City College of New York Basketball Scandal (PDF)

10/16 https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2020/04/03/city-college-of-new-york-basketball-scandal City College of New York men's basketball team featured an all-Jewish and African American roster ○ Played almost all of its games at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square...

10/16 https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2020/04/03/city-college-of-new-york-basketball-scandal City College of New York men's basketball team featured an all-Jewish and African American roster ○ Played almost all of its games at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden There were 4,000 bookmakers operating illegally in New York; about $300,000 was bet on each game that was being held at the Garden. ○ Much of it — as everybody knew — from inside the Garden itself Center of gambling scene: Harry Gross, bookmaker from Brooklyn ○ Taking in $20 million a year in sports bets Doled out $1 million a year in bribes to policemen and to politicians to keep them from busting his organization A lot of players came in contact with gamblers through the hotels in the ‘Borscht Belt’ ○ Hired as waiters, busboys, but really to play basketball ○ Gamblers would tell the players if they could arrange it so that their number is the final number, the gamblers would give the players half the pot During the 1949-50 season, a few City College players were taking money and shaving points; it wasn’t every game and it wasn’t everyone Before CCNY’s first game in the tournament against San Francisco, offered $2K per player to shave points ○ Didn’t do it; said they’d come too far and wanted to play clean Slated to play UK in the quarterfinals; game seen as culture war ○ UK coach Adolph Rupp vehemently against playing African Americans Won the 1950 NIT ○ Become heroes to New Yorkers A new district attorney named Miles McDonald put together an investigation into police corruption and gambling ○ Found Harry Gross Manhattan star Junius Kellogg allowed McDonald to find the connection between bookkeepers and players ○ Three City College players were implicated after authorities wiretapped the phone of another former college basketball player who was acting as a liaison between players and gamblers They confess to having shaved points in three games during that season In total, 32 players from seven different schools confessed their involvement in the point shaving ○ City College was never stripped of its championships, but it was banned from Madison Square Garden and eventually dropped down to Division 3 https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4499369/2023/05/09/college-sports-gambling-scandals-history -rules/ Suspicious wagers on an Alabama baseball game led to dismissal of head coach Brad Bohannon Iowa and Iowa State are looking into allegations of online gambling involving at least 41 combined players across multiple sports A brief history of the most notable betting controversies in college sports: The Brooklyn Five: ○ Five Brooklyn College men’s basketball players accepted $1,000 to intentionally lose a game against Akron ○ Result: No players were arrested; the game wasn’t played; two gambling ringleaders were arrested The State of NY updated its sports bribery laws to include amateur sports 1947-51: Men’s basketball point shaving: ○ Thirty-three players across seven schools were found to be involved in point-shaving over 86 games from 1947 to 1950. ○ Seven players were on the 1949-50 City College of New York men’s basketball team (won both NIT and NCAA tournaments) ○ Junius Kellogg wore a wire to gather evidence on other gamblers, which led the investigation into organized crime ○ Result: A total of 32 players were arrested as the scandal touched CCNY, Long Island University, Kentucky, New York University, Bradley, Manhattan, and Toledo CCNY was banned from playing in Madison Square Garden, LIU shut down its athletics program from 1951 to 1957, and Kentucky, under Adolph Rupp, canceled its 1952-53 season, two years after winning the NCAA Tournament 1957-61: Men’s basketball point shaving: ○ Molinas, who had escaped the 1951 scandal, was suspended during his rookie season for gambling on games ○ Led another scheme that touched dozens of players across 22 schools from 1957 to 1961 Florida football player Jon McBeth was approached with a bribe and told his coach ○ Result:  A total of 37 players were arrested, including those from Columbia, UConn, NC State, St. John’s and more St. Joseph’s was stripped of a third-place finish in the 1961 NCAA Tournament Molinas was sentenced to 10-15 years in prison Congress passed the Sports Bribery Act in 1964, criminalizing game fixing at the federal level 1978-79: Boston College men’s basketball: ○ Several Boston College players were recruited by organized crime to shave points during nine games in the 1978-79 season ○ Only four of the nine affected games produced a winning bet, and the scheme fizzled out ○ Result: Henry Hill, a mobster, was arrested in 1980 on drug trafficking charges. He revealed the point-shaving scheme in exchange for immunity Only Rick Kuhn, leader of the scheme who roped in other players, was sentenced to jail (a 12-year sentence that ultimately was reduced to 4) 1985: Tulane men’s basketball: ○ Three Tulane students recruited five players to shave points in two games against Southern Miss and Memphis State ○ Result: Multiple players and students were arrested (plus two bookmakers) The basketball program was disbanded until 1989-1990 & AD Hindman Wall resigned 1994: Arizona State men’s basketball: ○ Players Stevin Smith and Isaac Burton were paid by bookmaker Benny Silman to make sure ASU didn’t cover the spread in four games at the end of the 1993-94 season Smith owed Silman football gambling debts ○ Result: Smith was sentenced to one year and Burton got two months after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges Silman was sentenced to less than 4 years in prison; after release, he warned athletes about the dangers of gambling 1994-95 Northwestern: ○ Northwestern suspended Dennis Lundy (football) and Kenneth Lee (basketball) in late 1994 for betting on games they weren’t involved in ○ After returning from suspension, Lee continued gambling and point-shaved three games with teammate Dewey Williams (made sure they lost games by more than the point spread)  ○ Result Suspended each to one month in prison 1995: Maryland football & basketball: ○ A handful of players across both teams bet on college football and basketball games, including record-breaking quarterback Scott Milanovich, who reportedly placed six bets totaling $200 ○ Result: 5 players suspended 1996: Boston College football: ○ Upwards of 25 to 30 players bet on various sports games through a student bookie who was on the golf team, and two players bet on Boston College to lose an October game against Syracuse ○ Result: 13 players were suspended; by the next season, 5 were reinstated, 4 graduated, 3 had scholarships revoked, and 1 suffered a career-ending injury HC Dan Henning left after the season and AD Chet Gladchuk left within the next year 2003: Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel fired for bracket pool: ○ Neuheisel participated in a neighborhood pool for the 2003 NCAA men’s basketball tournament and initially denied the accusations to NCAA investigators ○ He had received an internal UW memo that claimed off-campus tournament pools were allowed ○ Results: He refused the school’s request to resign and was fired; the NCAA determined he violated association rules for gambling, but he was not penalized due to the incorrect memo Sued UW and NCAA over his firing and received a $4.5 million settlement and returned to college coaching in 2008 2004-06: Toledo football and men’s basketball: ○ Two Detroit-area businessmen paid Toledo football and men’s basketball players from December 2004 to December 2006 to influence the final score of games ○ Results: 7 players were charged but none were given jail time 2011: University of San Diego basketball: ○ Former USD assistant coach Thaddeus Brown convinced point guard Brandon Johnson to shave points for up to $10,000 per game during the 2009-10 season ○ Result: Johnson was sentenced to six months in prison. Brown was sentenced to one year  2012: Auburn men’s basketball: ○ Point guard Kyievarez Ward was accused of attempting to fix an Auburn game against Arkansas in January 2012; he fell to the floor with an apparent leg injury after 19 seconds ○ Result: Ward was accepted into a pre-trial diversion program in 2014 to dismiss the bribery and conspiracy charges https://fightingirishwire.usatoday.com/lists/looking-back-on-former-notre-dame-kickers-betting-s candal/ Pendergast was recruited from the Notre Dame soccer team after an injury to Irish kicker Craig Hentrich in 1991 and for the majority of his football career handled kickoff duties before taking over as the full-time placekicker for the 1993 season ○ One of the biggest field goals in the long bowl history of Notre Dame football came off the foot of Kevin Pendergast in the 1994 Cotton Bowl His 31-yard field goal with 2:22 left to play helped the Irish to a 24-21 victory over Texas A&M Betting sports was Pendergast’s “itch”; in high school, he ran a $2 NCAA basketball pool ○ At Notre Dame, he learned about point spreads and over/under bets Pendergast got Northwestern basketball player, Dion Lee, to shave points for cash ○ Broke even on the first game, won $10K second game, and lost $20K in the third game Northwestern running back Lundy intentionally fumbled in a game against Iowa where he had bet $400 against his own team ○ This led to bookie Brian Ballarini being found out who led prosecutors to Pendergast and Lee Pendergast was eventually sentenced to serve two months for his role in fixing those three Northwestern basketball games After serving his two-month sentence, former ND walk-on Pete Schivarelli, the manager of the band ‘Chicago’, made Pendergast the assistant manager of the band https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/sports/college/2024/08/15/notre-dame-men-swimming- suspended-gambling-investigation-ncaa-pete-bevacqua-chris-guiliano-olympics/74817292007/ Notre Dame swimming program has been suspended for a minimum of one year following an external gambling probe ○ “A deeply embedded team culture dismissive of Notre Dame’s standards for student-athletes” Head coach Chris Lindauer and his staff were not aware of the gambling nor the severity of the troubling behaviors from the swimmers because "team members effectively concealed such behaviors from the coaches and staff through concerted efforts."  A majority of men's team members are believed to have created their own sportsbook to wager on their swimming performances https://www.wsj.com/articles/gambling-is-americas-new-pastime-f683b68a No-betting signs used to be a common practice; gambling was officially regarded as something unsavory, not only in sports but throughout society Changes began to occur because: ○ Corporations and governments decided that maybe gambling wasn’t quite so bad, as long as they were the ones profiting from it ○ Sports leagues are happy to pocket the money from partnerships with internet-based bookies ESPN, formed a partnership in 2023 with a gambling company to set up an online casino in a $2 billion deal capitalizing on “ESPN’s industry-leading brand and multiplatform reach” to connect with would-be bettors https://www.fraud-magazine.com/article.aspx?id=4294983342 The triangle states that individuals are motivated to commit fraud when three elements come together: ○ 1) some kind of perceived pressure ○ 2) some perceived opportunity ○ 3) some way to rationalize the fraud as not being inconsistent with one’s values Major elements of Sutherland’s differential association theory: ○ Criminal behavior is learned; it's not inherited, and the person who isn't already trained in crime doesn't invent criminal behavior. ○ Criminal behavior is learned through interaction with other people through the processes of verbal communication and example. ○ The principle learning of criminal behavior occurs with intimate personal groups. ○ The learning of crime includes learning the techniques of committing the crime and the motives, drives, rationalizations and attitudes that accompany it. ○ A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions (or personal reactions) favorable to the violation of the law. Persons who engage in criminal behavior have accumulated enough feelings and rationalizations in favor of law violation that outweigh their pro-social definitions ○ Criminal behavior is learned and will occur when perceived rewards for criminal behavior exceed the rewards for lawful behavior or perceived opportunity Cressey should be credited for developing the fraud triangle ○ Stated that for embezzlement to occur, there must be all of these: 1) a non-sharable problem 2) an opportunity for trust violation  3) a set of rationalizations that define the behavior as appropriate in a given situation