The City Game: Triumph, Scandal, and a Legendary Basketball Team

by Matthew Goodman

The powerful story of a college basketball team who carried an era's brightest hopes--racial harmony, social mobility, and the triumph of the underdog--but whose success was soon followed by a shocking downfall

The unlikeliest of champions, the 1949-50 City College Beavers were extraordinary by every measure. City College was a tuition-free, merit-based college in Harlem known far more for its intellectual achievements and political radicalism than its athletic prowess. Only two years after Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier--and at a time when the National Basketball Association was still segregated--every single member of the Beavers was either Jewish or African American. But during that remarkable season, under the guidance of the legendary former player Nat Holman, this unheralded group of city kids would stun the basketball world by becoming the only team in history to win the NIT and NCAA tournaments in the same year.

This team, though, proved to be extraordinary in another way: During the following season, all of the team's starting five were arrested by New York City detectives, charged with conspiring with gamblers to shave points. Almost overnight these beloved heroes turned into fallen idols. The story centers on two teammates and close friends, Eddie Roman and Floyd Layne, one white, one black, each caught up in the scandal, each searching for a path to personal redemption. Though banned from the NBA, Layne continued to devote himself to basketball, teaching the game to young people in his Bronx neighborhood and, ultimately, with Roman's help, finding another kind of triumph--one that no one could have anticipated.

Drawing on interviews with the surviving members of that championship team, Matthew Goodman has created an indelible portrait of an era of smoke-filled arenas and Borscht Belt hotels, when college basketball was far more popular than the professional game. It was a time when gangsters controlled illegal sports betting, the police were on their payroll, and everyone, it seemed, was getting rich--except for the young men who actually played the games.

Tautly paced and rich with period detail, The City Game tells a story both dramatic and poignant: of political corruption, duplicity in big-time college sports, and the deeper meaning of athletic success.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Basketball, History, New York, True Crime, Audiobook

448 pages, Hardcover

Published November 5, 2019

About the author

Matthew Goodman is the bestselling author of three books of non-fiction.

His essays, articles, short stories, and reviews have appeared in The American Scholar, Harvard Review, Salon, the Village Voice, the Forward, Bon Appetit, and many other publications, and have been cited for Special Mention in the Pushcart Prize and Best American Short Story anthologies.

Matthew has taught creative writing and literature at Vermont College, Tufts University, Emerson College, and at writers’ conferences including the Antioch Writers Workshop and the Chautauqua Institution. He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony (twice) and the Corporation of Yaddo.

He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two children.

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Community College in New York City and the basketball team that won two major championships. Cityy and school pride, the players heroes. Playing their games at Madison Square to huge crowds, they were a team of composed of young men from working class parents. It was also the time of Tammany Hall and rampant corruption. Mobs and gambling, shaving points to beat the spread, money in many pockets, riches to be had.

This is book about basketball, a team that beat all odds, but it is also a book about young men who got caught up in something bigger than themselves. About corruption that included the highest circle of the police, and the men, including 28 young rookies straight out of the academy, that followed the threads to unravel something that will ruin and expose many. A justice system based on who you were, and who you know. Not too much different now, though many years have passed.

Loyalty, friendship, motives and goals, young men who will give their all for the school and city, but ultimately pay a heavy price. Well written, kept my interest throughout, and I came to like these young men, care about their future. I also decided I like reading about basketball, though this book is much more, more than watching the game.

ARC from Netgalley.

[Olive Fellows (abookolive) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The City Game is a brilliantly written account of a 1950s-era college basketball team that was victorious on the court, but faced scandal behind the scenes that haunted the players for decades after.

Much of this was riveting, but occasionally, it felt a touch longer than it needed to be.

This was one of my favorite nonfiction books of 2024!
Click here to hear more of my thoughts over on my Booktube channel, abookolive!

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars--This story is interesting, but it seems like it would make a tighter and more compelling piece of longform journalism.

Thanks to Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley for giving me a DRC of this book, which will be available for purchase on November 5th.

Full RTC.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 1949-50 basketball team from the City College of New York accomplished a feat that will never be done again. They won both the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tourney in the same season. At that time, they were held at different times rather than concurrently as is done now. These championships came at a time when college basketball was much more popular than the professional game and also at a time when gamblers have a large influence in the sport. Through these gamblers, City College was found to have participated in a point shaving scandal along with several other college teams. This City College team, its players and both the good and bad times for them is captured in this outstanding book by Matthew Goodman.

What is the most striking feature about the book and the writing is how a reader will have a deep connection with the City College players, especially Eddie Roman and Floyd Layne. Roman is Jewish and Layne is black, making them the perfect symbols to represent the student body make up of City College, which was tuition free and comprised mainly of black and Jewish students who were gifted intellectually but would not otherwise have been able to pursue higher education. Goodman starts the book off by introducing the reader to Roman and his family and ends it with a wonderful success story achieved by Layne in a surprising twist. In between, the reader will be taken back to that era of smoke-filled arenas and students cramming the cheap seats while the gamblers, politicians and businessmen filled the lower bowls with other items to take care of than watching the games.

While the writing about the basketball was very good and the recap of that special season for City College was easy to follow (and to cheer for them), the coverage of the point shaving scandal is even better. The reader will get information from several viewpoints – the City College players who accepted bribes to shave points, the gamblers who set up the players and the informants who provided the information prosecutors needed to charge the players and gamblers. On the latter, the story of Joseph Gross and his flip-flopping on his willingness to testify was especially entertaining. Between his arrogance when he was arrested and his speedy exit from the courtroom when he was supposed to testify, he is just one character of many with whom readers will become very familiar.

However, that quality is best illustrated when writing about the City College players and their lives. Whether Goodman is sharing their family life, their basketball prowess, the shame they felt when arrested and deposed, or their various degrees of success after City College, the reader will feel like they have known these men for a long time. The best section in the entire book is when the players are arrested at Penn Station after disembarking a train after a road game – the emotions of not only the players but Coach Nat Holman are on full display.

One more quality about the book that makes it an outstanding read is how several issues that are still discussed today are raised in this book. Only two of the City College players that were arrested served jail time – both of them African American. Several times it was pointed out that nearly everyone involved – the schools, the arenas, the gamblers – were making money off college basketball except the players. These are issues that are still being discussed today.

For these and many other reasons, this is a book that should be picked up by either college basketball fans or readers who want to learn more about the history and times of New York City in the 1950’s as the dialogue has an authentic feel.

I wish to thank Ballentine Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this in a Goodreads giveaway giveaway. It’s an interesting book about a topic I know little about!

[Everett Egginton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just this minute finished reading this truly unforgettable sports book--The City Game (Matthew Goodman). A not ever to be forgotten read detailing the incredible story of one of the biggest scandals in the history of sports in America. Corruption at the highest levels; rampant injustice; the corrupting influence of power and money! And what is truly frightening is the overriding question--has anything really changed, or are the same injustices, inequities, power alignments currently extant, and are our country's athletes somehow immune from these insidious influences? A remarkable, incredibly well-researched, book.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, although it’s sad how old it is and how little has changed. College athletes from blue collar backgrounds generate massive profits for the school, but become the scapegoats of scandal when trying to claim any of that money floating around for themselves. The more things change, I guess.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exellebtly researches and written.

[Kylee Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit slow and dense at the beginning, but an interesting story overall.

6/10 would recommend.

[Deirdre Fagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Goodman book not to be missed. Having read Goodman's Eighty Days, I was eager to read The City Game. Goodman is a master prose writer with brilliant pacing, and he is adept at creating past worlds. His extensive research not only recreates the past but teaches us in the present. Even if you don’t like ball (I don't follow it myself), you will be on edge reading his descriptions and visualizing the games, but this is more than a book about basketball. It is a book about race, class, triumph and destruction. You will visit this time in New York and read about exposure along the lines of Serpico. You will learn where the phrase “in like Flynn” originated. Corruption is a major theme in The City Game as is the rise and fall of the underdog and extensive injustice. Through riveting revelations about corruption and those thrown under the train, you will develop understanding and empathy for these players as you reflect on Old New York and what has and has not changed.

[David Berlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

City College of New York was created over a century ago to educate some of the brightest and most promising of New York’s young adults who came from poorer families. It gave them a top-notch education for free, and graduates could go on to success they likely wouldn’t have seen had City College not existed. Students lived at home and took the subway in to classes every day; the school didn’t have a lot of extras. But it did have a basketball team.

The unlikeliest of champions, the 1949–50 City College Beavers were extraordinary by every measure. New York’s City College was a tuition-free, merit-based college in Harlem known far more for its intellectual achievements and political radicalism than its athletic prowess.

Only two years after Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier—and at a time when the NBA was still segregated—every single member of the Beavers was either Jewish or Black. But during that remarkable season, under the guidance of the legendary former player Nat Holman, this unheralded group of city kids would stun the basketball world by becoming the only team in history to win the NIT and NCAA tournaments in the same year. A feat that thanks to a subsequent rule prohibiting participation in both, will never be repeated.

At a moment when whites dominated the game, with no Blacks on any roster in the NBA, and the clowning Harlem Globetrotters the only remunerative opportunity for players of color, the City College starting five of two Blacks and three Jews symbolized a new, inclusive America, the postwar pluralist dream of equal opportunity and merit come to life.

The story would be interesting just stopping there, but the bigger and more complex tale is that all of the starters were arrested the following year for point shaving. Gambling in New York City was bigger than sports. The sins of the players were dwarfed by those of gamblers, bookmakers, policemen, politicians, arena executives, and even coaches and college administrators, all of whom contributed to a web of corruption that stretched from street corners, candy stores, and taverns to the highest echelons of civic life.

And in the post-World War II years when the NBA was new and football wasn’t the phenomenon it is today, college basketball drew the crowds. City College’s team played in Madison Square Garden, “where the stands rose up from the court sheer and high and each night were filled with eighteen thousand spectators, many of them serious gamblers who cared less about whether a particular team won than whether it had covered the point spread,” Matthew Goodman writes.

Each player is reluctant to participate in point shaving, but they’re young and their families are poor, and they give in and take some money to alter the point spread. They only get a few modest payments for changing a few games, but when the D.A.’s investigation finally comes to a conclusion, they get the worst penalties compared to the small part they played in the huge racket, and each must pay a huge price the rest of their lives for the choices they made as young players.

Goodman writes with a lot of empathy for the players. It’s a sympathetic look at young men from disadvantaged backgrounds, sons of immigrants, Jews and Blacks, who worked hard and earned a tremendous amount of money for other people but saw none of it themselves.

They were in a culture where gambling was pervasive, they played in Madison Square Garden. They came from poor families and made nothing for their success while many profited greatly from it. It was already going on with other players. For me it would be hard to judge anyone in that milieu.

Madison Square Garden was bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in ticket revenues from their sold-out games. City College’s share of that revenue was enriching its athletic department. CCNY head coach Nat Holman lived in luxury on New York’s Upper East Side as his portion of the reward for his players’ efforts. Local newspapers and radio stations capitalized on the interest CCNY games generated to build up their bottom lines. Law enforcement officials were paid handsomely to look the other way at the bookmaking operations and gambling dens that had sprouted all over the city. And of course, the game fixers – part of a criminal enterprise known as “the Combine” – made millions.

Almost overnight these beloved heroes turned into fallen idols. The story centers on two teammates and close friends, Eddie Roman and Floyd Layne, one white, one black, each caught up in the scandal, each searching for a path to personal redemption. Though banned from the NBA, Layne continued to devote himself to basketball, teaching the game to young people in his Bronx neighborhood and, ultimately, with Roman’s help, finding another kind of triumph—one that no one could have anticipated.

Eventually, some 33 college basketball players from seven colleges, many from New York City schools, were caught up in the game-fixing probe. After confessing, most were given suspended sentences. CCNY’s Al Roth and Ed Warner received six-month jail sentences, and two players from other local universities also went to prison. Most of the City College athletes had been considered NBA prospects. Now all of that was gone.

Drawing on interviews with the surviving members of that championship team, Matthew Goodman has created an indelible portrait of an era of smoke-filled arenas and Borscht Belt hotels, when college basketball was far more popular than the professional game. It was a time when gangsters controlled illegal sports betting, the police were on their payroll, and everyone, it seemed, was getting rich—except for the young men who actually played the games.

[Ken Dowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the surface this is a piece of New York City college basketball history. It’s 1949. City College of New York (CCNY) is the best basketball team in the city. Madison Square Garden is on 49th Street and 8th Avenue. The NIT is the most important championship tournament. And Marty Glickman is calling the games on the radio.

But it’s a story that goes beyond basketball. It’s an historical portrait of New York City. It’s about immigrants and race, housing segregation and educational opportunity, bookies and gangsters, crooked cops and crooked politicians.

The CCNY basketball team was a fitting representative of its city and its time. The 15-member team included 11 Jews and 4 blacks. They were not pampered prep school prima donnas, they take the subway home after practice to row houses and tenements. Their parents were truck drivers, janitors, house painters and domestics. This at a time when there was still not a single black player in the NBA and when no NCAA championship team had ever included a black player.

My favorite basketball moment in the book is the 1950 NIT quarterfinal game between CCNY and the much more heralded University of Kentucky. Kentucky is a state that at the time still had a law on the books enforcing segregation in education. Adoph Rupp’s team not only didn't have a black basketball player, the university didn’t have a black student. When they took the court against a CCNY team with three black starters, the Kentucky players refused to shake the hands of the black CCNY players. You know what happened next? The CCNY kids blew the racists off the court and out of the tournament, 89-50. Sixteen years later in the 1966 NCAA championship final Kentucky was still all white and when they faced an unfancied Texas Western team with five black starters, they again came out losers.

For the 1949-50 season, CCNY became the only team to win both the NIT and NCAA championships in the same year. It was an amazing accomplishment that elicited euphoria on campus and in the city. It didn’t last. That’s the other half of this story. One year later, seven CCNY players were arrested for taking money to shave points. That’s the practice whereby a team assures that, even if they win, it will be by less than the point spread, thus making winners of the gamblers who bet on the other team. They were not alone. Players from NYU, LIU and Manhattan were also involved. None would ever really have big-time programs again.

This was a time when college recruiters offered players packages that included weekly spending money. One of the City players had received an offer from the University of Cincinnati that included full scholarships for him and his brother, $50 a month spending money, a rent-free apartment and free use of a car. It was also a time when some of the players, before a big game at Madison Square Garden, would throw their coats on and go out in the street to scalp their two free tickets.
These scandals and others that were to follow resulted in decades of no tolerance by the NCAA for either gambling or for under-the-table payments of any kind, however selectively the rules were enforced. It begs a question which is still an issue for college sports. It is the players that the fans want to see, the players who are ultimately responsible for the enormous amount of money that is produced by big-time college basketball and football. It seems as though everyone gets a piece of that pie, everyone but the players who baked it. While all of the City players who took the bribes later regretted it (some even before they got caught), the pitch the set up men gave them was all about “why shouldn’t you get a piece of the action?”

While I’m an avid sports fan, I don’t often read sports books. Unbridled adulation and manufactured controversy are outside my realm of interest. But every now and then there’s a sports book that transcends the usual sport talk. Hoop Dreams and The Blind Side are two that come to mind. The City Game belongs in the same category. Goodman seems to not only have discovered what all the key players said, but also what they were thinking and how they felt. He can write about basketball with the verve of a play-by-play announcer while also presenting legal issues with the meticulousness of a DA. And put it all in context, the context of New York City at the mid-point of the 20th century. A terrific book.

[Bookreporter.com Biography & Memoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE CITY GAME is two separate stories. The first is the saga of The City College of New York, a tuition-free, merit-based college in Harlem that was far better known for intellectual achievement than sports victories. In 1950, their basketball team won both the NIT and NCAA championships, and remains the only school to have pulled off that feat in the same year. But the glory of that accomplishment is tempered by the second part of the book: an account of college basketball’s point-shaving scandal that almost destroyed the game and even today profoundly impacts college and professional sports in America.

Recently, accomplished scholarly writers have ventured into the world of athletics to produce histories that provide readers with far more than box scores and highlights. The stories of athletes and coaches like Roberto Clemente, Jackie Robinson and Vince Lombardi place the lives of their subjects in the context of American culture. Matthew Goodman’s historical account of City College is far more than descriptions of games played in Madison Square Garden and other arenas. He takes readers to the halls of governments; New York City courtrooms; backrooms, where bookies and gamblers plied their trade; and police stations, where willing officers were paid to look away from gambling activities. It is a story both inspiring and upsetting, and is told with skill, insight and a deep understanding of time and place.

During the 1950 season, City College was a team like no other. They were not a powerhouse state school like Kentucky, Indiana or Kansas. Only two years after Jackie Robinson integrated baseball, and at a time when the NBA did not have a single black player and the NFL had very few, the City College starting five consisted of two black and three Jewish players. Of the 15 on the team roster, 11 were Jewish and four were black. Every player was the child of immigrants, from Eastern Europe and the West Indies.

Later in the season, when City College would face Kentucky in the NIT, the starting lineup included three black players. As the officials prepared for the opening jump ball, the City College players extended their hands for the pregame handshake, a ritual of courtesy and sportsmanship. Three Kentucky players turned away. City College destroyed Kentucky 89-50, a score so one-sided and surprising that the Kentucky legislature proposed lowering the flag at the statehouse to half-staff.

Goodman’s descriptions of these games are riveting. In fairness to history, the rules no longer provide for teams to play in both tournaments, and March Madness far surpasses any level of fan attention present in the 1950s, when no television and limited radio broadcasts were available. In New York City, the City College players and coaches were treated like heroes.

If the story of their improbable victories is exhilarating and inspiring, part two of THE CITY GAME, which recounts the point-shaving scandal that rocked college basketball, is sad and depressing. It reminds us that the game is still one of unequal financial benefits. Following the arrests of college athletes, one journalist wrote, “[T]here are no amateurs in big-time college sports: there are only underpaid professionals.” Everyone made money in college basketball except the players, who were the reason anyone watched games at all. Many athletes justified taking money because they recognized how everyone else was benefiting from their skills. As Goodman notes, even today, as college players are denied any form of financial compensation, the temptation to accept money illegally is still present. The next scandal is always around the corner.

Goodman’s stirring history reminds us that athletic success often comes at a price. His story of greed and exploitation in college sports one-half century ago is as relevant today as ever.

Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman

[Jena Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a basketball fan, thriving on high school, college, and NBA action. I’m drawn to the speed, incredible skill and chess-like maneuvering of the game. I couldn’t wait to read this book and I found it just as thrilling as any NBA playoff game. Author Matthew Goodman’s book promised a story of “Triumph, Scandal, and a Legendary Basketball Team” and it delivered.

When I tell you I’m from Cleveland, you will understand how I could relate to this book. Cleveland- sports proud and blessed with fans who root for their home team, “this year will be the year.” Except it never was the year for a Cleveland championship, until 2016, when the stars aligned and one star in particular, LeBron James, led Cleveland to an historic NBA championship. Sounds like the plot of The City Game, so let’s tip-off and see how the book plays out.

The cover of this book shows a scene from Madison Square Gardens and that’s where most of the hoops action in this book takes place. City College of New York played most of its basketball games there. City College was a beacon of hope for its students- who were mostly poor and from proud immigrant families. Their dreams and hope for the future made City College a vibrant place. The City College basketball team is the focus of this story, and the basketball season of 1949-1950 was the miracle year for the Jewish and African American players. It was a time of segregation, yet this team achieved the pinnacle of success, not once, but twice that year. They were heroes, at the top, then it all crashed down.

Author Goodman’s book is filled with research and facts that bring the players, their families, teachers and coaches, and the times to life. In a parallel story, we also learn of the scandals and corruption in the police and political world of New York City and how illegal gambling poisoned the times. This book is written in the “creative fiction” style, so while it is dense and factual, the story reads like a thriller. You will feel like you are living in the New York of 1950 and experiencing the sights, food, and energy of this melting pot city. You will also enjoy your “seat” in Madison Square Gardens as you root for the City College Beavers.

Who were to blame- the players, the coaches, Madison Square Gardens, New York City, the system? This is a good book to read, and to discuss. Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for a digital review copy. This is my honest review.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

March Madness concluded last week. I can legally say that I had some financial skin in the game (which sadly didn’t pay off). I also enjoyed the games on the March Madness app, brought to me by whatever sponsor the NCAA is using these days.

Oh yeah, and the players got zero dollars. Zero.

Big time college sports has always been a con where self-righteous (mostly) white men bleat about scholarships and academia while collecting money hand-over-fist off unpaid labor. There’s truth to what legendary historian Taylor Branch has said about the NCAA system: It carries a whiff of he plantation.

The CCNY point shaving scandal didn’t start these controversies but it’s an early example of the hypocrisy. Days when Madison Square Garden was packed for college doubleheaders, with half the stands comprised of bookies and gamblers.

In the middle of this storm was the squad of City College of New York, one of the better teams who finally accomplished what no other team had done at the time (and which now no other team can do): win the NCAA and NIT tournaments respectively. But they didn’t just win it, they won it with a starting lineup comprised of three Jews and two Blacks in a sport that was still lily white to its core (even the pro leagues had yet to integrate). It would be a story that resonated over time if…

If they hadn’t got swept up in scandal.

Matthew Goodman presents an excellent historical narrative of the players, the city (how the investigations of point shaving took place amidst the backdrop of cops and corruption that led to the downfall of the mayor), and the circumstances. The spine of the story is focused on the young men who made up the team, their stories set in the tossed salad mix of New York City, what compelled them to do what they do, and the resulting fallout. Goodman is smart enough to know that, amidst everything else, this is their story and he tells it very well.

I’d easily recommend this one to anyone, regardless of how one feels about basketball or college sports or gambling. It’s quite the tale and it still has merit today, especially now in the era of legal gambling.

[Rams Kick · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the surface, The City Game is just a book about a long-forgotten college basketball scandal. In practice, it’s a deep insight into New York City at the turn of the 1950’s and how good people can be easily corrupted by money and so much more.

Matthew Goodman does a really great job of making a story that happened 70 years interesting today and he does it in a brilliantly entertaining way. This book could be super boring, with drab descriptions of policework giving way to lifeless depictions of basketball games and so on until the story plays out, but Goodman’s writing brings all of these events to life so that I could visualize every scene. His detailing of the police and crime scenes are solid, but where he really shines is in the basketball scenes. I’ve always found basketball to be a tough sport to translate to writing. In a real life game things happen so fast and there’s so much of it at the same time that it’s hard to convey exactly how a play looks with just your words, but Goodman has found a way to make me feel as if I were in Madison Square Garden watching these players, and that is a genuine feat.

He does all of this while making each of the people involved in the scandal very human. I feel like I know Floyd Lane and Ed Warner and Nat Holman and Bobby Sand and so on. Goodman does not shy away from the misdeeds that marked many of these people for life, but he also gives us proper context to understand why they did the things they did. In a world where college sports make more money than ever while still not paying the athletes themselves a dime, the moral quandaries the CCNY players face throughout the story remain more relevant than ever. It’s clear that Goodman did a ton of research into this story and it really paid off.

All in all this is a book that functions well as both a very entertaining story and an informative narrative with real moral conclusions. I had a ton of fun reading it and I look forward to checking out more of Goodman’s work in the future.

[Fred Levick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This absorbing and heartbreaking narrative takes you back to a time when college basketball was king and New York City was its hotbed. It weaves the tale of one of the most improbable and remarkable sports stories of all time amidst the backdrop of governmental corruption and protection of a massive gambling network that ensnared young players in its web and changed their lives, and New York City college basketball, forever.

In March 1950, the City College of New York accomplished a feat that will never be repeated by winning both the NCAA tournament and the National Invitational Tournament. The team from CCNY, the first fully free public institution of higher education in the United States (and known as the “Harvard of the proletariat”), was made up entirely of Jews and Blacks, children and descendents of immigrants and slaves. During the following season, many of its players and other college players were found to have been involved in taking bribes from gamblers to shave points to alter the margin of victory.

Goodman does an artful job in telling this poignant story through characters that are rich and compelling. He provides us with a piece of New York City history and a glimpse into organized crime and police corruption that reached the highest levels of City government, as well as a tale of the exploitation of college athletes and, sadly, how those at the bottom suffer the greatest punishments.

“So much of the best literature has been a variety of sports writing.” writes author Rich Cohen. He says The CIty Game is “a sports-writing masterpiece,” and I heartily agree.

[Jibraun · Rating 4 out of 5]

This narrative nonfiction book centers on the college basketball point shaving scandals in the 1940s and early 1950s with a focus on the CCNY point shaving scandal in the late 1940s. I, for one, was shocked to learn that Carmine Lupertazzi did not in fact invent point shaving. Matthew Goodman is a strong stylistic prose writer that uses those skills to bring the reader into the world of mid-20th Century New York City, exploring not only its sports scene but local politics, organized crime, racial and ethnic groups, and just the general vibe of the city. This kept me engaged in the book, even though I only have a passing interest in any form of basketball, much less college basketball.

The interesting takeaways from the book can be summarized as follows. US modern society has swung all the way back around to the problems that plagued college and pro sports back in the 1940s. For starters, it's incredibly easy to gamble on sports again, just like it was back then (albeit illegally). And as a result, so many passionate followers and attendees of sporting events did not care who won, so long as they won their bets. Just like it is now. Also, the proliferation of gambling led to bad actors getting involved, leading to point shaving and other fixes in games. The same is happening across college and pro sports now. Politicians tacitly and sometimes explicitly approved of what was going on. Just as is happening now. And, of course, New York City Mayors were super corrupt back then, just as they are now. The more things change ...

Why I mark the book down to 3.75 stars is simple. It's too damn long. Easily 50 pages could've been cut and nothing would've been lost. Goodman seemed to think his focus was the CCNY players caught up in the point shaving scandal, instead of the point shaving scandal, criminal investigation into illegal gambling across NYC, police corruption at the time, political corruption contemporary, organized crime, etc. The main character of the book was not the CCNY basketball players but rather the City of New York. Goodman failed to notice that, and the book suffered at points for it -- as one can only care about long forgotten college basketball players.

All in all though, a good read for someone liked The Bronx is Burning except set 30 years earlier and focusing on basketball instead of baseball.

[Nathan Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance uncorrected proof through Goodreads First Reads, and I am very grateful for the opportunity.

This was a fascinating and compelling story that really threw you into the worlds of basketball, New York, and the law at the time. Going in, as a person not too invested in sports, I was unsure what I would think of the narrative, but the author does a wonderful job visually bringing to life the setting. Reading the book, I could almost envision the colorful atmosphere of City College and hear the chants of Allagaroo!

Tying in with that, I appreciated just how detailed the book was on the setting, characters, and historical events. This was clearly a well-researched book that took lots of love and effort to reach fruition.

The only minor issue I had was that for most of the book, there were actually two separate stories going on without much direct linkage: the triumphs, bonds, and struggles of the City College basketball team; and the complicated criminal and political investigations by the police. It's not until late in the book that the two threads get tied together, and I'm not entirely convinced that the narrative successfully balanced the two focuses fully.

Even so, that does not distract from the complex and fascinating story told in the book, and this is a great book that captures the history and culture of the time. I have no regrets about reading it.

[Esturgis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of this book, having adored Goodman's previous book Eighty Days. His skill at storytelling, especially of an involved, multi-plot period of time, is amazing. As the reader learns, the subtitle is just the beginning of the journey Goodman takes us on.

Like Eighty Days, where each chapter focused on the two women, but interwove the time periods so you could follow it easily and appreciate it, City Game develops multiple "story lines" and then pulls them together. But not too soon! By the time the scandals overlap with sports, the reader has gotten to know the players, whether politician, basketball or "shark". I cheered for the City College team as they overcame all negative expectations and then took it all the harder as their story turned. But to his credit, Goodman doesn't over-sentimentalize the results. And Goodman doesn't end with the court decisions but takes us through their future lives, and the ongoing impact of that one year.

A great read for college basketball fans. But I'm not one particularly and yet I loved the story. I also knew nothing about City College of NY and found that many friends' parents attended it. As Daniel Okrent is quoted as saying, "The City Game is simultaneously stirring and upsetting". Captures my feelings very well.
@randomhouse #thecitygame.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The City Game is an intriguing look into a part of New York’s history, one rife with gangsters and gambling, corruption common in high places, running rampant through all levels of law enforcement. It’s a sympathetic look at young men from disadvantaged backgrounds, sons of immigrants, Jews and blacks, who worked hard and earned a tremendous amount of money for other people but saw none of it themselves.
It’s fascinating in particular that the same issues brought up in 1950 are still the same 70 years later: Is it fair that 18- or 20-year-olds (who too often are economically disadvantaged and/or in ethnic minorities) are generating millions of dollars for others when they get none of those riches and only have the hope that perhaps they can strike it big later on in professional ball? Should the situation be changed to actually pay them at some level, rather than either simply give them full scholarships to college, or to keep pretending that colleges or booster clubs aren’t too often doing illegal things to get around those rules barring them from being paid? Little has changed.
Read my full review, including a rating for content, at RatedReads.com:
https://ratedreads.com/city-game-bask...
* I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Mich · Rating 4 out of 5]

The City Game is the story of the CCNY team that won the NIT and NCAA basketball championships in 1949-50 and caught shaving points in the 1950-51 season. At that time CCNY was a college that was free and relatively difficult to get in. The team consisting of 12 Jewish athletes and 3 African-Americans, nearly all from poor or middle class families. Nat Holman, one of the original Celtics and known as the "Mr. Basketball" was the coach, but Bobby Sand, the assistant coach was the real brains behind both offense and defense alignments. The team came from nowhere and ascended to the top before it all came crashing down, engulfing the majority of the team in scandal. Some of the players went to jail; they were expelled and their lives ruined. Nat Holman somehow escaped being fired and while he claimed he didn't know what was going on, he should have. Holman, who I knew when I was a counselor at his camp in 1962 (he could still swish set shots from midcourt at 60) was an aloof, somewhat patrician man. He never knew the names of his campers (looking at their name tapes) and often didn't know the names of his players. If he had been a proper coach, he would have known they were shaving, could have put a stop to it and avoided the meltdown of his own reputation.

[Yofish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really more like 4.25 stars.

A history of CCNY’s basketball team in 1949-50, and the subsequent cheating scandal. The curious thing is that it sounds a lot like a first-person experience. Except that this was 70 years ago, so almost everyone is dead, and a lot of his research is talking to the children of the central characters. Almost no first-hand reporting. But it is still pretty compelling.

The basketball parts are interesting; the police and legal parts are interesting. The off-season exploits (mostly playing basketball in the Catskills, but also genuinely working as waitstaff for the hotels that hired them to play basketball) are interesting.

It was a little weird to read of how different basketball was back then. Free throws after which you get the ball back. Baskets followed by tip-offs. No shot clock, of course, and no 3-pointers, but also almost no jump shots. The center is 6’7---and the center on the women’s team is 4’10”!!

The actual scandal seemed pretty minimal---just a few bets on a few games, that everyone was doing it. And everyone seemed to agree that the problem would be solved if they stopped playing in Madison Square Garden. Ummm, sure. The corruption in the police department was pretty impressive.

[Ginny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the 1949-50 City College of New York Beavers, who became the first and only team to win both the National Invitation Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. They were from a tuition-free college and the entire team was made up of African-Americans and Jews. They became the top college basketball team in the country. Most of them were from very poor families and despite the fact that everyone around them was getting rich from the money they brought in, the players resorted to going out before each game and selling their two complementary tickets for around $5. The book chronicles their lives, their victories and then their arrests for point shaving. The racism and classism behind their downfall is heartbreaking. It's a beautiful book, written in a way that makes 1950's New York City one of the characters.
I am not a person who knows that much about sports. There were detailed descriptions of basketball games. I'm glad I took the time get translations of these parts from my spouse or from google. You can skim over them, but they are as poetic as the descriptons of New York.

[Howard Lazar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great period piece of NY circa 1950. My father (St Johns class of 1954) long ago told me of the point shaving scandals that hit many, mostly NY centered, college basketball teams, particularly City College. This book details that scandal and the political corruption around it. At its core, it's a heartbreaking story of young basketball players; most of the players were children of Jewish and black immigrants, who were struggling to find their way in America. These players succumbed to the temptation of easy money when those around them were making a lot, particularly with their sellout games at Madison Square Garden. Some ended up going to jail...all were scarred by the experience. Two anecdotes of the time...None of the players at my father's alma mater, St John's were arrested although some participated in point shaving, due to the intervention of New York's Cardinal Spellman and his political connections. Also, in a sign of the times, when the. judge was about to read the sentences for the players, he sent all of the women out of the courtroom so there would be no hysterics. I very much recommend this book!

[Michael Charton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up with the story of the City College of New York basketball team. My father was a student there, during that season. I also attended City College. I only knew bits of the story. I wish my dad were still alive so we could discuss the book and that season.
The book did more then cover the team. It discusses the social issues of the time, and you get a bit of New York City history from that era. The book is educational, to say the least.
Parts of the book have a Damon Runyonesque feel, mentioning the gangsters and the bribes to shave points. A college basketball team can no longer play in both the NCAA and NIT. By the time, I got to City College in 1975, Floyd Lane who played on that team was the coach. City University teams only played each other, because administrators feared another scandal, even though many other teams were involved.
Basketball fans will enjoy the play and the coaching. People, who enjoy reading about Organized Crime will find that interesting, as will New Yorkers.

[EVAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on the history and sociology of sports I've ever read

To call "The City Game" a book on sports is to do it a grave injustice.

Like Jonathan Mahler's "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning," Mr. Goodman does an incredible job of weaving together the story of an unexpected championship team, the city and culture that raised them, feted them and ultimately brought them down.

I also appreciated the jaundiced eye that he brought to the coaches, administrators, police, politicians and judges who blamed the players while ignoring the rot in the wider system.

While the book hit multiple sweet spots for me (I'm a college basketball fan and the son of CCNY graduates, who told me about the 1949-50 team), you don't need to be a fan to appreciate the scope of this book.

I'll leave with, "the more things change..."

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a book! What a piece of sports journalism!!! Or is it crime journalism, or maybe NYC journalism, or about police corruption, or history of CCNY, or gambling... why not ALL OF THEM! This is a fascinating book of the point shaving scandal that engulfed college basketball in '49-'51. CCNY is THE only team in the history of college basketball to win the NCAAs and the NIT in the same season... a season when they shaved points from their margins, winning at closer margins to benefit the NYC gamblers.

Police corruption was obvious, 23 were indicted (and hundreds more were on the take) but (surprise surprise) all the evidence was lost and the main witness wouldn't testify. And, again surprise surprise, none of the players did any jail time EXCEPT for the two black players, who were sent right to Rikers because the judge called them arrogant. Some things never change...

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm learning that these highly-detailed, journalistic-style historical accounts aren't my bag. I have found the same thing with some of Erik Larson's stuff. It feels to me like they've done all this research, years of it in some cases, and they can't bear to leave any of it out. So, the books can feel redundant and meandering, with too many details. They leave me bored and uninterested. So, my preference would be either shorten the book by 1/3, leaving out the details about what people had for breakfast, etc., and focusing on the historical account OR make it into historical fiction, and then provide us the details that are necessary to feel immersed in the story.

In "The City Game" I felt like parts of the basketball story were skimmed over, while parts of the scandal were beaten with expired equine ferocity. Still a decent book, but could have been so much better.

[David Small · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful book, about so much more than basketball, has the arc of a Greek tragedy. It is also a love song to New York City in the the 1950's; it's a cultural history of a fabulous time, as well as a penetrating psychological study of the young men of the championship CCNY basketball team caught up in a point shaving scandal. You surely don't have to like basketball (I don't particularly) to enjoy this book about sports heroes who become pariahs, gangsters, bookies, corrupt cops and politicians, and a crusading DA. Goodman has done a fabulous job recreating the times and texture of this era in the life of the city.