Kevin Pendergast

Last updated
Kevin Pendergast
Notre Dame Fighting Irish–No. 12
Position Kicker
Career history
College
Bowl games
High school Simsbury High School
Career highlights and awards

    Kevin Pendergast is a former American football and soccer player. He was the most valuable player for the Notre Dame soccer team before Coach Lou Holtz recruited him to play for the football team as a placekicker. [1] In 1998, he pleaded guilty to conspiring with players from Northwestern University's basketball team to engage in point shaving in three games. [2]

    Contents

    College career

    He was a star soccer player at Simsbury High School in Simsbury, Connecticut and Notre Dame recruited him for its soccer program. In 1989 and 1990, he was the team's leading scorer. In 1991, the football team's starting placekicker, Craig Hentrich, sprained his knee and Head Coach Lou Holtz looked to the soccer team for a kicker to handle kickoffs. Pendergast has never played organized football, but joined the team as a walk-on. [3]

    In the 1992 Sugar Bowl against Florida, Hentrich again suffered an injury forcing Pendergast to attempt his first field goal in a competitive game. He made the field goal, and later kicked three extra points and another field goal as Notre Dame won 39–28. [4]

    With Hentrich healthy, returned to kickoff duty in the 1992–1993 season, but had his opportunity to start the following year. He was the team's leading scorer, converting 14 of 19 field goal attempts and kicked the go-ahead field goal in the 1994 Cotton Bowl Classic as Notre Dame defeated Texas A&M 24–21. [2] [5]

    Gambling Involvement

    In college, Pendergast began betting on sports, sometimes wagering $500 to $1,000 over a weekend. He also began gambling at a nearby riverboat casino, betting $25 to $50 a hand. [6] After he graduated, he turned down opportunities to try out for professional football and moved to Chicago to try and start a rock band. [7] There, he accumulated $20,000 in gambling debt, financing his gambling with credit cards. [6]

    In 1995, he learned that Kenneth Dion Lee, a Northwestern basketball player who had been the team's best three-point shooter, had received threats from a bookmaker over his own gambling debts. [8] He convinced Lee, Dewey Williams and Matt Purdy to shave points in upcoming Wildcats games. Lee served a six-game suspension for betting on college sports, while Purdy, also a Northwestern football player, was accused of intentionally fumbling the football as a result of his own gambling debts. [9] Pendergast agreed to pay Lee $4,000 for their successful bet in one game and doubled his offer to $8,000 for the following game. [2]

    The players were to ensure that the team failed to cover the point spread in several upcoming games. Because Northwestern would not be favored by oddsmakers, the team would have to lose by a larger margin than the posted spread. [10] Pendergast would bet against Northwestern in the games. The scheme was only successful once, with Northwestern equaling the spread against Wisconsin resulting in little to no payout and unexpectedly covering the spread against Michigan costing him $20,150 and ending the scheme. His one successful wager was against Penn State, where he won $10,000. The game against Michigan was particularly tough as he had bet that Northwestern would fail to cover a 25 1/2-point spread and ended up losing by only 17 points. [11] In total, via an associate, he made bets of $40,000 to $70,000. [2] [10]

    The Federal government began an investigation of Lee and Purdy after Northwestern suspended him for his prior gambling and forwarded the results to the US Attorney. [10] In 1998, the government charged five people, including Pendergast, Lee and Williams over their activities. Pendergast pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to two months in prison while Lee and Williams received one-month sentences. The judge considered that Pendergast and Lee cooperated and were already giving speeches to student-athletes over the dangers of gambling. [9]

    Personal

    After his release from prison, former Notre Dame player Peter Schivarelli, who was a manager for the band Chicago offered Pendergast a job as assistant manager for the band. As of 2018, Pendergast is a registered nurse and continues to speak about his activities and his recovery from gambling addiction. [12]

    Related Research Articles

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Ara Parseghian</span> American football player and coach (1923–2017)

    Ara Raoul Parseghian was an American football player and coach who guided the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for bringing Notre Dame's Fighting Irish football program back from years of futility into national prominence in 1964 and is widely regarded alongside Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy as a part of the "Holy Trinity" of Notre Dame head coaches.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Barnett</span> American football player and coach (born 1946)

    Gary Lee Barnett is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Fort Lewis College (1982–1983), Northwestern University (1992–1998), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (1999–2005), compiling a career college football record of 92–94–2. His 1995 Northwestern team won the Big Ten Conference title, the first for the program since 1936, and played in the school's first Rose Bowl since 1949. At Colorado, Barnett was suspended briefly in the 2004 offseason due to events stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct by several members of the football team.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Hentrich</span> American football player (born 1971)

    Craig Hentrich is an American former professional football player who was a punter for 17 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He was selected by the New York Jets in the eighth round of the 1993 NFL Draft, and has also played for the Green Bay Packers and Tennessee Oilers / Titans. With the Packers, he won Super Bowl XXXI against the New England Patriots.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwestern Wildcats football</span> Football team of Northwestern University

    The Northwestern Wildcats football team represents Northwestern University as an NCAA Division I college football team and member of the Big Ten Conference based near Chicago in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern began playing football in 1882. Its football mascot is the Wildcat, a term coined by a Chicago Tribune reporter in 1924, after reporting on a football game where the players appeared as "a wall of purple wildcats". Northwestern Football is also marketed as "Chicago's Big Ten Team" with its proximity and ties to Chicago.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Pappy Waldorf</span> American football player and coach (1902–1981)

    Lynn Osbert "Pappy" Waldorf was an American college football player and coach. He received the first national collegiate football coach of the year award in 1935. Waldorf became known for his motivational coaching, connection with his players and the extremely organized and consistent coaching technique. He won conference titles with each of the five teams that he coached. Waldorf coached from 1925 to 1956, serving as the head football coach at Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma State University, Kansas State University, Northwestern University, and the University of California, Berkeley. Waldorf's career coaching record was 174–100–22. Waldorf was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1966.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">William Shakespeare (American football)</span> American football player (1912–1974)

    William Valentine Shakespeare was an American football player. He played at the halfback position, and also handled punting, for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football teams from 1933 to 1935. He gained his greatest acclaim for throwing the winning touchdown pass as time ran off the clock in Notre Dame's 1935 victory over Ohio State, a game that was voted the best game in the first 100 years of college football. Shakespeare was selected as a consensus first-team All-American in 1935 and was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983. Sharing the same name as "The Bard of Avon", Shakespeare earned nicknames including "The Bard of Staten Island", "The Bard of South Bend", and "The Merchant of Menace".

    The 1939 Iowa Hawkeyes football team represented the University of Iowa in the 1939 Big Ten Conference football season. The team, nicknamed the Ironmen, was coached by Eddie Anderson and was led on the field by halfback Nile Kinnick.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Edgar Manske</span> American football player and coach (1912–2002)

    Edgar John "Eggs" Manske was a professional American football player who played six seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Manske was the last college player to play without a football helmet. Manske played in two NFL championship games with the Chicago Bears, including the historic 1940 NFL Championship Game, a 73–0 victory over the Washington Redskins.

    The 1991 Orange Bowl was the 57th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday, January 1. Part of the 1990–91 bowl game season, it matched the independent and fifth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the #1 Colorado Buffaloes of the Big Eight Conference.

    The 1992 Sugar Bowl was the 58th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Wednesday, January 1. Part of the 1991–92 bowl game season, it matched the eighteenth-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the #3 Florida Gators of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

    The 1995 Northwestern Wildcats football team represented Northwestern University in the 1995 NCAA Division I-A college football season. The 1995 season was a highly memorable one for the Northwestern program, as the Wildcats went 10–2 overall and 8–0 in the Big Ten Conference, earning their first winning season since 1971, their first conference championship since 1936, and their first 10-win season since 1903. They also broke several long-standing losing streaks to regular opponents, including a 22-game losing streak to Iowa, a 19-game losing streak against Michigan, and a 14-game losing streak to Notre Dame.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">1898 Michigan Wolverines football team</span> American college football season

    The 1898 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1898 Western Conference football season. With Gustave Ferbert in his second year as head coach, the team compiled an undefeated 10–0 record, outscored its opponents 205–26, and won the Western Conference championship for the first time in the school's history.

    Zak Adam Kustok is an American businessman who was starting quarterback for the Northwestern Wildcats from 1999 to 2001. He originally matriculated at Notre Dame, but suffered from a change in the offensive game plan when Bob Davie replaced Lou Holtz, who had recruited him. Early in his second season in 1998 he left the program and joined Northwestern after its fifth game in 1999. Despite playing only two and a half seasons for Northwestern, he is the current Northwestern record holder for many quarterback rushing and passing statistics, including single season and career rushing touchdowns, career rushing yardage, career and single-season consecutive games with a touchdown pass and career consecutive pass attempts without an interception. He was a 2001 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award finalist.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">1909 Michigan Wolverines football team</span> American college football season

    The 1909 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1909 college football season. The team's head coach was Fielding H. Yost in his ninth year at Michigan. The Wolverines compiled a record of 6–1, outscored opponents 116 to 34, and held six of seven opponents to six points or less.

    The 1901 Notre Dame football team was an American football team that represented the University of Notre Dame in the 1901 college football season. In its second season with Pat O'Dea as coach, the team compiled an 8–1–1 record, shut out six opponents, and outscored all opponents by a total of 145 to 19. Al Fortin was the team captain.

    The 1964 Big Ten Conference football season was the 69th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference and was a part of the 1964 NCAA University Division football season.

    The 1938 Big Ten Conference football season was the 43rd season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Ten Conference and was a part of the 1938 college football season.

    The 1949 Big Nine Conference football season was the 54th season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Nine Conference and was a part of the 1949 college football season.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Michele Weissenhofer</span> American professional soccer player (born 1987)

    Michele Weissenhofer Fumagalli is a retired American professional soccer player who last played as a striker for the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She is currently the performance dietitian for Chicago Fire FC in the MLS.

    Ryan Roberts is a former American football player who played defensive end in college football for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team from 1998 to 2002. He is an alumnus of Haddonfield Memorial High School.

    References

    1. ↑ "Looking for the Next Adrenaline Rush". ESPN. 2004-01-07.
    2. 1 2 3 4 "Pendergast Pleads Guilty In Nu Basketball Fix". Chicago Tribune. 1998-04-10.
    3. ↑ "Irish Ask Soccer Star to Help". New York Times. 1991-11-16.
    4. ↑ Walters, John; Millard, Chris (19 July 2004). Notre Dame Golden Moments: 20 Memorable Events That Shaped Notre Dame Football. ISBN   9781418557898 . Retrieved 2018-08-04.
    5. ↑ "Kevin Pendergast Player Page". sports-reference.com. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
    6. 1 2 "Bad Bet:A Fixer and His Losses". Newsweek. 1999-04-18.
    7. ↑ "'Mr. Squeaky Clean' Gets Mud-splattered". Chicago Tribune. 1997-04-05.
    8. ↑ "Ex-Irish Kicker Makes Conversion from Gambling Addict to Crusader". Pocono Record. 1999-04-05.
    9. 1 2 "4 Sentenced In Gambling Plot At Nu". Chicago Tribune. 1998-11-25.
    10. 1 2 3 "Ex-Northwestern Players Charged in Point-Shaving". New York Times. 1998-03-27.
    11. ↑ "The Fix Was In". Sports Illustrated. 1998-11-09.
    12. ↑ "Kevin Pendergast represents side of legal gambling story easy to overlook". Chicago Tribune. 2018-05-20.
    This page is based on this Wikipedia article
    Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
    Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.