Catholic church and volunteers elsewhere in town, including the food pantry for the needy.
The conspirators decided that these games presented especially good opportunities because New York bookmakers generally accepted large bets for New York teams. After Cobb was not charged, he thought he was finally past the sordid affair. By the time the FBI came for them, Kuhn, Sweeney, and Cobb had left Boston. The scheme was hit or miss early on. 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. I didnt know what that was all about. Created Energy Faculty Forum and inspired the creation of
Once Kuhn had exhausted his legal appeals, he agreed to testify against his former teammate in exchange for a reduced sentence.
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.
We were looking good as a team and my goal was to be the best player I could possibly be. 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.
Position: Forward 6-5 (196cm) School: Boston College (Men) More player info
However, as noted below, the scheme also worked in games where the Eagles were expected to lose anyway, with them shaving points so that the syndicate could bet on the other team winning by more than the point spread.
But Monan declined to speak by phone with her husband, she said, and told her he continues to believe Sweeney willfully participated in the conspiracy.
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.
Sweeney said Hill trapped him in the conspiracy by threatening him and his loved ones. They left, and that was that. I didnt think anything of it.
Bowies reputation was immediately sullied and he subsequently lost his job playing pro ball in Europe when the story broke.
He married there, had children, and played professionally into his 40s. Kuhn would be responsible for ensuring, by his play on the court, that Boston College fell short of the point spread.
At Holy Cross, fans mocked the point-shaving scandal by playing the Gillette theme song and waving razors at BC players. The Globe's most recent sports headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
A high-stakes gambler, Mazzei saw gold in Kuhn and his teammates secretly influencing the outcome of BCs games so those involved in the con could bet with near-certainty of cashing in. By his senior year, Sweeneys leading supporters included Davis. 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.
Waiting at the hotel was Hill, and Sweeney said he soon realized that Kuhn had committed him to the game-fixing conspiracy without his knowledge and that there was no way out. . In 1978, Rick Kuhn was in his final season at Boston College,amarginal player with little going for him. Was acquitted of sports bribery charges. talked to the Nets, their head coach Kevin Loughery called him in and said, You know why I have to let you go, said Alswanger. 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. And yeah, I took that money. Sweeneys name has since been removed from the schools display of Eagle of the Year winners. He paid a steep price not only by losing his NBA career, but, more important to Ernie, his name.. I have suffered.
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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. 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. Rick Kuhn. This has gone on for four years.
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. (Hill later helped prosecutors secure a life sentence for Burke in the slaying of an alleged Lufthansa accomplice.) I never lied about that. 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. In 1994, a court ordered Kuhn and his first wife to satisfy unpaid bills of $36,684.
Sweeney said he is close to a national television deal for an animated sports media program inspired in part by the scandal.
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. 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. The scheme was conceived by Rocco Perla and his brother Anthony in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1978.The Perla brothers were small-time gamblers who saw the upcoming 197879 Boston College Eagles basketball season as a perfect opportunity to earn a lot of money. Federal prosecutors in January renewed interest in both cases the point-shaving and the robbery when they charged reputed mobster Vincent Asaro with participating in the Lufthansa job.
Sweeney was not charged. Hes innocent., When they indicted me, they wanted Peter Vario, the mobster, so they tried us together, said Cobb.
Hill, who died in 2012, later turned informant and testified against everyone charged in the BC and Lufthansa cases.
[3] Kuhn was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment,[4] later reduced to 28 months. The character appears in 30 comic books, and Sweeney said he expects the brand soon to reach a national broadcast audience.
#ada-button-frame { 197879 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal.
I probably could have acted more wisely as a 20-year-old kid.
A grand jury indicted Burke, Mazzei, Kuhn, and the Perla brothers.
Kuhn divorced in the 90s and married Patti Jo Bean.
Sweeney, Cobb, and Kuhn have not spoken to each other since those days of infamy.
The scandal is still held over his head, even though he was acquitted, said Ron Brienes, who is producing Cobbs movie.
And now, here I was on that same floor, pumped sky high, giving my defender buckets! The stolen loot was never recovered, most of the gangsters involved in the heist were murdered, and agents recently digging for evidence in the case allegedly discovered remains from a decades-old mob hit. hoops that blazed a trail, Mills continued.
Rick isnt home, Patti Jo told a reporter who knocked at the bungalow on a wintry night last month. I was relishing that moment. I was eating Rory Sparrow up, who went on to have a decent NBA career, in that camp. Cobb, in his first interview about the case in 30 years, said he is working on a movie and a book about his life. So I didnt even go on trial with Kuhn and the mobsters that put the whole thing in motion..
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. He gets involved with childhood friend Tony Perla, a Pittsburgh bar owner and sports gambler. Sweeney, the teams point guard, was a 20-year-old junior.
They forgot I had been convicted of a serious crime, Kuhn said. In covering both the games and the scandal, I realized that good men can make bad mistakes and good schools can make bad decisions, recalled Visser, who was 25 at the time. He wanted to be able to say that one of BCs own was prosecuting it, McDonald said.
Her subsequent appeals to BCs president, the Rev. In early February, Boston College was scheduled to play two New York State teams, Fordham and St. John's. WebThe official PGA TOUR profile of Rick Kuhn. 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. She said Kuhn would contact the reporter that night.
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. Sweeney said he resented Davis initially pressing him to relinquish his athletic scholarship because he considered him a substandard player, and their relationship never recovered.
Bookmakers, on seeing the heavy action, moved the line as high as twelve to discourage bets on the favorite (St. John's) and attract more bets on the underdog. 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. Cobb also was accused of conspiring to fix two other BC games, against Rhode Island on Jan. 10 and Fordham on Feb. 3. I just had to be alone, Cobb told the reporters afterwards. I thought he might have been a student, because he was young and I saw him hanging around Rick Kuhn all the time. It would have been fantastic if I had an NBA career, Cobb said.
A high school sophomore, she shares Kuhns athletic interests and has played varsity basketball and softball. He said I had ties to the Mafia and he didnt want his wife and children around me, Sweeney recalled.
But public records indicate he has spent much of the last 20 years in financial stress. 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. When he first stepped on the hallowed parquet floor at the legendary Boston Garden, where B.C. He described the character as a lighthearted model of journalistic integrity, a counterbalance to the kind of irresponsible reporting that Hill practiced in Sports Illustrated.
I should have given it to charity and had the charity give me a note saying I donated it.
Other notable players selected in that draft included Sidney Moncrief, Bill Laimbeer, Bill Cartwright, Mark Eaton and Jim Paxson. Needing an inside man, the brothers wanted to Hill reportedly cleared over $100,000 ($373,400 today) and bettors higher up the line were said to have made up to $250,000 ($933,400 today). 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. See Photos. Davis did not respond to interview requests. Hill, too, was livid. [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. Hill and Burke were brought into the scheme, after receiving approval from Lucchese family capo Paul Vario. His honesty, courage, and overall leadership abilities are quite simply among the best in the country.. Jim Sweeney admits that Kuhn gave him cash.
William Leahy, have gone unanswered. 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. 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. He now coaches high school basketball in Arizona. Hill turned state's evidence in exchange for avoiding prison and possible execution by Burke and the Lucchese family. 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. Kuhn was thus expected to keep the score below the six- to seven-point margin.
Needing an inside man, the brothers wanted to Hill reportedly cleared over $100,000 ($373,400 today) and bettors higher up the line were said to have made up to $250,000 ($933,400 today). 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. See Photos. Davis did not respond to interview requests. Hill, too, was livid. [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. Hill and Burke were brought into the scheme, after receiving approval from Lucchese family capo Paul Vario. His honesty, courage, and overall leadership abilities are quite simply among the best in the country.. Jim Sweeney admits that Kuhn gave him cash.