Today we will discuss some of the biggest gambling scandals in American sports history.
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Toledo basketball and football players were embroiled in an early 2000s point-fixing scandal.
Quinton Broussard of the Toledo Rockets was paid $2,000 by Gary Manni (a Detroit gambler) to fix the 2005 GMAC Bowl between Toledo and UTEP . Four former Rockets basketball players and two footballers plead guilty of conspiring. Gary Manni received six years imprisonment among other charges related to paying athletes in order to fix games
9 Northwestern Wildcats Are Losers Again
Northwestern football struggled enough in the early '90s without any players taking money in order to skew point spreads and ensure they would miss covering college football betting lines, yet that still happened.
Dennis Lundy stood out among players implicated as one of several prominent individuals involved. Lundy rushed for 1,189 yards as a senior for Northwestern in 1994 and later admitted betting on five Northwestern games between 1993 and '94 as well as intentionally fumbling near goalline during one matchup against Iowa - winning himself $400 with that particular bet by helping ensure Iowa covered its 49-13 win against Northwestern.
Lundy was sentenced to one month of incarceration in 1999 after pleading guilty to perjury for giving false testimony during an investigation of Northwestern case. Four teammates of his were indicted with lying to grand jury but only Lundy was accused of point shaving; briefy playing NFL in 1995.
8 Paul Hornung and Alex Karras
Hornung and Karras were precursors to Pete Rose in that they admitted they had made mistakes and apologized profusely; moreover, while they would wager up to $500.00 per game, none ever involved their teams! As punishment they were both suspended for one year each; now that sports gambling has become legal in many states like New Jersey and New York these types of incidents should become much less likely.
7) 1946 NFL Championship Game between Chicago Bears and New York Giants.
Alvin Paris was so intrigued with the 1946 NFL Championship Game between Chicago Bears and New York Giants that he offered $12,500 each to Giants players Frank Filchock and Merle Hapes in order to bribe them into throwing it.
Paris was wiretapped by police and evidence was discovered that showed he had spoken to both players, though neither admitted accepting money from Paris. Bert Bell, NFL Commissioner, caught wind of this plot and suspended Hapes from league for failing to report this attempt at bribery while permitting Filchock to play; Filchock went 9-for-25 passing for 128 yards with two touchdowns and six interceptions; Chicago won 24-14 at New York's Polo Grounds with Filchock playing poorly as Chicago started as 10-point favorites (at this time no pushes were returned).
Filchock was allowed back into the league in 1950 after playing only one game for Baltimore; Hapes never allowed back into the NFL; both died within weeks of each other in 1994. Paris was arrested before 1946 title game; later that spring he was charged with bribery and found guilty.
6 Hot Rod Williams Tulane Point-Shaving Scandal
Tulane University Basketball program was temporarily shut down for four years due to this scandal in the 80s, where there was money, cocaine and an atmosphere rife with bravado; five players were accused of shaving points from two games for $17,000 profit split between five players; Williams went through two trials - first declared mistrial then one ending in his acquittal on all five counts; going on to play 13 years in NBA before finally retiring at 43.
5) Boston College Goodfella's
Those of you who enjoyed Goodfellas will know who was behind it: Henry Hill, Rocco and Tony Perla don't Mazzei were the gangsters behind the Boston College basketball betting scandal in the late 1970s. Players were shaving points for the mobsters to cover a spread until the conspiracy unraveled in 1 80, when Hill was arrested by Newcouldn'tate authorities for drug trafficking charges, leading them to suspect that he might also have participated in the Lufthansa heist, which occurred while point-shaving was being conducted. Hill gave state's evidence in exchange for immunity from execution by Burke and the Lucchese family, yet during an FBI interrogation Hill became involved with point shaving scheme at Lufthansa heist, specifically frequent trips to Boston around this time frame. When FBI agents brought this up during questioning Hill revealed his participation, offering to reveal full story only if federal officials could guarantee complete immunity.
4) CCNY Point-Shaving Scam
In 1951, 32 college basketball players from seven teams across the United States were caught participating in an elaborate point-shaving scheme run by organized crime - four New York schools and three out-of-state teams, including Kentucky. College basketball was dealt a serious setback as it began assuming more prominence within American sports in the early 1950s. College basketball in New York was rocked by scandal as many of those accused had played on City College of New York's 1950 team, the first ever team to win both NCAA and NIT tournaments simultaneously. The scandal at Rupp College -- which competed with Yankees, Giants and Dodgers for New York sports supremacy at the time -- effectively ended their relationship with major-league sports. Kentucky too was banned for an entire season even though Adolph Rupp always maintained that none of his boys had participated in any illegal schemes; their punishment should have been greater.
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3 Tim Donaghy
Donaghy made headlines for a short period when he emerged as an NBA referee accused of fixing games. However, this story quickly faded as people weren't keen on thinking that such things happened at all - especially since Donaghy himself bet on NBA games and passed the information onto gamblers when in debt; could such incidents have happened more often?
2) Pete Rose
In 1989, all-hit king Pete Rose was banned for life due to betting on games, something he denied for over 15 years before eventually admitting it while managing the Reds but insisting he never bet while playing baseball himself! Years later, this statement was exposed as another lie - evidence showed that Rose gambled nearly daily for around $2,000 during 1987, though often not on his Reds team. Though he denies ever betting against his Reds team, that isn't the point here; what matters here is whether or not you place wagers. If Rose were to bet occasionally, and sometimes not, would this raise concerns that others bet against his team? Additionally, his debt-laden status might make him more susceptible to losing games for bookies to clear the debts away faster; Rose remains banned today for his actions!
1) 1919 World Series
The Black Sox scandal is perhaps best known today because a movie was made about it, and baseball was America's dominant sport 100 years ago. Fixing of the Series by them became known to everyone at that time - in fact, it became one of baseball's worst-kept secrets even then! Before Game 1, there was much talk within baseball of an impending fix, yet the commissioner's office seemed content to look away. Charles Comiskey was notorious for underpaying his players, leading some to take matters into their own hands to make extra cash. It wasn't until another case surfaced one year later that news of 1919 started spreading. None of the Black Sox were ever charged in court (rumor has it that owner Charlie Comiskey and Arnold Rothstein helped hide some essential documents), yet were all permanently banned from baseball. Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed new Commissioner to clean up baseball and banned those involved in the scandal. Rumors circulated about regular-season and possibly other World Series games being fixed before 1919; most prominent rumors point towards the 1918 World Series being fixed, for example.
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