In early 1985, several individuals, including members of the Tulane Green Wave men's basketball team, were arrested on charges of engaging in a point shaving scheme. Per the allegations, several players, including star player John "Hot Rod" Williams, intentionally manipulated the outcomes of two games (and attempted to manipulate the outcome of a third) for the benefit of several individuals who had placed bets on the games. The scandal is considered one of the most notorious in United States college athletics.
According to the state prosecutors, several Tulane University students proposed the point-shaving scheme to members of the basketball team, who agreed. Gary Kranz, a non-athlete student who initiated conversations about the scheme with the players, already had a relationship with several of the players, to whom he had provided cocaine. Prosecutors alleged that the players successfully engaged in point shaving in two games and unsuccessfully attempted to do so in another game. Additionally, there had been discussions of point shaving in a fourth game, though the players opted against this. In total, prosecutors alleged that the players received several thousand dollars for their involvement in the scheme. Ultimately, several individuals pleaded guilty to several counts of conspiracy to commit sports bribery, while Kranz also pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sports bribery. However, Williams took his case to trial, where a jury found him not guilty, resulting in his acquittal.
In the immediate aftermath of the scandal, Williams stated that a former assistant coach had paid him several thousand dollars to commit to Tulane and that he had received a weekly stipend from head coach Ned Fowler, in violation of the policy of amateurism in the NCAA. Following this, Fowler and much of the coaching staff resigned and the athletic director announced that he would resign several months later. In response to the scandal, Eamon M. Kelly, Tulane's president, announced that the university would be eliminating its basketball program. It would eventually be revived several years later. Meanwhile, after his court cases came to a conclusion, Williams became a professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association.
Background Point shaving in college basketball Point shaving is a type of match fixing in organized sport wherein one or more players alter the outcome of a game in order to benefit people engaged in spread betting. In spread betting, people place bets based on previously published point spreads, which are numbers presented by bookmakers that are estimates of the difference in points between the favorites (the team that is projected to win) and the underdogs (the team that is projected to lose. With point shaving, gamblers will often bribe the favorites in order to not cover the spread, since doing so does not inherently mean that the team needs to lose, but simply win by a smaller margin than predicted by the bookmakers.
There have been several high-profile instances of point shaving in basketball, due in part to the fast-paced tempo of the game and the ability of one player to directly manipulate the outcome of a game through intentionally missing shots and drawing fouls. According to sportswriter Larry Atkins, student athletes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) are inclined to engage in point shaving schemes due to the policy of amateurism in the NCAA, where the athletes are generally not liable to have the types of high-paying contracts found in professional sports. One of the most well-known point shaving scandals was the 1951 college basketball point-shaving scandal, which saw the arrest of 32 players from multiple universities in the New York metropolitan area in a match fixing scheme dating back to at least 1947. For the 1952–53 season, the Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball program was suspended by the NCAA for their involvement in a gambling scheme. This marked the first time that the NCAA had applied the "death penalty" to a member institution. As a result of the 1978–79 Boston College basketball point-shaving scandal, one player was sentenced to 10 years in prison in what was one of the severest punishments ever leveled against a student athlete.
Tulane University In 1981, Ned Fowler became the head coach of the Tulane Green Wave men's basketball team at Tulane University in New Orleans. Over the next four years, Fowler oversaw several successful seasons, accumulating a win-loss record of during that time. During this time, John "Hot Rod" Williams, a center on the team who played from 1981 to 1985, became a standout player. He was widely regarded as one of Tulane's best players, serving as the team's top scorer in three of his four seasons and winning all-conference honors from the Metro Conference in two of those seasons. Williams, who had averaged 17.8 points per game during the 1984–85 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, was widely expected to be drafted in an early round of the 1985 NBA draft, with The New York Times projecting that he would be drafted in the first round.
The scandal
Initial arrests and accusations On the night of March 26, 1985, Williams was arrested at his home in Sorrento, Louisiana. That same night, Gary Kranz, a non-basketball playing student at Tulane, was also arrested. Both were charged with violating Louisiana's laws regarding sports bribery, while Kranz was also charged with nine counts of distribution and one count of distribution of cocaine. The next day, two more Green Wave basketball players—David Dominique and Bobby Thompson—were also arrested on charges of sports bribery. Following these arrests, Harry Connick Sr., the district attorney for New Orleans, stated that more arrests were possible. All four individuals were ultimately released, with Kranz paying a surety bond and the players released on their own recognizance.
The players were accused of engaging in point shaving in two home games: a 64–63 victory against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles on February 6 and a 49–60 loss to the Memphis State Tigers on February 20. In the former, Williams scored 15 points, Dominique scored 10, and Thompson did not play, while in the latter, Williams scored 14, Dominique 4, and Thompson 0. In both cases, the Green Wave failed to cover the projected point spread.
Per Connick, his office had initially began investigating possible bribery following a tip from Edward Kohnke IV, a local lawyer who had graduated from Tulane and was a supporter of the university's athletics programs. Kohnke said that he had heard about a match fixing scheme from "a source on the street" and personally confirmed his suspicions by contacting several bookmakers, who all stated that they were aware of the scheme. Kohnke later stated that he had first been made aware of the scandal by his brother, who told him of a rumor where a Tulane basketball player had alerted a Louisiana State University student that the Southern Miss game had been fixed.
In response, Williams stated that he was innocent, while Fowler stated that, based on his review of game footage, he did not believe that the players had engaged in point shaving. In a press conference, the university stated that they had been made aware of the alleged point shaving following a call to one of the basketball team's coaches from a colleague in Georgia, prompting an in-house investigation. The university also stated that they had alerted both the commissioner of the Metro Conference and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to the matter.
Subsequent arrests On the morning of March 28, a grand jury began its hearing of the case with testimony from Tulane basketball players. Most of the basketball players on the team attended, but did not participate in, the hearing, while two players—Clyde Eads and Jon Johnson—testified. These two had been granted immunity from prosecutors in exchange for their testimony. Later that day, a fifth student, Mark Howard Olensky, was arrested on several charges, including two counts of sports bribery, two counts of conspiracy to commit sports bribery, and one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Per The New York Times, sources familiar with the case, including Kohnke, stated that cocaine had been distributed to basketball players in order to gain their friendship as part of the point shaving scandal.
By April 3, the number of people who had been arrested on charges of bribery related to the scandal had risen to eight. This followed the arrest of a sixth student, David J. Rothenberg, and two non-student New Orleans residents, Craig Bourgeois and Roland Ruiz. That same day, federal investigators announced that they were suspending their operations so as not to interfere with the state case, with United States Attorney John Volz saying, "We are not going to do anything that might adversely affect District Attorney Harry Connick's case".
Indictments and further legal developments On April 5, the eight arrested individuals were officially indicted on charges related to the point shaving scandal. Per the indictment, prosecutors alleged that Kranz, Olensky, and Rothenberg, who were all members of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity chapter at Tulane, had initiated the plans for the point shaving scandal. On February 2, the day of the Southern Miss game, Kranz discussed the possibility of point shaving with Eads and Johnson, offering them money that they would earn through betting on the game. Kranz had an existing relationship with Eads and Johnson, as he had previously provided them with cocaine in exchange for basketball gear. However, no players were charged with drug use. Eads and Johnson recruited Dominique, Thompson, and Williams into the scheme.
Over the next several weeks, these players successfully engaged in point shaving in games against Southern Miss and Memphis State, for which they received payments of $3,500 ($ in ) and $13,500 (equivalent to $ in ), respectively. The indictments also mentioned a third game, a 66–65 loss to the Virginia Tech Hokies on February 16, which had been the subject of investigation. Per reporting from Time, the players had attempted to fix that game but had been unsuccessful. In addition, there had been discussions of fixing the Green Wave's game against the Louisville Cardinals, but the players opted against this, as they wished to win that game. In total, the players involved in the alleged scheme received approximately $18,000 ($ in ), which was divided between the five of them. According to Time, the individuals implicated in the scheme could face up to 30 years of imprisonment if found guilty.
On April 29, Jet reported that two Tulane students who had been indicted, including one basketball player, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sports bribery, though the publication did not specify the individuals. The magazine also stated that, by that time, both Dominique and Williams had pleaded not guilty to all of their charges. On July 23, a state judge issued an arrest warrant for Ken Turkel, a roommate of Kranz's, concerning his possible involvement in the scheme.
University and coaches' responses
Coaching resignations