The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Michigan Gets High-Powered Help With Staying In Bounds Greg Stejskal retired as a resident FBI agent in charge of the Ann Arbor office following 31 years with the bureau. He continues assisting Michigan football in staying on the straight and narrow, and penned the following as a special to The Wolverine. In 1982, legendary Michigan football coach Bo Schem- bechler asked the Ann Arbor FBI office to talk to his team about the perils of illegal sports gambling. The Senior Resident Agent, Tom Love, agreed to make the presentation. Tom, knowing I had played (mostly practiced) college football at Nebraska, asked me to help. We explained that sports gambling is not about who wins but about covering the point spread. That gamblers need to get inside information as an edge to better divine how a team will perform and, if possible, have a cooperating player or ref with the ability to control the point spread, "point shaving." Sports gambling was and is a potential threat to the integrity of sports. The FBI recognized the need for educating players and developed a sports presenta- tion program. I went through the training and attended conferences with representa- tives from the NFL, MLB, NHL and NCAA. Over the years, I've talked to pro and college teams. I also talked to the Michigan basketball team several times. Bo invited us back the next year and Tom asked me to give the presentations on my own. Little did I know that it was to be the "beginning of a beautiful friendship" between Bo and me — one that would have a substantial impact on my career. We worked together on several FBI cases — notably the investigation of Norby Walters and Lloyd Bloom, two notorious sports agents who bribed and signed about 20 blue-chip college football players while they were still eligible to play college ball. Walters and Bloom post-dated the contracts and kept them secret, a clear violation of NCAA rules. Under NCAA rules, once a player signs with an agent, his college eli- gibility ends. Bo would be the "star" witness in the successful federal prosecution of Walters and Bloom. It was believed the ultimate goal of signing so many star student-athletes was to get some of the players involved in point shaving. Bo also convinced me to pursue an undercover operation (UCO) targeting the illegal trafficking of anabolic steroids. That UCO, Equine, was international in scope and resulted in the successful prosecu- tion of more than 70 dealers. Although illegal sports gambling continued to be the primary topic over the years, Greg Stejskal (right, with Bo Schembechler) speaks annually to the U-M foot- ball team about making good choices. PHOTO COURTESY GREG STEJSKAL