1949–50 CCNY Beavers men's basketball team

American college basketball season March 2026 August 2023 1949–50 CCNY Beavers Basketball 1950 CCNY Beavers men's basketball team.jpg 250px Metropolitan New York Conference MTNY 24–5 6–0 Nat Holman 31st Bobby Sand NCAA Tournament National ChampionsNIT champions National Championship Game W Won 71–68 vs. Bradley The 1949–50 CCNY Beavers men's basketball team represented the City College of New York. The head coach was Nat Holman, who was one of the game's greatest innovators and playmakers. Unlike today, when colleges recruit players from all over the country, the 1949–50 CCNY team was composed of "kids from the sidewalks of New York City," who had been recruited by Holman's assistant coach Harold "Bobby" Sand from Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) schools such as Taft, Clinton, Boys, Erasmus, and Franklin High Schools. Background The team's starting five was composed of two Black and three Jewish players. The team is the only team to win both the National Invitation Tournament and the NCAA tournament in the same year, by defeating Bradley University in the championship game of each tournament. The 1950 City team was also the first NCAA champion to have black players in its starting lineup. The players on the team were Ed Warner, Norm Mager, Irwin Dambrot, Alvin "Fats" Roth, Ed Roman, Floyd Layne, Herb Cohen, Ron Nadell, Leroy Watkins, Joe Galiber, and Arthur Glass. Students at CCNY, dubbed the poor man's Harvard because of its lofty academic standards, lived and died with every game, raising arena roofs with their unique school cheer: "Allagaroo garoo gara, Allagaroo garoo gara, Ee-yah ee-yah, Sis boom bah, Team! Team! Team!"http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1018817/ https://web.archive.org/web/20131114011832/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1018817/ dead November 14, 2013 First The Double, Then The Trouble Burns Marty 3 April 2000 Sports Illustrated 18 December 2013 NIT tournament commentary CCNY had posted a 17–5 record during the regular season, but had failed to attract any support in the final AP Top 20. The team was made up mostly of sophomores and was the last squad selected to play in Madison Square Garden's famed NIT, which had a 12-team field and was at that time more prestigious than the NCAA tournament. People took notice when the Beavers thrashed defending champion San Francisco 65–46 in the opening round. CCNY then faced 3rd ranked and two-time defending NCAA champion Kentucky and their 7-foot center, Bill Spivey, in the second round. Kentucky was a racially segregated school from the Southeastern Conference, and several Wildcats refused to shake hands with the black and Jewish CCNY players before the game. This incensed the CCNY players, who then proceeded to dismantle the Kentucky team in every aspect of the game. The final score was CCNY 89, Kentucky 50, which was the worst ever defeat for an Adolph Rupp coached team. The blowout win over Kentucky was even more impressive due to the fact that Kentucky had won the NCAA tournament in 1948, 1949, and would win the tournament again the following year in 1951. A Cinderella Team had now emerged in the tournament. City College then defeated Duquesne 62–52 in the semi-final round. In the title game, the Beavers squared off against top ranked Bradley, who had All-American Paul Unruh and the 5'8" speedster, Gene "Squeaky" Melchiorre. CCNY came out on top 69–61 to win the tournament. Ed Warner of CCNY was awarded Most Valuable Player honors. NCAA tournament commentary 1950 NCAA basketball championship game After CCNY's run to the NIT title, the Beavers were immediately selected to participate in the NCAA tournament. In the first round, City College nipped second ranked Ohio State, 56–55. The Beavers then defeated fifth ranked North Carolina State 78–73 to reach the title game.C.C.N.Y. Five Tops N.C. State, 78-73 https://www.nytimes.com/1950/03/26/archives/ccnyfive-tops-nc-state-7873-a-twopointer-for-the-wolfpack-on-the.html The New York Times March 26, 1950 August 7, 2023 CCNY again faced top-ranked Bradley and won the tournament, 71–68, to score the only Grand Slam in the history of college basketball. Irwin Dambrot of CCNY was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, and Nat Holman appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. CCNY's victory was voted the most exciting event in the history of college basketball at Madison Square Garden. Follow-up commentary section April 2023 The championship games of the NCAA tournament and the NIT were played at Madison Square Garden. The NCAA later ruled that no team could compete in both tournaments, to avoid having another double champion.Matthew Goodman. (2019). The City Game: Triumph, Scandal, and a Legendary Basketball. New York: Ballantine. In 1950, CCNY was implicated in a point-shaving scandal. The players had taken money from gamblers in the point-shaving scandals during the 1948–1949 season and also during some regular-season games in the 1949–1950 season. No games were fixed during the post-season tournaments. This sent shock waves throughout college basketball. The scandal prompted the suspension of the basketball program. The school was moved from Division I to Division III and was banned from playing at Madison Square Garden. As a result of these sanctions, the CCNY basketball program was de–emphasized, and the school has never again appeared in either the NCAA or NIT tournaments. CCNY is the only NCAA Basketball Championship team that is no longer a member of Division I. Every one of the C.C.N.Y. players involved in the scandal eventually went back to school to earn his degree. Ed Warner and Alvin Roth played professionally in the Continental Basketball Association. The NCAA tournament did not have another game at any Madison Square Garden facility from the 1961 tournament until 2014, when its successor, Madison Square Garden IV, hosted the East Regional Finals. This might be related to the point-shaving scandal of 1951 and the existence of gamblers in New York City. In 1996, the Final Four was held outside of New York City at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. After a hiatus of more than half a century, the Big Dance finally returned to the most famous indoor arena in the United States. Nat Holman stayed on as CCNY coach until 1959, and the school's arena was named the Nat Holman Gymnasium. Holman was 98 years old when he died at the Hebrew Home for the Aged in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, NY, in 1995. Roster 1949 CCNY Beavers y yes Ed Roman y C 6 6 SO William Howard Taft HS Ed Warner basketball y PF 6 4 SO DeWitt Clinton HS Irwin Dambrot y SF 6 4 175 SR William Howard Taft HS Floyd Layne y SG 6 3 SO Benjamin Franklin HS Alvin Roth basketball y PG 6 3 SO Erasmus HS Herb Cohen SG 6 1 SO Erasmus HS Norm Mager y PF 6 5 185 SR Lafayette HS Ron Nadell PG 5 11 JR Mike Wittlin PG 5 10 SR Joe Galiber C 6 4 SR Leroy Watkins C 6 7 Arnold Smith Seymour Levy Larry Meyer Arthur Glass Charles Macellaro F 6 2 185 Nat Holman (NYU) Bobby Sand Profile of the players Irwin Dambrot was a 6-foot-4, 175-pound All-American forward and the only senior in the starting lineup. His free-throw defeated Ohio State 56–55 in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. He also made a game-saving play at the end of the title game against Bradley to earn MVP honors. After the scandal broke, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, ended his basketball career, and enrolled at Columbia University Dental School. He served in the U.S. Air Force Dental Corps and then practiced dentistry in Forest Hills, Queens and Manhattan. In 1989, Dambrot went to Kansas City for the 50th anniversary of the NCAA tournament, when all previous MVPs were invited; he met a lot of coaches and was treated royally. In December 2009, a month before his death, Dambrot was on hand in a wheelchair at Madison Square Garden when the Garden cited the double championship as the No. 1 college basketball moment in the game's 75-year history there.http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/madison-square-garden-celebrates-75th-anniversary-college-basketball-top-10-moments-article-1.433369 Madison Square Garden celebrates 75th anniversary of college basketball with top 10 moments New York Daily News December 10, 2009 The extended Dambrot family remained involved in the sport as his nephew Keith gained renown as a coach in the Midwest, both collegiately at Akron and Duquesne as well as at the high school level where his Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary's team won multiple titles led by a player he had coached since childhood named LeBron James. He had been living in Mendham, N.J. and died of Parkinson's disease at age 81 on January 21, 2010, and was interred at Locust Hill Cemetery in Dover, New Jersey. Norm Mager was a 6-foot-5 senior and the top reserve on the team. He joined the Baltimore Bullets after graduating from CCNY, but his professional basketball career ended when the scandal broke. He became an executive with a janitorial supply company, Perfect Building Maintenance, and retired in 2000 as its president. In 2005, Mager died of cancer at age 78 at a hospital in Boynton Beach, Florida. Ed Roman, the team's 6-foot-6-inch center, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to fix the outcome of games at Madison Square Garden. After serving two years in the Army, Roman earned his undergraduate degree in physical education at Seattle University. He returned to New York to do work at City College and New York University toward a master's degree and a doctorate in psychology. He worked in the city public school's system in Queens. Ed Roman died of leukemia at age 57 in 1988 at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y. Ed Warner also pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. He was the only one of the players to go to jail for his crimes when he was sentenced to six months at Rikers Island. He received a prison sentence because he had a record as a juvenile delinquent and was incorrigible and uncontrollable in the courtroom. In the 1960s, he was imprisoned again after pleading guilty to attempting to sell heroin. Warner had worked as a high school basketball referee, but in April 1984 he was partly paralyzed when his automobile was struck from behind in Upper Manhattan. Ed Warner died in Harlem at age 73 in 2002. Floyd Layne became basketball coach at CCNY in the 1970s and 1980s. After he left CCNY, he became the head basketball coach at Prospect Heights High School in Brooklyn. Alvin Roth was 6'4", weighed 210 pounds and played guard. He was one of the players arrested in the scandal and agreed to serve in the United States Army for a time in exchange for suspending his jail sentence. After discharge, Roth finished City College business school and became an insurance executive in Westchester County, New York. Leroy Watkins was a 6-foot-7-inch reserve center who was not involved in the scandal, because he had very little playing time. Nat Holman put Watkins in to jump-center for the opening tipoff against Kentucky in the NIT, and he surprisingly outjumped 7-foot Bill Spivey. Watkins died in 2008. Joe Galiber, a substitute player who was not involved in point-shaving, became a state senator and served in this capacity until his death at age 71 in 1995.https://www.espn.com/classic/s/basketball_scandals_explosion.html Explosion: 1951 scandals threaten college hoops Goldstein Joe 23 February 2001 ESPN.com 18 December 2013 live https://web.archive.org/web/20030413190801/http://espn.go.com/classic/s/basketball_scandals_explosion.html 13 April 2003 Schedule and results yes |- !colspan=12| Regular Season November 26, 1949 yes Queens College 91–45http://www.ccnyathletics.com/documents/2013/1/29/Men_s_Basketball_Schedule.pdf 1949–50 CCNY Beavers men's basketball team schedule CCNY 17 December 2013http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/statsPDFArchive/MBB1/C/Men%27s%20Basketball_Men%27s_Division%20I_1950_480_The%20City%20College%20of%20New%20York.pdf 1949–50 CCNY Beavers men's basketball team statistics and results 1950 NCAA 17 December 2013 1–0 Roman 16     December 3, 1949 w yes Lafayette College Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 76–44 2–0 Roman 18     December 8, 1949 w yes SMU Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 76–53 3–0 Warner 18     December 10, 1949 w yes Kings Point 82–28 4–0 Roman 19     December 15, 1949 w Brooklyn College Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 71–44 5–0 (1–0) Warner 13     December 19, 1949 l yes Oklahoma Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 63–67 5–1 Roman 20     December 22, 1949 w yes California Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 76–46 6–1 Roman 17     December 27, 1949 l yes UCLA Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 53–60 6–2 Roman 22     January 3, 1950 w St. John's Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 54–52 7–2 (2–0) Roman 23     January 7, 1950 w yes 14 Loyola-Chicago Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 61–46 8–2 Cohen 14     January 10, 1950 w yes 7 West Virginia Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 80–55 9–2 Roman 22     January 28, 1950 w yes yes 8 Muhlenberg College 95–76 10–2 Roman 27     February 2, 1950 w yes yes 10 Boston College 64–56 11–2 Roman 18     February 4, 1950 w yes yes 10 Princeton 56–46 12–2 Roman 13     February 8, 1950 w yes 14 St. Francis Brooklyn II Corps Artillery Armory Brooklyn, NY 68–46 13–2 (3–0) Roman 21     February 11, 1950 l yes yes 14 Canisius 49–53 13–3 Roman 15     February 16, 1950 l yes 13 Niagara University Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 61–68 13–4 Roman 23     February 18, 1950 w yes yes 13 St. Joseph's College 75–59 14–4 Roman 16     February 20, 1950 w yes 20 Fordham 66–62 15–4 (4–0) Warner 16     February 23, 1950 l yes 20 Syracuse Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 74–83 15–5 Roman 23     March 2, 1950 w Manhattan College Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 57–55 16–5 (5–0) Warner 15     March 7, 1950 w NYU Madison Square Garden New York City, New York 64–61 17–5 (6–0) Warner 26     |- !colspan=12| National Invitation Tournamenthttp://www.nit.org/history/nit-postseason-results-1950s.html NIT OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE - History 2009-12-09 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20100326191327/http://www.nit.org/history/nit-postseason-results-1950s.html 2010-03-26 March 11, 1950 w yes yes San Francisco Madison Square Garden New York City, New York First round 65–46 18–5 Warner 26     March 14, 1950 w yes yes Kentucky Madison Square Garden New York City, New York Quarterfinals 89–50 19–5 Warner 26     March 16, 1950 w yes yes Duquesne Madison Square Garden New York City, New York Semifinals 62–52 20–5 Warner 19     March 18, 1950 w yes yes Bradley 1 Madison Square Garden New York City, New York Championship Game 69–61 21–5 Dambrot 23     |- !colspan=12| NCAA tournamenthttp://www.databasesports.com/ncaab/tourney.htm?yr=1950 RotoWire Fantasy Football, Baseball, Basketball and More March 23, 1950 w yes yes Ohio State Madison Square Garden New York City, New York Quarterfinals 56–55 22–5 Layne 17     March 25, 1950 w yes yes NC State Madison Square Garden New York City, New York Semifinals 78–73 23–5 Roman 21     March 28, 1950 w yes yes Bradley 1 Madison Square Garden New York City, New York Championship Game 71–68 24–5 Dambrot 15     Eastern Time. Rankings 1949–50 NCAA men's basketball rankings ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game Random House 595 2009 978-0-345-51392-2 Awards and honors Irwin Dambrot – NCAA basketball tournament Most Outstanding Player Ed Warner – National Invitation Tournament MVP References 33em Further reading Matthew Goodman. (2019). The City Game: Triumph, Scandal, and a Legendary Basketball. New York, Ballantine. Edward Shapiro The Shame of the City : CCNY Basketball, 1950–51 Jews, Sports, and the Rites of Citizenship Jack Kugelmass Urbana University of Illinois Press 2007 175–192 978-0-252-07324-3 External links YouTube video clip of CCNY winning 1950 NCAA basketball championship CBS Sports article on 1950 NCAA Championship YouTube documentary of 1950 CCNY basketball team Daily News Article on CCNY 1950 Double Basketball Championship S.I. Vault Article on 1950 CCNY Championship Team Article about Alvin Roth and the 1950 CCNY Championship Basketball Team Category:CCNY Beavers men's basketball seasons Ccny Ccny Ccny Category:National Invitation Tournament championship seasons Category:NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament championship seasons Category:NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four seasons CCNY Beavers men's basketball CCNY Beavers men's basketball