Delving into the history of gambling and corruption in intercollegiate sports, Cheating the Spread
recounts all of the major gambling scandals in college football and
basketball. Digging through court records, newspapers, government
documents, and university archives and conducting private interviews,
Albert J. Figone finds that game rigging has been pervasive and
nationwide throughout most of the sports' history. The insidious
practice has spread to implicate not only bookies and unscrupulous
gamblers but also college administrators, athletic organizers, coaches,
fellow students, and the athletes themselves.
Naming
the players, coaches, gamblers, and go-betweens involved, Figone
discusses numerous college basketball and football games reported to
have been fixed and describes the various methods used to gain unfair
advantage, inside information, or undue profit. His survey of college
football includes early years of gambling on games between established
schools such as Yale, Princeton, and Harvard; Notre Dame's All-American
halfback and skilled gambler George Gipp; and the 1962 allegations of
insider information between Alabama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and former
Georgia coach James Wallace "Wally" Butts; and many other recent
incidents. Notable events in basketball include the 1951 scandal
involving City College of New York and six other schools throughout the
East Coast and the Midwest; the 1961 point-shaving incident that put a
permanent end to the Dixie Classic tournament; the 1978 scheme in which
underworld figures recruited and bribed several Boston College players
to ensure a favorable point spread; the 1994-95 Northwestern scandal in
which players bet against their own team; and other recent examples of
compromised gameplay and gambling.
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