Kevin Pendergast is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player. He was the most valuable player for the Notre Dame soccer team before Coach

Lou Holtz Louis Leo Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is an American former college football coach and television analyst. He served as the head football coach at the College of William & Mary (1969–1971), North Carolina State University (1972–1975), the N ...

recruited him to play for the

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

as a

placekicker In gridiron football, the placekicker (PK), or simply kicker (K), is the player responsible for attempts at scoring Field goal (football), field goals and extra points. In most cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist ...

. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to conspiring with players from Northwestern University's basketball team to engage in

point shaving In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to change the final score of a game without the intention of changing who wins. This is typically done by players colluding with gamblers to prevent a team fr ...

in three games.

College career

He was a star soccer player at Simsbury High School in

Simsbury, Connecticut Simsbury is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, incorporated as Connecticut's 21st town in May 1670. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 24,517 in the 2020 census. History Early history At ...

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 Craig Hentrich (; born May 18, 1971) 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 t ...

, sprained his knee and Head Coach

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. In the 1992 Sugar Bowl against

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, 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. 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 The 1994 Mobil Cotton Bowl Classic was the fifty-eighth edition of the college football bowl game, played January 1, 1994, at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. The game featured the Notre Dame Fighting Irish versus the Southwest Conference cham ...

as Notre Dame defeated

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

24–21.

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. After he graduated, he turned down opportunities to try out for professional football and moved to Chicago to try and start a rock band. There, he accumulated $20,000 in gambling debt, financing his gambling with credit cards. 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. 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. 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. 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. Pendergast would bet against Northwestern in the games. The scheme was only successful once, with Northwestern equaling the spread against

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

resulting in little to no payout and unexpectedly covering the spread against

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

costing him $20,150 and ending the scheme. His one successful wager was against

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

, 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. In total, via an associate, he made bets of $40,000 to $70,000. 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. 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.

Personal

After his release from prison, former Notre Dame player Peter Schivarelli, who was a manager for the band

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

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.

References

External links

Player Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pendergast, Kevin American football placekickers Living people Players of American football from Connecticut Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Year of birth missing (living people)