I felt bad for my mom, he said. 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. Ernest Constantine Cobb, passed away peacefully on Feb. 27th, after a long and full life. And he always managed to be seen cruising around his neighborhood with a new, expensive one. 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. I want to be disassociated from it as well. The Draft Review (with Matthew Maurer) brings you a wealth of NBA draft history through its free resource of extensive statistics, biographies, articles, interviews and this live forum. Ernie Cobb weighed 180 lbs (81 kg) when playing. The final player involved in the fix, Rick Kuhn, is . We present them here for purely educational purposes. But as it turned out, the trial was simply one chapter of many in his life, and not the defining one. You realize that you cant play if you dont do this. Coach Alswanger was always schooling me about a winner never quits, a quitter never wins, about integrity, honor and character. 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. Im not angry at the school. I felt like, You put my name out there, so let me clear my name! When they investigated me, I told them straight up about the $1,000 that Rocco Perla had given me. Everything Id worked so hard for was coming to fruition.. Its one of several seeming contradictions the gangster-turned-informant offers during the film, right along with this doozy early on: I didnt threaten him or nothin, Hill says in the film, I just said, Its hard to play basketball with a broken arm.. That includes Rick Kuhn, the former minor league baseball player who started the scandal and who Sweeney says got him involved in it. It's also available for football, hockey and baseball. . Boston College Point Shaving. He talks about how he wanted to be an NBA player. Dont get involved with organized crime people.. Im ready to move on from the actual filmmaking process. Johnny Bench is a former MLB catcher who played for the Cincinnati Reds from 1967 to 1983. 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. 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. Were you shaving points for the mob?. Many long-time fans are now familiar with the Boston College basketball point shaving scandal, where the Mafia, led by wiseguy Henry Hill, recruited and bribed several members of the 1978-79 . 109 Ernie Cobb, Boston University 129 Paul Poe, Louisiana College 148 Keith McDonald, Utah State 167 Milt Huggins, Southern Illinois 185 Paul Dawkins, Northern Illinois . He told me to keep playing and working hard and that one day I might get another chance., When the story first broke in January of 1981, Cobb was in shock. At around the same age, his parents separated, with his father moving across town. And he was all about the team and winning, despite the fact that he was an offensive machine. Not long after that, I was playing Pop Warner football and needed a mouthpiece. Born: There were a lot of rich kids who went to Boston College. Where did this kid come from, said Alswanger. 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.. By my junior year, it was show-time, said Cobb. As a junior, he averaged 37.6 points per game and was named All-State. After she began working with him, she came to talk to me and said, Oh my god! Out of all the schools recruiting him, Cobb decided to accept Boston Colleges scholarship offer. Some 36 years later, there doesn't seem to be a lot of love lost between key characters Rick Kuhn, Ernie Cobb, and Jim Sweeney, the trio of Eagles allegedly paid to keep scores as close as they . The tone is set by black-and-white mug shots and film strips from surveillance of mobsters interspersed with BC team photos and action shots from newspaper coverage of the season. When he was implicated in the scandal, I was shocked.. And unfortunately, if you see a real-life situation that involves people like myself and others, then you say, Wow, thats the type of effect that whatever [the gangsters] do can have on others lives.. Every accomplishment made me want to work harder. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? We never starved. I was forthright and honest with them. But that had nothing to do with shaving points., At the time, I was nave, Cobb continued. Duality underpins practically everything about the brief existence of the KD, Harden and Kyrie Nets. like that until he got there. 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. and I were the victims of the same circumstances that were beyond our control. I understand that they want to disassociate themselves from the scandal. They treated me great. 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. Data Provided By He is a friend who has quietly built a considerable reputation within college basketball for honesty and tactical brilliance but who now is living the horror every coach dreads most -- a point . The 1968 Topps Baseball Card series includes 598 cards and features multi-player rookie cards. He killed people. Cobb insisted on having his day in court, of clearing his name. Cobb was drafted by the Utah Jazz in the 6th Round and cut during training camp. I could have sneezed and they would have sent me to the principals office.. And look what he did to the lives of those kids. So Id go up there all the time and get me one. You understand? Ernie Cobb. I went into the Caldors department store in downtown Stamford when I was about 12 years old and tried to shoplift one, he said. Sweeney said he decided to cooperate with Lavine and co-director Cayman Grant because he believed they would treat the subject fairly. Subscribe to Stathead Basketball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Basketball Reference Database. I never lied about that. If you missed Part I, you can read it here. won by only two points and I had a lot of losing money down on this game. The other two kids made whatever choices they made, but look what was done to Ernie. Three Boston College players, Jim Sweeney, Rick Kuhn, and Ernie Cobb were fingered by Hill for participating in the scandal. The very next day, the Nets cut me., When the F.B.I. . 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. Read more atthe Shadow League. Just by being there, Id already reached success beyond my wildest dreams. After a full recruiting cycle, which schools got it right - and wrong - four years ago I was excited about school and learning. In the 1979 NBA Draft, Magic Johnson was the first overall pick of the Los Angeles Lakersafter leading Michigan State University to the National Championship over Larry Birds Indiana State team. 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! 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. He loved being able to play ping pong, shoot pool and go swimming, but there was one place at the facility that he loved above all others: the gymnasium. He wanted to tell his side of the story. In a point-shaving scandal that sticks in the memories of many, three Boston College players became embroiled in a betting scheme conceived by gamblers Henry Hill, Rocco and Tony Perla, and Paul Mazzei. As a matter of fact, one thing Im really happy with in this film, is we really did get to everybody, Lavine said. Do you have a blog? I was mesmerized.. But before he stepped foot on campus for his freshman year to chase a new set of goals, he was hesitant, apprehensive and somewhat scared. 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. 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. 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. Masters Degree in Education. 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. us, College: And I dont have that. We werent really checking for B.C. No one in my family had even graduated from high school. erath county rant and rave; springfield, mo jail inmates; essex county hospital center jobs; blanching vs non blanching erythema; star trek next generation cast salaries Cobb didn't get those years back, but neither did he seek redemption for his past. He had this unbelievable desire to succeed and you could tell that he wasnt going to let anything stand in his way.. The story: Three Boston College players -- leading scorer Ernie Cobb, forward Richard Kuhn and Sweeney, the team's point guard -- were fingered by Hill for participating in the point-shaving scheme. After more than a decade spent trying to make Playing with the Mob happen, Lavine is ready to move on to a new project. Boston College Guard and former Stamfod High School standout Ernie Cobb drives past St. John's Frank Alagia during a game in 1976. I felt valued, that I mattered and that people cared about me. Weve had serious problems with all of the other kids but we never had a problem with Ernie. When I think about my journey, it brings tears to my eyes. But I wasnt sure if I was really up to B.C. At 11:05 a.m., U.S. District Judge Leonard Wexler completed his instructions to the jury in the Federal Court Building in Brooklyn as Ernie Cobb awaited his judgment. Its something that hes still waiting for, to this day. Using extensive background research as well as interviews with the principal characters, Fixed provides the first in-depth reconstruction of the point-shaving scandal involving the 1978-1979 Boston College basketball team, from the genesis of the plot in the summer of 1978, through the uncovering of the scheme during an unrelated investigation in 1980, to the trial that captivated the sports . He was 83. ESPN's latest 30 for 30 film tackles the Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal. Being at Boston College, when I first got there, was so amazing, said Cobb. 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