As a Penn alum, this kind of makes me sick. I accept that athletic recruits are going to be put on a separate track from the general pool of applicants, but this is just too much.
A former University of Pennsylvania basketball coach who is now with the Boston Celtics has been swept up in a criminal case alleging that he took bribes from a businessman who wanted to help his son gain admission to the school.
The coach is Jerome Allen, one of the biggest basketball stars in Penn history and its coach for six seasons, according to a person familiar with the matter. Neither the coach nor the school is identified in an indictment filed against the businessman late Thursday in Miami, but the filing contains descriptions of a Philadelphia school and its head coach that match Allen’s tenure at Penn. …
Allen was fired from Penn after the 2014-15 season, and he later joined the Celtics as an assistant coach. Morris Esformes arrived on campus after Allen left, and school records show that the point guard never played a game for the Quakers.
As an Ivy League university, Penn doesn’t offer athletic scholarships. But coaches have influence over admissions decisions. Allen was allegedly paid to designate Morris Esformes as a “recruited basketball player,” which would increase his chance of entry.
The indictment describes how Esformes lavished gifts and payments on the coach to induce him to place his son on the “recruited” list. …
Morris Esformes wouldn’t have been designated as a recruited basketball player if not for the bribes, according to the indictment.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-20/celtics-coach-is-said-to-have-taken-bribes-while-at-penn