The Game They Played

by Stanley Cohen

It happened in the 1949–50 college basketball season. The unranked City College team ("five street kids from the City of New York—three Jews and two blacks") outstripped the competition from the Midwest to take the titles in both the NCAA championship and National Invitation Tournament. The feat was unprecedented, and never again duplicated. Sadly, the scandal that followed it—and ended with the indictment of twenty players (for shaving points) as well as fourteen fixers—left New York bereft of big-time college basketball. Cited by Sports Illustrated as one the twenty-five best literary sports books ever published and the basis for the award-winning HBO documentary City Dump, which has been optioned for a major film, The Game They Played comprises both a history of the fixed and dumped college basketball games from the late 1940s to the early 1960s and a morality tale that contemplates the nature of justice in America. It poignantly tells the story, too, of dreams that were lost, illusions broken, and kids betrayed by the sad truths of greed and corruption.

Genres: Sports, Basketball, Nonfiction, History

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

There are more than one Stanley Cohen author.

*Stanley Cohen (1922-): USA biochemist
*Stanley Cohen (1928–2010): USA crime novelist
*Stanley Cohen (1934-): USA sport writer
*Stanley Cohen (1937-): USA biologist
*Stanley Cohen (1942–2013): South Africa-British sociologist

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but the events are told better in City Game or Scandals of 51

[Dylan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not an awful book. In fact, I'd mark it as a good look into basketball in the 40's and early 50's, a sport and institution so different from modern CBB that makes it interesting. But I couldn't connect to the prose at any point which drug it down. It's not bad per se, I wouldn't begrudge someone who enjoyed it even if I don't think it's special, but it made this relatively small book a trudge to get through.

In a similar vein, the basketball and point shaving scandal often feels like it takes a back seat, used a vessel for the authors tangents. Some of those are insightful, most are just kinda boring or uninteresting. And then there's the frequent feeling of needing to defend NYC from the Midwest and South? The reverse moralizing of the moralizing of small city and rural America does toward cities?Not enough basketball, too much rote faux romantic imagery, to surface level a "crime" drama. It all just makes for a mostly unfulfilling and grinding read but not one I'd necessarily say has no value or can't be enjoyed by someone who connects better with the style.

Except for the author using second person, there's no forgiveness for that.

[Matt Bernhardt · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Dad bought (or gave?) me this book, I swear like 20+ years ago. It's moved around house to house, state to state, and I finally went for it since I don't want to have a physical bookshelf and didn't want to get rid of it before reading it.

That has nothing to do with the book itself, of course. I liked that it was a sports story I didn't know much about, and to me is a bit inconceivable considering modern times: late 1940s, when college basketball was more popular than the pros, and centered around the NIT and New York City

but the story was told with too many romantic digressions, and yet also too much rote recitation. Like there'd be entire pages where it was detailing out the box scores of certain games.

[Matt Moran · Rating 2 out of 5]

A weak entry on the SI Top 100 list. Overwritten and melodramatic about an obscure period in college basketball history.
This could have been a long essay not a full length book and the author has an insufferable habit of referring to himself in the second person.

[Stephen Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting historic recount of a College Basketball scandal

Found the narrative style a little strange but otherwise a fairly decent read about a basketball scandal I knew nothing about.

[Kevin Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

takes a while to get into the meat of everything but halfway through the book until the end is riveting.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The story of the only team ever to win the NIT and NCAA tournaments in the same year. ..." Worth reading, but the title and cover blurb led me to expect lots more basketball. The book focuses on gambling, game-fixing scandals that involved this City College team and many others nationwide. Those descriptions are interesting and thorough. I just expected an entirely different kind of read.