Sadness creeps into former DePaul coach Ray Meyer’s voice when he recalls what the 1951 New York point-shaving scandal did to his friend, Clair Bee.
Bee was the coach of national powerhouse Long Island University in 1951 when four of his players admitted taking $18,500 from gamblers to fix games. The scandal, which did not involve Bee, destroyed not only the players’ careers, but also Meyer’s friend, who had been his roommate when the two coached college all-star teams on tours with the Harlem Globetrotters.
“It ruined his whole life,” Meyer said. “That thing ate his stomach away. He was always saying, `How could I have been so stupid not to know?’ “
It didn’t matter that Bee had nothing to do with the scandal. Indeed, it often has fallen on the innocent to clean up and sometimes pay the consequences of the guilty’s dirty footprints.
A six-member jury cleared John “Hot Rod” Williams in 1986 of point-shaving charges while he was a star at Tulane University in New Orleans. The owners of the Cleveland Cavaliers, having gambled a second-round pick on Williams, paid his legal expenses and promptly signed him to a two-year contract.
Williams was lucky, one of the few Green Wave athletes to escape the fallout from a conspiracy that involved three teammates and other improprieties discovered by an internal investigation. Tulane President Eamon Kelly discontinued the basketball program, then acceded to students’ wishes and restored basketball four years later. But during those four years, Tulane teams were not allowed to compete in the Metro Conference, which required member schools to have a men’s basketball program, and were forced to find competition as an independent.
“It disrupted the rest of the programs, without a doubt,” Kelly said. “Our students weren’t permitted to compete for conference championships, any of that.
“But it was a tremendous scandal at the time and I felt it had to have an appropriate response. I thought we needed to send out a clear and unambiguous message.”
Tulane coach Ned Fowler and his staff resigned. By the time the self-imposed suspension of the program was lifted, the school was forced to start over with an entirely new staff and team.
Point-shaving and gambling scandals have been perceived as the work of individuals. Consequently, the affected universities have not always suffered financial repercussions, particularly when the schools have reacted swiftly and openly.
Arizona State University, which was placed on NCAA probation for rules violations in the 1980s, launched a five-year, $300 million fundraising campaign in December 1997, the same month that point-shaving indictments against two former basketball players were handed down. The athletic department had five years to meet its piece of the campaign, $22 million. In less than six months, the department had raised $12 million.
ASU officials believe the fact that the crimes were committed three years before the indictments lessened any chance of fallout.
“There was really no one left here who was here when the whole thing happened,” ASU spokesman Mark Brand said.
Part of the reason no one was left was the forced resignation of coach Bill Frieder, who was not charged and who had no knowledge of the scheme, according to federal investigators. His players, however, had been involved in several criminal incidents of a different nature, so when the point-shaving problems came to light, they were a final blow to Frieder. The perception was that his program was out of control. Frieder was dismissed with a $350,000 settlement and the school is still searching for a permanent replacement.
Meanwhile, the guilty players are managing quite nicely. Stevin Smith is the leading scorer for a team playing on the French Riviera. And Isaac Burton, banned by the CBA after his guilty plea, is now playing in Australia.
The New York scandals, which extended over two seasons, devastated programs at Long Island, Manhattan and City College of New York. They also robbed the college game of an innocence it has never fully regained.
DePaul legend has Meyer taking his teams into hotel lobbies on the road to “people watch,” but what the coach actually was doing was warning his players to avoid certain known unsavory characters.
Meyer held meetings with his players to discuss the realities of gambling, sometimes bringing in police officers to help make his point.
“It was a dark day for all of college basketball when (the ’51 scandals) happened,” Meyer said. “And you want to say, `It couldn’t happen to me.’
“But it can.”
