The Downfall of the Original March Madness Cinderella Nearly Broke College Basketball

More on the CCNY Scandal
City Dump Documentary:    • "CITY DUMP" - The CCNY Basketball Sca...  

The City Game (Non-Affiliate Link): https://www.amazon.com/City-Game-Triu...

WBUR Article: https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2020/0...

Joe Goldstein for ESPN Classic: https://www.espn.com/classic/s/basket...

Before March was known for madness. Before college basketball fitted underdogs for glass slippers and celebrated its Cinderellas. There was the City College of New York Beavers…a team that would shock the sport in more ways than one.

These days, CCNY is nothing more than a footnote in college basketball history and maybe not even that. Less than a year after the school's biggest triumph, it became engulfed in a scandal that would force the Beavers to drop to Division III never to be seen again.

From upsetting Kentucky and being the only Grand Slam champion in history to arrests and eventually banishment, this is the story of the original March Madness Cinderella that nearly broke college basketball.

CCNY is not the first name that springs to mind when you think of college basketball. In fact, there are some 330+ teams playing DI basketball and they aren't among them. It is pretty surprising considering they are a former NCAA Tournament champion and NIT Champions.

City College would not be so lucky when players were arrested for point shaving. The school dropped to division III after the 1952-53 season and has remained there. To this day, the school is the only National Champion to not still be playing in Division I. This ordeal is almost always referred to as the CCNY point shaving scandal. Not the Kentucky point-shaving scandal. Not the Long Island University point shaving scandal. Not the Bradley point shaving scandal.

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