Ex-Wildcat RB Sent To Prison
Former Northwestern running back Dennis Lundy was sentenced to one month in prison and placed on probation for two years Wednesday for lying to a federal grand jury investigating campus gambling.
"I'm very, very sorry for what I did," Lundy said. "Not only did I hurt my mother and my family, but my team suffered as well."
Lundy, 26, admitted that he lied in his initial appearance before a federal grand jury investigating gambling by Northwestern athletes.
Confronted with evidence of his lies, Lundy admitted that he had not only gambled on games against Notre Dame and Ohio State but deliberately fumbled the ball on the 1-yard line in a 1994 game against Iowa.
He testified that the fumble was designed to win a $400 bet by making sure that the Wildcats wouldn't cover the point spread.
Defense lawyer John Murphy told U.S. District Judge David Coar that Lundy's reason for lying was understandable enough.
"It was shame that drove him to tell these falsehoods," Murphy said.
He said that since pleading guilty, Lundy had spoken at a number of schools under an NCAA program on the dangers of gambling by student athletes.
He also said that Lundy has received strong support from his employer and that he and his fiancee have a child on the way.
"This speaks to the kind of person he is," Murphy said.
Coar set a Sept. 1 surrender date so that Lundy can be on hand for the birth of his child.
Lundy was accompanied in the courtroom by his mother, who watched solemnly as the judge imposed the sentence.
After court, Lundy and his mother eluded reporters.
In an NCAA-sponsored appearance in February, Lundy told Kentucky athletes that his deliberate fumble was induced by gambling.
"I knew that I had a couple of hundred dollars on the game," Lundy said. "Gambling itself that overrode. I was not thinking logically at the time."
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