The City College of New York has not been a basketball power for over 50 years. However, CCNY (often called just "City") holds a distinction that will never be duplicated. In 1950, the Beavers – strange nickname for a Big Apple school – won both the NIT and the NCAA championships in the same year.

CCNY's coach was the legendary Nat Holman. A member of the Original Celtics, he was voted the third best player of the first half of the 20th century (behind George Mikan and Hank Luisetti). Nat began coaching CCNY in 1919 while still a player. His 1948 recruiting class was one of the best in the nation. Since freshmen were ineligible, they waited a year to show what they could do. The starting five, all from New York City of course, consisted of two seniors, Irwin Dambrot and Norm Mager, and three sophs: Ed Warner, Al Roth, and Floyd Layne. Warner and Layne were African-American. Dambrot, Mager, and Roth were Jewish (like Holman himself). They were all sons of immigrants (as was Nat) or grandsons of slaves.

Ranked as high as #7 in the AP poll early in the season, the team slumped to a 17-5 record. The National Invitation Tournament (NIT), considered the most prestigious at the time, was held immediately after the season in Madison Square Garden where CCNY played its city rivals. The Beavers got the 12th and last spot in the field because they swept the "subway series" over the other NYC schools.

They upset the defending NIT champion San Francisco 65-46. The next opponent was #3 Kentucky, whose coach was a well-known racist. Marvin Kalb, CCNY '51 and longtime CBS news reporter, has said: "It was not a basketball game. It was a cultural war, a religious war. It was City College's way of saying, '... screw you, Adolph Rupp. We are also part of this country. It is not just yours. It is ours, too.'" CCNY routed the Wildcats 89-50, the worse defeat in Rupp's career. (The Kentucky flag at the state capitol was flown at half mast the next few days.)

#6 Duquesne fell in the semis, 62-52. #1 Bradley was the finals opponent. Holman dragged himself out of bed with a 103-degree fever to coach his team to a 69-61 victory.

The NCAA had held one spot open in its eight-team field. It gave it to CCNY and placed them in the East regional held, fortuitously, at MSG, which would also host the finals. The Beavers eked out a 56-55 squeaker over #2 Ohio State, then beat #5 North Carolina State 78-73. Who then came to New York from the West regional to play in the finals? None other than the Bradley Braves , the same team CCNY had upset in the NIT finals. Played before another packed house of 18,142, the game was closer than the first one. City led by one with 10 seconds left when Bradley's leading scorer Gene Melchiorre drove the lane and collided with Dambrot. No foul was called (home cooking?) and Dambrot threw a long pass to Mager for the clinching basket in a 71-68 victory.

CCNY thus became the first NCAA champion to have African-American players in its starting lineup. With three starters and several key reserves returning, the team looked forward to 1950-1. However, disaster struck in the form of a point-shaving scandal. But we'll leave that story for another episode of "Basketball Snapshots."

Watch a ThinkTank episode about the 1950 CCNY basketball team. Put CCNY in the Search box.

This Snapshot is the tragic follow-up to the previous one (above) about the CCNY (City College of New York) team of 1949-50 that won both the NIT and NCAA tournaments.

On February 18, 1951, four CCNY players, starters Al Roth, Ed Warner, and Ed Roman, were arrested in Penn Station when they returned from defeating Temple 95-71 in Philadelphia. The New York District Attorney's office charged them with bribery. The next month, another member of the team, Floyd Layne, plus two graduates from the previous year, Irwin Dambrot and Norm Mager, were also arrested in connection with a point-shaving scandal that rocked the sports world. Basically, the players accepted money from gamblers to make sure their teams did not cover the point spread.

The investigation uncovered the fact that, of CCNY's five losses during its championship run, three had been fixed. Further, the players continued to "dump" games during the 1950-1 season. Roth confessed and entered the army in order to avoid a six-month sentence. All the remaining players received suspended sentences.

At first, the scandal was limited to the New York area as players at Manhattan, New York University (NYU), and Long Island University (LIU, coached by the legendary Clair Bee) were also charged, including LIU's Sherman White, the nation's leading scorer in 1951. (His title was voided and given to Temple's Bill Mlkvy.) However, the FBI got involved and found a web of deceit that enveloped schools elsewhere.

• The most shocking was Kentucky, which won the 1951 championship over Kansas State in Minneapolis. Coach Adolph Rupp boasted "The gamblers couldn't touch my boys with a 10-foot pole." However, he learned in October that three of his "boys" were arrested, including NBA All Stars Alex Groza and Ralph Beard. NBA Commissioner Maurice Podoloff suspended Groza and Beard indefinitely and barred all other conspirators from playing in the league. The NCAA subsequently imposed so many restrictions on Kentucky for 1952-3 that the school decided not to field a team that season.
  • The 7-foot junior center Bil Spivey of the 1951 champs was caught in the web and became basketball's version of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson. Bil was charged with perjury for refusing to testify against the others. His case was dismissed when the jury deadlocked 9-3 in favor of acquittal. However, he never played another game in college or the NBA. He did win a $10,000 judgment against the NBA for barring him unfairly.
• The scandal also stung Bradley, the team CCNY defeated in both the NIT and NCAA finals in 1950. Star guard Gene Melchiorre and four teammates admitted taking bribes to hold down the score against St. Joseph's and Oregon State in 1951.

The final tally showed that 32 players at seven schools (Toledo being the seventh) conspired to fix 86 games in 23 cities in 17 states between 1947 and 1951.

Although not involved himself, long-time CCNY coach Nat Holman was devastated by the revelations. The New York City Board of Higher Education also found that the high school records of 14 players at NYC colleges had been doctored to make them eligible for admission. CCNY subsequently deemphasized basketball in 1953, in part because the team was banned from playing in Madison Square Garden. The scandal is credited with ending New York City's reign as the center of the college basketball world.

As this is written, all signs point to another Lakers-Celtics final in the NBA. So let's turn back the clock to 1985 when those teams met in the Finals for the ninth time.

• Boston had won the first eight matchups, including the first one, 1959, when the Lakers were still in Minneapolis. The Lakers had won three championships since moving to L.A. but none had come against the Celtics.
• The latest conquest had come the year before when Larry Bird took the MVP award in the seven-game Celtic triumph. Averaging 27.4 ppg and 14 rpg, the former Indiana State star was considered to have soundly outplayed his rival, Magic Johnson (18.0, 7.7), who committed a crucial turnover in the last minute of the final game. He had also made several other errors in crunch time in Game 4.
• The seventh game had drawn the largest TV audience ever for an NBA contest and the second largest basketball rating behind only the Johnson-Bird confrontation in the 1979 NCAA Finals. It was the last finals played in the 2-2-1-1-1 format.
• The Celtics had rubbed in the victory. Kevin McHale referred to the Lakers' star G as "Tragic Johnson." Asked about the 1984-85 season, Bird said of the Lakers, "I'd like to give them the opportunity to redeem themselves. I'm sure they have guys who feel they didn't play up to their capabilities." Everyone knew who he meant.

Because the Celtics had one more regular season win than L.A., the series opened in the Boston Garden, where the Lakers inexplicably began with a pitiful performance.

• In what was dubbed the Memorial Day Massacre, Boston thumped LA 148-114 in Boston Garden. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had only 12 points and 3 rebounds against Celtic C Robert Parish. Afterwards, he apologized to his teammates. Magic pulled down only a single RB.
• Kareem recalls: "We had a film session the day after, and coach Pat Riley was very angry. It took a couple of hours to get through – that's how bad I was. ... But we had good practices after that ... Maybe Boston had a little too much time between games to be satisfied, and they took us lightly in Game 2. When we came out and won, it surprised them a little. I played much better that game, and even though Game 1 had been so bad, we had gotten a split on their home court and that was all that mattered."
• The Lakers won 109-102, as Kareem had 30 points, 17 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, and 8 assists. Laker swingman Michael Cooper contributed 22 points on an 8 for 9 shooting performance.

Under the new format, patterned after the World Series, the teams moved to the West Coast for three games.

• The Lakers almost reversed the margin from Game One, pulling away in the second half for a 136-111 victory. Kareem became the all-time leading playoff scorer. Bird shot only 17-for-42. Hampered by a bad back and sore right elbow, he also faced constant harassment by Cooper.
• After two subpar performances, the Celtics ralled to even the series, 107-105, on Dennis Johnson's jumper at the buzzer. It would turn out to be their last gasp.
• In the pivotal Game Five, the Lakers led 89-72 before K. C. Jones' team cut the margin to four with six minutes. But Magic scored three baskets and Kareem four more to prevail 120-111.

Boston needed to win Game Six on its home court to prolong the series.

• Kareem scored 29 as the Lakers defeated the Celtics 111-100. Bird's shooting woes continued (12-for-29). The victory marked the first time – and, to date, the only time – a team claimed an NBA championship in Boston Garden (or its successor).
• The Lakers C recalls: "Magic Johnson was terrific in that final game, and James Worthy seemed like he was making every shot. But the thing I remember most about the series is the excitement of going back to L.A. as champions – not just champions but beating Boston to do it. That was something that the Lakers had never done all those decades, so it was a very big monkey off our backs."
• Abdul-Jabbar was the clear choice for MVP. He averaged 30.2 points, 11.3 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.0 blocks. At age 38, he became the oldest player to win a Finals MVP award.
• Riley said afterwards about the opening massacre: "That game was a blessing in disguise. It strengthened the fiber of this team. After that, Kareem had this look, this air about him."

Reference: "I Remember ... Kareem Abdul-Jabbar," Sporting News, 05/24/2010