The 30 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All-Time - Elliott Kalb [106]
Sure you would, Harry. That’s exactly the kind of tough talk people expect of a co-conspirator.
This 1981 Associated Press story reported that Olson married Miss Walsh in 1956, but lived with her only a few months. Walsh considered herself single at the time of her death, and her autopsy reported her as “divorced.”
Olson, the 1981 AP story says, met Walsh through friends when she was living in California, and he rarely saw her because of her heavy competing schedule in basketball and track. He said he never received any notification that he was divorced, and was under the impression that they were still married at the time of her death.
It is my contention that this is the perfect sports conspiracy. It is the ultimate cover-up.
CONCLUSION:
#26
Did UNLV throw the 1991 NCAA semi-final game vs. Duke?
Looking back with the perspective afforded by history, it’s hard to imagine a time when Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke University Blue Devils could be considered a major underdog in a game of consequence. Over the course of twenty-eight years at the end of the bench in Durham, Krzyzewski has built the Blue Devils into one of the true powers of college basketball. His 833 wins, 3 national titles, 10 Final Fours (third most in history), 11 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, and 71 NCAA tournament victories (an NCAA-record) have cemented Coach K′s place among the greatest coaches in history. But in 1991, when his Blue Devils’ entry into the Final Four marked their fourth consecutive trip to the game’s ultimate showcase, they had yet to return to Durham as champions. In order to do that, they’d have to first find a way to beat one of the greatest teams the college game had ever seen in the national semifinal.
When Jerry Tarkanian’s University of Nevada, Las Vegas Runnin’ Rebels arrived at Indianapolis’ Hoosier Dome for the 1991 NCAA Final Four, they did so as overwhelming favorites to repeat as National Champions of the college basketball world. After all, UNLV hadn’t lost a game in more than thirteen months, a span of forty-five games. They had won thirty-four times that season by an average margin of 27.3 points, scoring an average of 98.3 points in those victories. The Runnin’ Rebels also returned four of their five starters from the previous season’s championship roster, including Larry Johnson, the recipient of all three National Player of the Year Awards in 1991 (the Naismith Award, the John R. Wooden Award, and the Oscar Robertson Trophy), and Stacy Augmon (nicknamed Plastic Man), who that year took home the Henry Iba Corinthian Award (presented to the nation’s top defensive player) for the third consecutive season.
The Runnin’ Rebels were justifiably confident heading into their semi-final matchup against Duke, a team they had humiliated in the previous season’s championship game by thirty points (a record for margin of victory in a championship game that stands to this day). Duke had put together an impressive season in 1991, winning thirty games against just seven losses, but after losing three of their top four scorers from the previous season’s runner-up squad to graduation, few observers gave the Blue Devils much of a shot to beat Johnson, Augmon, and Co. And with good reason.
Johnson was, without exaggeration, one of the most dominant college players of his or any era. A junior college transfer from tiny Odessa College, Johnson, an athletic power forward known for his ferocious dunks and physical style of play, was listed at 6’7” in the UNLV media guide. In truth, however, he was likely several inches shorter. Like Charles Barkley before him, Johnson played bigger than his size, attacking the basket aggressively, going after rebounds with great tenacity, and regularly defending opponents significantly larger than him. As a senior in 1991, Johnson averaged 22.7 points per game, 11.2 rebounds per game, shot 66.2% from the field, and was named to the first team