Central figures in previous college basketball betting schemes and the scandals that hit the university programs.
1951: A curse on Big Apple basketball
Salvatore T. Solazzo, a Long Island jeweler, was the alleged money man who bankrolled the 1951 operation that began with Long Island University and City College of New York and eventually spread to other schools, including Kentucky and Bradley. Eddie Gard, a Long Island University player, was Solazzo’s go-between with other players, including teammates Sherman White, Adolph Bigos and LeRoy Smith of LIU and Al Roth, Ed Roman and Ed Warner from CCNY’s national championship team. The scandal had a devastating impact on college basketball in New York City, driving it out of Madison Square Garden for decades. Nationally, it ruined the careers of such stars as Bradley’s Gene Melchiorre and Kentucky All-Americans Ralph Beard and Alex Groza.
1960: `Jack the Fixer’
A former Columbia University basketball star, Jack Molinas was banned from the NBA for gambling activities and was later convicted as the mastermind of a 1960 point-shaving operation that involved 37 players from 22 schools, including Dayton, Utah and Alabama. A casual encounter with a Molinas operative resulted in New York schoolboy star Connie Hawkins being dismissed from the University of Iowa and banned from the NBA for more than eight years, though he was never charged with anything. An out-of-court settlement of an anti-trust suit resulted in Hawkins joining the Phoenix Suns in 1968. Molinas, who moved to Los Angeles after his release from New York’s Attica State Prison, got involved in the pornography trade and was murdered at his home in 1975. The case was
1978-79: `Goodfella’ and Boston College
The Ray Liotta character in the movie “Goodfellas” is based on Hnery Hill, a New York mobster who admitted conspiring with fellow mobsters James Burke and Anthony and Rocco Perla to bribe former Boston College center Rick Kuhn and two teammates into rigging the outcome of nine Boston College games in the 1978-79 season. Kuhn was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1981, as was Anthony Perla. Burke got 20 years and Rocco Perla four years. Hill, also implicated in the $5.8 million Lufthansa heist at New York’s Kennedy Airport in 1978, turned state’s evidence against his mobster cohorts and went into the federal witness-protection program.
1984-85: `Hot Rod’ and Tulane
Three Tulane students, Gary Kranz, David Rothenberg and Mark Olensky, were accused of bribing Green Wave star John “Hot Rod” Williams into shaving points with money and drugs during the 1984-85 season. Williams, whose NBA career was put on hold until the charges against him were resolved, was acquitted in June of 1986 and joined the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 1986-87 season. The three fraternity brothers pleaded guilty to lesser charges in an agreement with prosecutors. Tulane shut down its basketball program for four years.
1993-94: Cheating in the desert
A student bookmaker at Arizona State, Benny Silman allegedly coerced Sun Devils guard Stevin Smith into shaving points to settle his gambling debts during the 1993-94 season. Silman is said to have brought Joseph Gagliano Jr. into the scheme, and Gagliano supposedly recruited Joseph and Dominic Mangiamele to raise more cash for betting purposes. Exposure of the betting ring led to the forced resignation of ASU coach Bill Freider. Smith, former teammate Isaac Burton, Gagliano and the Mangimeles pleaded guilty to various conspiracy and bribery charges. Silman reportedly intends to fight them.
baiduhai.