hoops that blazed a trail, Mills continued. In addition, they were given the opportunity to bet the money they were paid and double their winnings. He said he would have done that if the sides were reversed. But its the points that Cobb and teammate Michael Bowie didnt score during the 1978-1979 season which has spawned a federal investigation. Holy Cross was favored to win and, consistent with the scheme, were bet on to win by a margin greater than the seven-point spread. I want to be disassociated from it as well. They had Kuhn approach Ernie Cobb, the leading scorer on the team, but it has never been proven if Cobb agreed to cooperate. You realize that you cant play if you dont do this. A witness is interviewed and says, The rat one.. After discussing their strategy with Kuhn and Sweeney, it was agreed that an upcoming game against Providence would be an appropriate test for their scheme. I was doing well academically and the dream of playing professional basketball was getting closer.. 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. He graduated on time with a degree in sociology. He rebounded well and was a good outlet Boston College Accused of Point Shaving, was the big headline on the UPI wire. . Jim Sweeney was not charged. His girlfriend, whom hed met during his first week on campus, was an upperclassman that knew how to navigate the schools academic landscape. And look what he did to the lives of those kids. Mazzeis connection to Kuhn was through fellow gangsters Rocco and Tony Pearla. It was a path that led them to Hills underworld higher-up, Jimmy Burke (the Robert DeNiro character in Goodfellas). While Hill was trying to bury Burke, Sweeney was trying to bury Kuhn. Ive had a grand life, is how he puts it. He graduated from Woodworth Public School in 1985 and earned a bachelors degree from University of Sioux Falls. 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. Im going off on the basketball court, scoring like crazy, the gamblers are losing their shirts, and they start talking about, We have to have Cobb. Anybody thats ever seen me play knows that I was only stuck in one gear, and that was super-charged-turbo! At the close of the two-week trial, Alswanger was the last character witness who took the stand in Cobbs behalf. I never lied about that. He was determined to prove that he could do the work, which would enable him to further chase his athletic dreams. The other two kids made whatever choices they made, but look what was done to Ernie. The 197879 Boston College Eagles men's basketball team represented Boston College during the 197879 NCAA men's 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. The Boys of Dunbar, A Story of Love, Hope and Basketball. 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. When he first stepped on the hallowed parquet floor at the legendary Boston Garden, where B.C. Mandan, ND 58554 opens in a new window call Rick Kuhn at (701) 663-6385 call Rick Kuhn at Call Me Email Me. Jim Sweeney is a happy guy. When he returned to the United States, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where he became a Special Education teacher and high school basketball coach. I feel like I did all that fighting after I lost my dream of playing in the NBA, and it was all in vain. 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. Whats going on? Netflix hiring flight attendant for private jet with compensation up to $385,000. The Boston College case arose out of the Lufthansa investigation. All Kuhn had to do was ensure that the Eagles fell short of the point spread in the games that they bet on. So, in very basic terms, if B.C. 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. Cobb's trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 31 before Judge Leonard Wexler. It is similar to how they captured Al Capone on tax evasion, the smaller of his many crimes that would ultimately put him away. 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. 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. Fourteen hours later, I arrived in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.. 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. Although Cobb maintains that he received money from Rocco, he claims it was just for winning the game even though Rocco claims he knew for sure. 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. You gotta tell me the truth, because I gotta know how to go on this?. My moment had arrived. All because, he says, of those five crinkled $100 bills dropped at his feet one day in the locker room. When I think about my journey, it brings tears to my eyes. 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. The Globe would later admit that they were wrong in reporting that Bowie was involved, after he was not implicated nor investigated by the federal government for any role in the scandal. 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 has won several FIMBA tournaments as a player in the 50-plus division. I got through it on my own, and I didnt get whacked, is how he sums it up. I have suffered. Coupled with the narration being done by Ray Liotta, the actor that played Henry Hill in the movie, adding to the films overall gangster aesthetic. She helped tutor me, and encouraged me through some rough spots. But he did take money. Boston College's basketball team ended their 197879 season with a 229 record. 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. This is an important part of the documentary because it shows the respect they have for one another regardless of the past. The government also contended Kuhn tried to recruit other players, including the team's leading scorer, Ernie Cobb, and Hill said in an article in Sports Illustrated -- for which he was paid $10,000 -- that he made payments to Cobb for his cooperation. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. less serious, the aftermath was compared to the fallout that would occur today. A few blocks from Boston College, the place that held so much meaning to him, where hed worked so hard to create his lifes purpose, the symbolism was inescapable when he found that he had a flat tire. indictments charged against them. I loved it in Israel, the fans loved me and the people were so beautiful. 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. But for Bowie, it was too little, too late. It creates suspense as Hill is a mess on the stand and can barely speak under the pressure of snitching on his friends. When he finished with his testimony, he made a beeline straight for the restroom. She knew the terrain in terms of what I needed to be doing, said Cobb. Tennessee church holding prayer as FAA investigates plane crash that killed 4 members. They need to get another player to help fix games. 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. A fitness fanatic who augmented his training by swimming and riding his bicycle very long distances, Cobb hopped on his ten-speed shortly after the indictment was announced and began pedaling. He made other African-American ballers feel like they could go there and really showcase what they could do on a national level. 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. 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]. At this point in the film, we stray away from the actual point-shaving and more into the consequences and investigation after the fact. The same channels would be used for the passing of the point spread from Burke and Hill to the players. Sweeney hears Tony explain that this is the grand finale, Tony claims he never threatened him. The narrator explains that the strength of how Henry Hills testimony is would determine if Burke was going to be convicted. His lifes dream of making it to the NBA, which was where he belonged, was taken away from him. The syndicate was very happy with this result, and Kuhn was given cash to distribute to the players for their efforts. The campus was so beautiful. 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. 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. According to the Boston Globe, Judge Henry Bramwell, who set sentencing for January 8, 1982, told the jury, "I agree with your verdict." But I know that its not really in vain, because I know the truth.. The police have Henry Hill as an informant in hopes that he will have information on his boss, Jimmy Burke and other mobsters involved in the Lufthansa robbery, where five million dollars was stolen in the heist. Literature. The documentary, narrated by Ray Liotta (who portrayed Hill in the film), was set up so that the viewer needed to watch Goodfellas beforehand to understand many of the references in the story. This has gone on for four years. FRANK OBRIEN/GLOBE STAFF/FILE 1978 Sweeney, Cobb, and A grand jury indicted Burke, Mazzei, Kuhn, and the Perla brothers. I was shining at the camp. The jury is scared to be connected to this case because Burke was so powerful and violent in the mob. 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. They were aware that bookmakers generally accepted large bets on this game both because Boston College and Holy Cross were traditional rivals and because the game was being nationally televised. Jan. 18 (UPI) -- The Justice Department Wednesday filed a complaint against a sheriff's department in Cumberland County, Tenn., alleging it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when firing an officer with an opioid use disorder. 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. I think you could poll a lot of people in the business and the Boston College scandal is off their radar. [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. Seven schools and more than 30 players were implicated in the 1951 probe; more than 20 schools were involved in the 1961 incidents. Even after being informed of the investigation, he said he noticed nothing unusual after reviewing films of the games. II. The Shadow League, 29 May 2017, theshadowleague.com/30-years-after-his-exoneration-former-bc-hoops-star-ernie-cobb-is-still-fighting-to-clear-his-name-pt-ii/. I admitted to receiving that money, and spending it. 197879 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal. The fact that I went to court and fought for my name, that I stood up for myself and cleared my name, that I was exonerated and acquitted, its a travesty that Im still associated with this., My name is indelibly linked to it, Cobb continued. Tell me what you did and what you didnt do. The Eagles managed to lose by 22 points, 10381, with the syndicate winning its bet. The December 16 game against Harvard was chosen as the second test for the scheme. 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. Suspenseful music plays and the trial begins. Hill was listed as a co-conspirator, but was not named as a defendant. Contact Me. He worked hard in class. 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. He traveled throughout the world, getting paid to play the game that he loved. The court papers said Kuhn of Swissvale, Pa., has agreed to testify against former teammate Ernie Cobb, 27, a basketball player from Stamford, Conn. Cobb has pleaded innocent to a charge of conspiring to commit sports bribery,a charge stemming from the point-shaving scandal. All of those guys walkedin his footsteps., He was the African-American guard in the modern era of B.C. Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A class ring that went missing decades ago has been returned to its owner. The fixers changed the original plan and bet on Holy Cross, but the players were told this right before the game. On Friday morning, March 23rd, the jury came back with a unanimous innocent verdict for Ernie Cobb, exonerating him of all charges. It was a sweet victory for prosecutors against Burke, for whom they failed to even build a charge against for his biggest crime, the famous $6 million Lufthansa heist. won by only two points and I had a lot of losing money down on this game. Boston College was favored by twelve to thirteen points, but won the game by only a three-point margin, 8683. The move on and they all thought the fixes were history. As he walked across the scenic campus, marveled at the schools architectural splendor or ate until his hearts content in the dining hall, hed often pause to quietly give thanks for his fortunate circumstances. It was national news that brought Cobb, Sweeney, and Kuhn under massive headlines. BC basketball players Rick Kuhn, Joe Streater and Jim Sweeney were persuaded to fix nine Eagles games during the season. 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. 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. Testifying for the defense, Boston College basketball Coach Tom Davis said at no point during the 1978-79 season did he notice any of his players giving anything less than a 100 percent effort.
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