Rick Kuhn, 69, Dies; Convicted in a College Gambling Scandal

While playing basketball at Boston College, he participated in a point-shaving scheme with Henry Hill, the mobster later portrayed in the movie “Goodfellas.”


Rick Kuhn of the Boston College basketball team during the 1978-79 season. He was a backup forward and center when he agreed to participate in a point-shaving plot. Joe Dennehy/The Boston Globe, via Getty Images

By Richard Sandomir
Jan. 14, 2025

Rick Kuhn, a Boston College basketball player who was convicted for taking part in a headline-making point-shaving scandal that was largely organized by Henry Hill, the mobster played by Ray Liotta in the 1990 movie “Goodfellas,” died on Dec. 22 at his home in Ligonier, Pa. He was 69. ... The cause was pancreatic cancer, said Chuck Finder, who collaborated with Mr. Kuhn on a recently completed memoir.

Mr. Kuhn was a 6-foot-5 backup forward and center for the Boston College Eagles in 1978 when he agreed to participate in a plot to help make sure his team won by fewer points than the spread — the number of points by which oddsmakers make a team a favorite or an underdog in certain games — or lost by more. ... Small subterfuges, like a player deliberately committing a critical foul or appearing to try to steal a ball but letting his opponent get around him to score, could alter the margin of victory.

The scandal began unfolding when Mr. Kuhn took a teammate and close friend, Jim Sweeney, to a hotel room near Logan Airport in Boston to meet Mr. Hill; Paul Mazzei, a narcotics trafficker Hill had met in a federal prison; and Tony Perla, a small-time gambler.

“You’re thinking, the initial phase, they want insider information,” Mr. Kuhn wrote in a memoir. But two hours into the meeting, the subject of point shaving came up, and the players were asked how much money they would want to participate in such a scheme. ... “I said, ‘One hundred thousand,’” Mr. Kuhn recalled telling them, to which Mr. Hill replied, “I like this kid.”


Mr. Kuhn in action during the 1977-78 season. In his three years at Boston College, he averaged only 4.3 points a game. But according to a federal prosecutor, he played enough minutes to influence the betting scheme. Frank O’Brien/The Boston Globe, via Getty Images

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A correction was made on Jan. 14, 2025: An earlier version of this obituary misstated the day in 1955 that Mr. Kuhn was born. It was July 15, not July 18.

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Richard Sandomir, an obituaries reporter, has been writing for The Times for more than three decades. More about Richard Sandomir