Sports Scandals

by Laura Finley; Jeffrey J. Fountain Peter Finley

  In 1949 Molinas was playing in Madison Square Garden in the state high school basketball finals and was the dominant player on the court. Unfortunately for his teammates, he had taken several hundred dollars to lose the game. He had even personally wagered against his own team. Of course, by that time gambling was old hat for Molinas, who had started laying wagers when he was only twelve, and was associating with mobsters by the time he ran the hardwoods at the high school level.

  Molinas's partner in crime was Joe Hacken, a basketball fanatic who had multiple convictions for bookmaking. Together, they would fix games over several years and involving hundreds of players. Hacken claimed to have fixed his first game at the tender age of eighteen. Hacken and Molinas were ''doing business'' when Molinas was playing for Columbia University; they would continue together until arrested in 1961.

  In 1953 Molinas finished his college basketball career, earning All-American honors, and was selected fourth overall in the NBA Draft by the Fort Wayne Pistons. During his rookie year with the Pistons, he was selected to the All-Star team and seemed destined for greatness. As it always would, his penchant for gambling got the best of him, as he was suspected of wagering on his own team; he was banned for life from the NBA on January 10, 1954.11 Molinas insisted he only bet on Pistons games, and always for his team to win, but at least one game raised suspicion. Against the Boston Celtics, in a game in which Molinas was benched early, he immediately committed two flagrant fouls when he returned to the court with only a minute left in the game.

  Even though Molinas was out of basketball, he continued to fix games and sell them to organized crime groups and individuals. For example, he would charge $25,000 to ''buy a game'' and then use some of that money to bribe players and, on occasion, referees. Molinas took his schemes to another level, dramatically increasing his risk, when he started making judgment calls and predicting which games he could sell to mobsters without actually paying any players. He also started selling games to more than one person to maximize his profit from each fix. Possibly the best ''fixers'' in basketball history, Molinas and Hacken had an estimated 476 players from twenty-seven schools under their control, and fixed at least forty-three games between 1957 and 1961.

  Molinas made $10,000 in his single season with the Pistons, which paled in comparison to the $50,000 a week he made with Hacken at the peak of their point-shaving scheme. The point shaving was brought to light in 1961 with the arrest of thirty-seven players from twenty-two colleges including Columbia, St. John's, New York University, North Carolina State, and the University of Connecticut. Most of the players confessed when questioned by police. In 1962 Molinas was implicated as the ring leader, and his connections with top mob guys were revealed, including Mafia chief Tommie ''Ryan'' Eboli and Capo Vincent ''The Chin'' Gigante of the Genovese crime family.

  Molinas was found guilty of bribing players to fix games on the testimony of players from the University of Utah, Bowling Green State University, the University of Alabama, and the College of the Pacific. He was sentenced to ten to fifteen years in prison, most of which he served at Attica. He was released after serving only five years, and became the inspiration for the film The Longest Yard, starring Burt Reynolds. Upon his release, Molinas moved to Hollywood to traffic pornography and furs. He was murdered in 1975 at the age of forty-three by a gunshot wound to the head while standing in his backyard. His killing may have been linked to the murder of a business partner, Bernard Gustoff, who was beaten to death less than a year prior. Molinas had collected on a $500,000 insurance policy, and the Los Angeles Times reported within days that there were possible links.

  Perhaps the most famous player hurt by an association with Molinas was Connie ''The Hawk'' Hawkins, who many consider the 1960s equivalent of Julius Erving. Hawkins was broke and on Christmas holiday when he borrowed $250 from Molinas in 1961 while he was a freshman at the University of Iowa. Hawkins's brother Fred repaid the loan before the scandal of 1961 broke. Even though Molinas and Hacken repeatedly stated that Hawkins was never part of any game fixing, in spite of their efforts to recruit him, his association with Molinas caused an early end to his college career. He never played in a single varsity game for Iowa.

  In 1964 Hawkins was eligible for the NBA draft. Although he was not banned by the league, no team would take him. Nor would they take him in the 1965 or 1966 drafts. After the 1966 draft, the NBA Board of Governors and Commissioner Walter Kennedy banned him from the league. Hawkins played with the Harlem Globetrotters, and in the inaugural season of the American Basketball Association. In 1969, after a Life magazine article detailed his likely innocence, and with an antitrust lawsuit against the NBA working its way through the courts, the door was finally opened for Hawkins to play in the NBA. The two sides settled the suit and he received $1.295 million. Hawkins went on to have an outstanding NBA career and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.

  BOSTON COLLEGE POINT SHAVING, 1978-1979

  In 1980, during the ongoing federal investigation into the 1978 theft of $5.8 million from the Lufthansa cargo terminal at JFK International Airport in New York, convicted felon turned government informant Henry Hill (popularized in the 1990 movie Goodfellas) revealed a point shaving scheme he masterminded involving the 1978-79 Boston College basketball team. Hill coauthored a Sports Illustrated article in February 1981 that outlined the scheme involving three Boston College basketball players: Rick Kuhn, Jim Sweeney, and top-scorer Ernie Cobb. Once the investigation concluded, and with the help of unindicted coconspirator Henry Hill, five men were charged, tried, and convicted of racketeering, bribery, and crossing state lines to commit a crime for their roles in point shaving of six Boston College games. The only Boston College player charged during the first trial was Rick Kuhn, along with Paul Mazzei, a convicted drug trafficker, Anthony and Rocco Perla, brothers who knew Kuhn and introduced him to Mazzei, and Jimmy ''The Gent'' Burke, who was made famous by Robert De Niro's portrayal of him as Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas. Burke was the FBI's prime suspect as the mastermind behind the Lufthansa robbery; that crime remains unsolved.

  Of the six Boston College games cited in the indictment, the gambling syndicate only won money on three. In each, the group bet against Boston College. On two occasions, against Providence College and Holy Cross, the crew lost its money as Boston College won by too many points and then lost by too few. One game was a ''push,'' when St. John's, a nine-point favorite, won by exactly nine points. The crew made money on the other three games, against Harvard, UCLA, and Fordham. Henry Hill claimed gambling profits of $75,000 to $100,000 from the point shaving scheme.

  Jim Sweeney became a government witness and testifled about his role in the scheme. Sweeney admitted accepting $500 from Kuhn, but denied doing anything on the basketball court to help shave points. Ernie Cobb was trying out for the New Jersey Nets in 1980 when the FBI interviewed him. Cobb was tried separately in 1984 and found not guilty despite admitting to receiving $2,000 from the gambling syndicate. He testifled he believed the money was for information about the team's chances of winning and not for point shaving.

  Rick Kuhn received up to $2,500 for each fixed game. He was sentenced to ten years in prison for his role. Anthony and Rocco Perla were sentenced to ten and four years in prison, respectively. Jimmy ''The Gent'' Burke was handed the longest sentence of all defendants-twenty years and a $30,000 fine. Despite the Organized Crime Strike Force's effort to incarcerate Jimmy Burke for his suspected role in the Lufthansa heist, or any of the numerous murders he was suspected of carrying out as an associate of the Lucchese crime family, in the end it was his role in the Boston College point-shaving scheme of 1978-79 that landed him in prison, where he died of lung cancer in 1996.

  What makes this scandal noteworthy, aside from the point shaving itself, was the involvement of major crime syndicates. No small operation, this scandal drew attention to the complexity of gambling schemes and the depths to which some would go to fix a game.

  TULANE UNIVERSITY DROPS
MEN'S HOOPS

  College basketball was rocked by a point-shaving scandal again in the spring of 1985, when eight people were indicted. Included were three Tulane basketball players. Among them was the team's star player and NBA hopeful, John ''Hot Rod'' Williams. Adding to Tulane's problems was the fact that the investigation revealed cash payments to players. In exchange for agreeing to play at Tulane, Williams admitted receiving $10,000 in a shoebox, plus an additional $100 a week from his coach.12 Coach Ned Fowler and his two assistants resigned once the payments to the player became public; the coaching staff was not aware of the point shaving, however.13 So shamed was the university by the scandal that the board and trustees agreed with Tulane President Eamon Kelly's decision to drop men's basketball in April 1985, after seventy-two years of sponsoring the sport.

  The scheme began with a meeting between senior forward Clyde Eads and Tulane business major Gary Kranz, in which they agreed to trade basketball gear for cocaine. To help acquire more athletic equipment, through theft, Eads brought senior forward Jon Johnson into the deal. According to grand jury testimony, within weeks point shaving became a topic of discussion among the group. The point shaving started when Kranz wanted to fix the February 2 game against Southern Mississippi. The investigation concluded that the scheme involved two additional games: the Virginia Tech game on February 16, and the Memphis State game on February 20. There was talk of including a fourth game, against Louisville, but the players refused, as they always wanted to win that game. They did, breaking an eighteen-game losing streak.

  The investigation was launched after the February 20 game when rumors started to fly and Tulane benefactor Ned Kohnke, disturbed by things he was hearing about the basketball program, went to district attorney Harry Connick. Kohnke, who often worked out with Eads, convinced the player to admit his involvement. Eads and Johnson were given immunity for their testimony, and they named three other Tulane basketball players: ''Hot Rod'' Williams, David Dominique, and Bobby Thompson, along with Kranz and his fraternity brothers Mark Olensky and David Rothenberg. Two suspected bookmakers, Roland Ruiz and Craig Bourgeois, were also arrested.

  According to the D.A.'s office, Olensky and Rothenberg gathered $34,000 to wager on the Memphis State game, with $18,000 spread between ten different Las Vegas casinos, another $10,000 with Birmingham bookies, and the remaining $6,000 with a Tulane bookmaker. As the indictments were handed down, senior guard Bobby Thompson, Olensky, and Rothenberg all pleaded guilty to avoid prison time. Their sentences were suspended, and they were placed on probation and ordered to pay fines directly to local charities. Dominique pleaded to lesser charges.

  ''Hot Rod'' Williams went to trial, as he denied any part in the point-shaving scheme. The first attempt to convict Williams was declared a mistrial in August 1985. Williams, a projected first-round NBA draft choice before the scandal, was selected in the second round of the 1985 draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, despite warnings from the league about the risk presented by his legal status. The owners of the Cavaliers paid Williams's legal expenses. However, the team had to withdraw the contract they had offered Williams after the mistrial because the NBA did not allow teams to sign players with point-shaving charges still pending. Williams sat out a year while awaiting a second trial and passed the time by playing for the Rhode Island Gulls of the U.S. Basketball League for $15,000. NBA first-round picks were making about $350,000 a year.

  In June 1986 a six-member jury acquitted Williams on all five charges by a unanimous vote. The jury was not swayed by the testimony of six others involved in the scheme, who they thought testifled only to lighten their own sentences. Further, they considered there to be a complete lack of solid evidence. Williams made the NBA All-Rookie team in 1986 and went on to play thirteen years in the NBA with three different teams.

  Tulane University reinstated men's basketball in 1989. Under coach Perry Clark, the team struggled through a 4-24 season, but began a run of success the following season that saw the team enjoy national rankings and post-season play with regularity over several seasons. The Tulane scandal is instructive in that it demonstrates that in sports there is usually a second chance. Whether that is a good or bad thing is still open to debate, but regardless, both team and player eventually emerged from the scandal and went on to success.

  PETE ROSE BANNED FROM BASEBALL

  In 1963 Major League Baseball was introduced to a player who would prove to be among the most controversial in the history of the game. It was Pete Rose's rookie year for the Cincinnati Reds, and his impact would be immediate. During spring training he was nicknamed ''Charlie Hustle'' by Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle because he would sprint to first base after receiving a walk. Throughout his career, Rose played the game at a high level of intensity, and the nickname stuck. Hall of Fame player Joe Morgan once said, ''He played every game like it was the seventh game of the World Series.''14 Rose was loved by Cincinnati fans because he played with unparalleled vigor. In the 1970 All-Star Game, in an attempt to score the winning run, he literally ran over catcher Ray Fosse, surprising and angering many fans who perceived the All-Star game to be an exhibition. Fosse was severely injured and was never quite the same player again. Rose, questioned after the game about the play, said, ''Nobody told me they changed it to girls' softball between third and home.''15 Rose earned his reputation as a hard-nosed player and is legendary for his prowess at the plate. Unfortunately for baseball, he is perhaps better known for his gambling habits and lifetime suspension from the game.

  During his long baseball career, Rose set nineteen MLB records, including most games played (3,562), most singles (3,215), and one of the most coveted records in baseball, the career hits lead (4,256 hits). Rose started and finished his baseball career in Cincinnati with stops in Philadelphia and Montreal. As he approached the end of his playing career, he transitioned into a player/manager role for the Reds from 1984 through the 1986 season.

  The Pete Rose gambling scandal made the cover of Time. in July 1989. Just over a month later MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti banned him from baseball for life.

  Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.

  In 1987 he was taken off the forty-man roster, but continued to manage the team. From 1984 to 1989 Rose managed 786 games and had a winning percentage of .525.

  In February 1989, during spring training, MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth summoned Pete Rose to New York for a meeting. A month later the commissioner announced that MLB ''has for several months been conducting a full inquiry into serious allegations'' about Pete Rose, but the commissioner did not specify what the ''serious allegations'' were. Ueberroth went public with the inquiry because he knew of a forthcoming Sports Illustrated article about the investigation.16 As rumors of a serious gambling problem started to surface, Rose said, ''I'd be willing to bet you, if I were a betting man, that I have never bet on baseball.''17 The March 27, 1989, Sports Illustrated story about Rose's gambling named several key people in the scandal, including alleging that Ron Peters was Rose's ''principal bookmaker,'' and that his friends, Paul Janszen and Tommy Gioiosa, helped place bets for him. John Dowd, a Washington lawyer, was in charge of the Pete Rose gambling investigation. He constructed a 225-page report that was delivered to the new MLB commissioner, A. Bartlett Giamatti, on May 9, 1989.

  In late June, under orders from the Ohio Supreme Court, the confidential Dowd report was released to the public. The report alleged Rose wagered on baseball games and, most importantly, on his own team. Rose faced a lifetime ban under Rule 21(d) of Major League Baseball, which read, ''Any player, umpire or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform, shall be declared permanently ineligible.''18 The report named three bookmakers and five intermediaries that Rose used to place bets between 1985 and 1987. Rose was reportedly wagering at least $10,000 a day on sports, including fifty-two Cincinnati Reds games in 1987-always betting for the Reds to win. On August 24, 1989, Pete
Rose became the fifteenth person banned for life from baseball and the first since 1943. A settlement was reached with Commissioner Giamatti that allowed Rose not to admit to the gambling allegations, but banished him for life from the game he loved. Only days after banishing Rose from baseball, Giamatti had a heart attack and died at the age of fifty-one.

  Rose's troubles did not end with his expulsion from baseball; in 1990 he pleaded guilty to filing false income tax returns and was sentenced to five months in federal prison, 1,000 hours of community service, and a fine of $50,000. In February 1991, with Rose approaching eligibility to be included on the ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Hall's board of directors voted to leave his name off the ballot. The Hall maintained that the only way Rose could be included on a future ballot would be if he was reinstated by the commissioner before December 2005, which was his last year of Hall of Fame eligibility.

  Rose continued to deny that he wagered on baseball until he had a private meeting with Commissioner Bud Selig in November 2002. Rose went on to publish an autobiography titled My Prison without Bars. As the book was set for release, Rose went on ABC's Primetime and admitted he had bet on baseball. Bud Selig did not reinstate Rose before the deadline passed on Baseball Hall of Fame eligibility. Debate over whether Rose deserves to be in the Hall of Fame rages on. To this day, Rose is banned from the sport he loves and dominated for so many years, and his name is still not enshrined in the Hall of Fame. When the topic of sport scandals is mentioned, Rose's name inevitably comes up.