Bob Weltlich
When a boy, his mentor and his mother’s boyfriend become involved in a Mafia sponsored scheme to fix college’s national championship basketball game, the reader realizes for the first time the real possibility of a referee’s involvement in making such a plan become a reality. This book illustrates how officials can impact and alter the outcome of athletic events and the ending of the book will surprise and delight the reader. After reading the Crooked Zebra, no longer will referees or games be looked upon in the same light as the author illustrates how simply such a scenario can be carried out. Of the millions of people to watch or attend athletic events each year, how many must on occasion question whether an official is cheating? This is a book for them to find out how that could happen, a story long overdue and a must read for any sport’s fan.
Bob Weltlich is a twenty nine year veteran of NCAA Division I basketball having coached at six different schools, four as a head coach, while compiling three hundred wins. He is one of a handful of coaches to take three different teams to the NCAA Tournament and has been selected ‘coach of the year’ in four different leagues. His teams have won numerous championships and he was an assistant to Bob Knight during the 1975-76 season when the Indiana Hoosiers were the last team to go undefeated and claim the national championship.
It is worth noting a recent study entitled “NCAA Division I Officials: Gambling with the Integrity of College Sports?” authored by Ann G. Vollano and Derrick L. Gragg, both compliance staff members at the University of Michigan. This report collected from 640 Division I football and men’s and women’s basketball officials, released in March of 2000, revealed the following: 84.4% of these officials have gambled since becoming a college official with approximately 40% admitting to sports betting, including 2.2% who admitted to betting through a bookie. Two officials reported they had been approached about fixing a game, while twelve indicated they knew other officials who had not called a game fairly due to gambling considerations.
It is also worth mentioning that the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) considers gambling and even legalized betting to be one of the biggest problems facing intercollegiate athletics today. This concern is best reflected in seminars conducted by the NCAA as well as recent legislation outlining penalties for athletes and athletic personnel found to be involved in gambling, even in states where betting is legalized. In fact, not only did the NCAA hired a person, Bill Saum, Director of Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities, to lead their anti-gambling campaign, but the NCAA Tournament Committee mandated FBI background checks on selected officials who are assigned to work the NCAA Basketball Tournament.
Of further note, during the year 2001 the NCAA supported legislation introduced in both the House and Senate. Bills S. 718 sponsored by Senators McCain (R-AZ), Brownback (R-KS), Edwards (D-NC), Jeffords (I-VT) and Fitzgerald (R-IL) in the Senate, and H.R. 1110 introduced in the House by Representatives Graham (R-SC), Roemer (D-IN), Kind (D-WI) and Osborne (R-NE) were aimed at banning sports gambling on college games in Nevada.
But with the extent of legalized gambling, the Nevada’s Gaming Control Board estimated legal sports betting at approximately $2.3 billion in 1998, the real problem lies in illegal sports betting throughout the U.S., estimated between $80-$380 billion annually. As the above referenced report indicated, “more than $300 million was bet on sports online in 1998 through more than 280 online gambling sites. In 1999, about 2.5 million people were estimated to be playing National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament pools online with that figure expected to grow to 10 million by 2001 (Lowry, 1999). The FBI estimates that as much a $2.5 billion is illegally bet on the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament alone – in addition to the $80 million wagered legally in Las Vegas (Harden, 1998).” With the money involved, scandals of the past will pale in comparison with point-shaving and fixing games in the future if such should occur.
