CCNY point-shaving scandal

The CCNY point-shaving scandal of 1950–51 was a college basketball point-shaving gambling scandal that involved seven American schools in all, with four in the New York metropolitan area, two in the Midwest, and one in the South. However, most of the key players in the scandal were players of the 1949–50 CCNY Beavers men's basketball team.

Background
The cheating began with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and National Invitation Tournament (NIT) champion City College of New York (CCNY). CCNY had won the 1950 NCAA basketball tournament and the 1950 National Invitation Tournament over Bradley University. The scandal involved CCNY and at least six other schools, including three others in the New York City area: New York University, Long Island University (LIU) and Manhattan College, spreading to Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois; the University of Kentucky and the University of Toledo, involving 33 players in all, as well as organized crime. However, the spread of the scandal was so bad that at one point before the scandal came to light, the people providing the point-shaving efforts would reach as far as the state of California, as USC player Ken Flower reported to head coach Forrest Twogood that a gambler tried to offer him $1,500 to throw a game against UCLA. CCNY was eventually banned from playing at Madison Square Garden following the scandal, although both head coach Nat Holman and assistant coach Albert Litschqi were cleared of any wrongdoing themselves.

Discovery of the scandal
Junius Kellogg, a standout 6 foot Manhattan College center, was offered a $1,000 (equivalent to $12,800 in 2024) bribe to shave points before a game against DePaul. Although he was working for minimum wage (then 75¢ per hour) at a frozen custard shop near campus, Kellogg refused to take the money and reported the solicitation to his coach, Ken Norton. Norton sent him to New York City District Attorney Frank Hogan. To obtain evidence about the corruption, Kellogg wore a wire when he was again approached in a nearby bar.

The scandal first became public when Hogan arrested seven men on charges of conspiring to fix games on February 18, 1951. Among those taken into custody were All-America forward Ed Warner, center Ed Roman, and guard Al Roth, the three stars of CCNY's five that won both the NIT and NCAA tournaments, still the only such double championship in history (and destined to remain such, since teams are no longer allowed to enter both tournaments in the same year). The police had set up an undercover operation. The arrests were made in Penn Station when the players returned from Philadelphia, after CCNY had defeated Temple University, 95–71.

In all, 32 players from seven colleges admitted to taking bribes between 1947 and 1950 to fix 86 games in 17 states. Jack Molinas was not caught in 1951, but after he was suspended for gambling by the National Basketball Association (NBA) for betting on games involving his own team, the Fort Wayne Pistons, he was linked back to the 1951 scandal by bets he had also placed on his then-college team, Columbia University.

Results of the scandal
The following sentences or punishments that were given out to those involved in the case were implemented primarily by Judge Saul S. Streit, unless stated otherwise.

* – At the time of the scandal, Norm Mager was playing with the Baltimore Bullets of the NBA. † – At the time of the scandal, both Ralph Beard and Alex Groza were both playing with the Indianapolis Olympians of the NBA.

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

While Kentucky was forced to cancel one season of play following the discovery of the university's involvement in the scandal and other problematic interests emphasizing sports over everything else in their program (1952–53), it was the only program that was not permanently hobbled by the scandal. Furthermore, to date, Bradley is the only other affected school to have appeared in a final major media poll since the scandal came and went. However, none of the programs would suffer more than CCNY, LIU, and NYU, with Manhattan College being the only New York program to still maintain good standing as a Division I NCAA program despite them being the starting point of the scandal. Following the discovery of several other irregularities, CCNY deemphasized its athletic program entirely and eventually dropped down to what is now a Division III program. Meanwhile, LIU shut down its entire athletic program from 1951 to 1957 and did not return to Division I sports properly until the 1980s. Starting on July 2019, LIU would go and rebrand the long-standing LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds team name by merging it with their Division II team held in another location under the LIU name, the LIU Post Pioneers held in Brookville, New York, to become a new Division I program unifying the two teams together to become the LIU Sharks. Finally, following another college scandal relating to New York University, the Violets would disband their sports programs for financial reasons in 1971 before reinstating their programs in 1983 as a Division III operation.

Documentaries
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, a 2008 documentary covering the history of Jewish players in basketball.

Pop culture references
The scandal is referenced in the HBO series The Sopranos during the episode "Rat Pack", which was the second episode of the fifth season, first broadcast on March 14, 2004. After learning of the death of New York mob boss Carmine Lupertazzi, Corrado "Junior" Soprano confirms that Lupertazzi invented point shaving for "CCNY versus Kentucky, 1951. Nobody beat the spread. I bought a black Fleetwood."

Jay Neugeboren's 1966 novel Big Man is based on what happens to an All-American African American basketball star five years after he was caught in this scandal.

A 1951 movie, The Basketball Fix, was based on the scandal.