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. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? He hugged his tearful mother before walking out into the hallway for a few moments. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Bob Zuffelato, former BC coach, now at Marshall recruited Cobb. Masters Degree in Education. 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. Find out more. His sister was going through some struggles. He acknowledges taking $500, but says he never did anything to fix games. I was better than everybody on the team, but I talked back to him and he cut me because he said I had a bad attitude. On June 23rd, 1983, more than four years after hed played his final game at Boston College, Ernie Cobb was indicted and charged with taking cash bribes to alter the outcomes of games against Harvard, Rhode Island and Fordham. A wake will be held for Dr. Cobb-Stevens on Monday, July 16, from 4-7 p.m. at the Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home, 475 Main . 27 febrero, 2023 . Sweeney fessed up to taking $500 under duress and escaped prosecution. Ernest Cobb in the US: 76 records available . He was like a big brother to my own son. I dont know what went down because I wasnt involved. And as black kids who loved ball in Boston, he represented something for us, giving the younger generation something to aspire toin terms of their basketball skillsbecause he was putting in some serious work.. Hill flew into Boston, at the behest of Jimmy Burke, late in 1978 to meet with Mazzei, the Perlas, Kuhn and Sweeney at the Logan Airport Hilton and ensure that everything was in place. The film represented something of a white whale for executive producer and co-director Joe Lavine, who for years attempted and failed to get the project green-lighted before finally landing at ESPN. But I dont feel any bitterness toward the prosecution. It's been more than 30 years since the . Jim Sweeney during Boston College men's basketball's 1978-1979 season. Im stuck. A Trenton, New Jersey, native, Lavine grew up there about the same time as Jim Sweeney -- a schoolboy legend in Trenton who went on to star at BC. Thats why I got into education and coaching. Cobbs older siblings began having brushes with the law. 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. The Boston Globe story was initially investigated and written by a young Boston College alumnus named Leslie Visser, who would go on to become a very accomplished, groundbreaking journalist and role model for women who aspired to work in the field of sports media. As for his role in what happened, Sweeney says hes never run from the truth. Boston College 84 Reuben Holmes, Alabama State 107 Bart Kofoed, Kearney State 130 Art Sabb, Bloomfield College 153 Keith Webster, Harvard 1988. Do you recognize him? And my answer every time was, No! I didnt recognize any of those mobsters because I had never met them. Hill also named former BC athletes Ernie Cobb and James Sweeney as participants in the scandal. I told him, you cant just be great on offense, you gotta play great defense as well.. We were all so excited for him. Rick Kuhn during Boston College men's basketball's 1978-1979 season. They treated me great. Cobb's life takes several twists and turns . But as it turned out, the trial was simply one chapter of many in his life, and not the defining one. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey. We found public records for Ernest Cobb. He was naive at the time, believing that his exoneration would pave the way for apologies and acknowledgments of his innocence: from the NBA, the federal government and Boston College. He yearned to shake himself free from being associated with the gangsters that would later be immortalized in the movie Goodfellas Henry Hill, Jimmy Burke, Paul Vario and the Lucchese Crime Family apparatus that supported the biggest college sports point-shaving scandal since the 1950s. How much he was indebted to it? . I had everything I could have possibly asked for. Name: Ernie Cobb; Position: Point Guard; Height: 5-11 (1.80m) Weight: 180 (82kg) College Team: Boston College Eagles; Nationality: American; Birthplace: Stamford, Connecticut; Birthdate: 8/31/1956; Drafted: Selected by the Utah Jazz in the sixth round (109th pick overall) of 1979 NBA Draft. Birthplace/Hometown: Stamford, Connecticut, Height: 5-11 (180cm) Weight: 180 (82kg), Current NBA Status: Unrestricted Free Agent. It was all so positive.. Ex-basketball star Ernie Cobb was acquitted Friday of taking part in a point-shaving scandal that rocked Boston College in 1978-1979, and tearfully asked for a fair shot to resurrect his chances . Rocco and Tony Perla were giving money to Rick Kuhn. I was lightning quick, could run up and down, go left or right and could score from anywhere on the floor., He was breaking every record you could think of and by his junior year, people were saying, Whoa! I excelled. The Boston Globe's Bob Hohler documented Kuhn's role in the scandal and his luring of Sweeney and fellow captain Ernie Cobb in a March 2014 profile: . Most people may conjure up nightmarish images while trying to imagine being incarcerated at such an early age, butErnie's experience wasquite the opposite. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. We publish narratives intentionally and specifically to enlighten and transform the world. 1956 . The reality is there are only four real contenders. That includes Rick Kuhn, the former minor league baseball player who started the scandal and who Sweeney says got him involved in it. Quiz clue: Category (S = Singles, D = Doubles, T = Triples, HR = Home runs) / Hits . Height: 5'11" (180 cm) Weight: 0 lbs (- kg) Position: PG. From 1983-87, he served as lead counsel in nationwide class action for 40,000 Xerox pensioners, then the largest class action in Connecticut history, resulting in a settlement that provided increased . Kuhn was the only player convicted -- receiving a record 10-year sentence -- and served 28 months in prison. the official stats partner of the NBA, NHL and MLB. If the diagnosis was available back then, Im sure they would have found that I had ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Coach Alswanger was always schooling me about a winner never quits, a quitter never wins, about integrity, honor and character. And she loved him. When the story first broke, it said that Michael Bowie and I were the ones implicated, said Cobb. Ernie Cobb weighed 180 lbs (81 kg) when playing. Rocco Perla was sentenced to four and Kuhn was released after 28 months. He was from Norwalk, not far from where I was from. 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. Id led the pro league in scoring over there and signed a very nice contract. Join us for a March Madness Webinar on Tuesday, March 7 at 8pm ET. Sign up to receive The Shadow League Newsletter in your inbox. 21, right in first row) were part of the . But my high school coach got his friends to take my case, pro bono. The 1978-79 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal involved a scheme in which members of the American Mafia recruited and bribed several . He listened and did everything I told him to do. Eventually, he became a part of my own family and spent a lot of time over at our house. Cobb and Sweeney admitted to accepting money, but both deny willingly participating while on the basketball court. Career Length: Rookie More bio, uniform, draft, salary info. I went into that same Caldors and got arrested again for stealing one.. He graduated on time with a degree in sociology. He sensed something in that moment, something transformative. Born: A talkative informant. She helped tutor me, and encouraged me through some rough spots. I was excited about school and learning. We had a good old time. I kept me a shiny, new bike.. Im ready to move on from the actual filmmaking process. 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. standards like the rest of the students, most who came from wealthy and very strong academic backgrounds. 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. My dad was still in my life, but something changed inside of me, said Cobb. 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 was hopeful that hed have another chance to make it in the NBA. When he finished with his testimony, he made a beeline straight for the restroom. I think it will always be in the back of my mind somewhere. The scheme began with small-time gamblers Rocco and Anthony Perla who devised a plan with the players to deliberately shave points on specific games to win . Whats going on? It was the streets.. The story captures Cobb's fascinating journey beginning with a challenged upbringing and the appearance of an unlikely mentor in Hermy Alswanger, to college basketball fame and then to the unwelcomed notoriety associated with being falsely linked to the Boston College point shaving scandal. . Sweeney said he decided to cooperate with Lavine and co-director Cayman Grant because he believed they would treat the subject fairly. I was like, You gotta be kidding me! Jim Sweeney and Rick Kuhns names werent mentioned anywhere. I wanted my name cleared and it took a long time.. 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. Leading scorer Ernie Cobb was accused . . "Fixed" follows the point-shaving scandal of the 1978-79 Boston College basketball team. Im looking at him play against Clyde Frazier and right then and there, I thought it was a realistic dream for me to make it to the NBA. Ernie listened intently. When he was implicated in the scandal, I was shocked.. I went into the Caldors department store in downtown Stamford when I was about 12 years old and tried to shoplift one, he said. Thursday, March 22, 1984. City State. The guy called Herm and said, Ernies a good kid and hes going to be coming to your school, said Cobb. He would teach me about these attributes and I began to internalize them. 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. But Ill always be curious about certain things that went on.. But its the points that Cobb and teammate Michael Bowie didnt score during the 1978-1979 season which has spawned a federal investigation. Fourteen hours later, I arrived in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.. This is Part II of The Shadow League's feature story on former Boston College basketball player Ernie Cobb. He had this unbelievable desire to succeed and you could tell that he wasnt going to let anything stand in his way.. He was 83. He told Ernie that he had to strive to get good grades and work very hard to achieve them, because if he didnt maintain a certain grade-point-average, he wouldnt be eligible to compete. Not long after that, I was playing Pop Warner football and needed a mouthpiece. Years later, I wound up using that police officers Cadillac to go to my high school prom, said Cobb. Id like to thank all the people who stuck by me all the time, Cobb said after the verdict was announced. October 11th, 2021 , 09:01. But as it turned out, the trial was simply one chapter of many in his life, and not the defining one. Hill won six games, but didn't begin to win wagers until Boston College's star Ernie Cobb joined the scheme for the last five games. . I feel like if I can change one life, like he changed mine, man, it makes everything Ive been through worthwhile.. Ernie, and anybody who truly knew him, who knew about his character and what type of young man he was, we were all heartbroken. Draft: Utah Jazz, 6th round (1st pick, 109th overall), 1979 NBA Draft. . In "Playing for the Mob'' which features commentary from Sweeney, Hill, Ernie Cobb, the leading scorer on that Boston College team, and others he tells what happened 36 years ago. Cobb didn't get those years back, but neither did he seek redemption for his past. 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. I was a senior in high school when Ernie Cobb was a senior at Boston College and Id heard that he was a very good player, said Lemuel Mills, a Boston area hoops aficionado, coach, community mentor and historian. I was back at home, visiting for the summer and about to return to Israel, Cobb said. Read more atthe Shadow League. He refused to take a plea deal in return for a reduced sentence. I took every single practice and every single game seriously, said Cobb. Also involved were bookmakers across the . The City of M. The campus was so beautiful. And I dont have that. 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