CCNY point shaving scandal

The CCNY point shaving scandal of 1950–1951 was a college basketball point shaving gambling scandal that involved seven schools in all, with four in Greater New York and three in the Midwest. However, most of the key players in the scandal were players of the 1949–50 CCNY Beavers men's basketball team.

Background

The scandal involved the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and National Invitation Tournament (NIT) champion City College of New York (CCNY). CCNY had won the 1950 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and the 1950 National Invitation Tournament over Bradley University. The scandal involved the Beavers and at least six other schools, including three others in the New York City area: New York University, Long Island University and Manhattan College. It spread out of New York City to Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois; the University of Kentucky and the University of Toledo. The scandal would spread to 33 players and involve the world of organized crime. As a result of the scandal that broke early in the year, Bill Spivey's Most Outstanding Player Award for the 1951 NCAA tournament was vacated after it became known that Spivey was implicated in the point-shaving scandal. CCNY was eventually banned from playing at Madison Square Garden, although the coach, Nat Holman, would be cleared of any wrongdoing.

How the scandal first came to light

The scandal first came to light when New York City District Attorney Frank Hogan arrested seven men on charges of conspiring to fix games on February 18, 1951. Those taken into custody included All-America forward Ed Warner, center Ed Roman, and guard Al Roth, the three stars of the CCNY 1950 National Championship team. The police had set up an undercover, or "sting", operation. The arrests were made in Penn Station when the players returned to New York from Philadelphia, after CCNY had defeated Temple, 95-71

Jack Molinas would not be caught in 1951, but after he was suspended for gambling by the NBA, he would be linked back to the 1951 scandal by betting on his then college team Columbia University.

Aftermath

The scandal had long-lasting effects for some of the individuals involved, as well as college basketball itself. Coaches, long after the scandal was over, would warn their players what could happen to their lives if they chose to make some "fast money" now.

Additionally, many collegiate administrators felt the atmosphere at Madison Square Garden, and New York City in general, lent itself to corruption. The Final Four wouldn't return to the New York area until the 1996 Final Four was held at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

While Kentucky was forced to cancel one season of play (1952–53), it was the only program that was not permanently hobbled by the scandal. To date, Bradley is the only other affected school to have appeared in a final major media poll. However, none of the programs would suffer more than CCNY and LIU. Following the discovery of several other irregularities, CCNY deemphasized its athletic program and dropped down to what is now Division III. LIU shut down its entire athletic program from 1951 to 1957, and didn't return to Division I until the 1980s.

City Dump: The Story of the 1951 CCNY Basketball Scandal

Main article: City Dump: The Story of the 1951 CCNY Basketball Scandal

In 1998, George Roy and Steven Hilliard Stern, Black Canyon Productions, and HBO Sports made a documentary film about the CCNY Point Shaving Scandal, City Dump: The Story of the 1951 CCNY Basketball Scandal, that appeared on HBO.

The story is also detailed in The First Basket, the first and most comprehensive documentary on the history of Jews and basketball.

Pop Culture References

The scandal is referenced by fictional New Jersey mobster Corrado "Junior" Soprano, on the HBO series, The Sopranos, during the episode "Rat Pack", which was the second episode of the fifth season.

See also

Sherman White – a player for the Long Island University men's basketball team that was indicted and jailed for participating in the point shaving scandal of 1951
Irwin Dambrot
Floyd Layne
Norm Mager
Ed Roman
Alvin Roth
Ed Warner
Head Coach Nat Holman

External links

• 2010 Lost Letterman article on CCNY scandal 60 years later
• 1998 N.Y. Times Article on 1951 CCNY Basketball Scandal