College's All-Minority Basketball Team Was Unstoppable, Until Fans Realized The Players’ Real Drive
The City College of New York (CCNY) Beavers men’s basketball team, led by coach Nat Holman, had an all-Jewish/African-American player roster during their 1949-50 season. And aside from their coach, the line-up surprised everyone with their on-court prowess. But what should have remained an enchanting Cinderella story was tarnished by misconduct in the shape of illegal sports betting. Yes, after the CCNY Beavers scandal, players’ lives — and the wider New York basketball scene — would never be quite the same again...
Holman’s method
Modern coaches scour the nation to fill their basketball teams. But that wasn’t how Holman found his players. No, working with his recruiter and assistant coach Harold “Bobby” Sand, the men went to nearby high schools Franklin, Boys, Taft, Erasmus, and Clinton.
From the sidewalks
Using mostly “kids from the sidewalks of New York City,” Holman asked Eddie Warner, Norm Mager, Irwin Dambrot, Alvin “Fats” Roth, Ed Roman, Floyd Layne, Herb Cohen, Ron Nadell, Leroy Watkins, Joe Galiber, and Arthur Glass to play for him in 1949. The students accepted.
Basketball craze
Holman was Jewish, and coached basketball during a time in which Jewish immigrants were obsessed with the sport. Their connection with hoops is well-documented across history, starting before WWI. It gave the sport a special significance in the communities. Unfortunately, the young athletes in the ’40s weren’t always treated respectfully while they played.
Close research
Young Jewish players often dealt with anti-Semitic outsiders hurling courtside insults. Still, that didn’t stop Holman and other children like him from playing their game of choice. He studied basketball players closely to observe the strategies the best athletes employed. This research made Holman find what he later termed “the two most essential parts of basketball.”
