Sherman White

Sherman White (December 16, 1928 – August 4, 2011) was an American basketball player at Long Island University (LIU) who is best remembered for being indicted in a point shaving scandal that resulted in him being stripped of numerous honors and awards, having to serve an 8-month jail sentence, and being prohibited from ever playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a college senior in 1950–51, White was the nation's leading scorer at 27.7 points per game and was only 77 total points shy of becoming the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) all-time single season leading scorer when he was arrested. He was kicked off the team and never played another game.

Early life White was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and moved with his family to Englewood, New Jersey, at the age of two and grew up there. His father was a certified refrigeration engineer who supported the family while also taking night classes.

Midway through his junior season, White began to notice that several of his teammates, especially Gard, had been having consistently "off" games. Sollazzo was a 45-year-old jeweler and gambler who had spent five years in prison during the 1930s.

Judge Saul Streit presided over the entire case involving all of the schools. One positive thing to come of the scandal, a journalist for Time wrote in the March 5, 1951 issue, was the awareness of how much influence the game had over gambling and illicit money-making ventures, which got the ball rolling to clean not just college basketball, but all college sports across the country. White was the EPBL Most Valuable Player in 1955 and was a five-time All-EPBL First Team selection.

Career statistics

College Sherman White played during the era before many of the basketball statistics that are kept today were recorded, such as rebounds, assists, blocks, steals and turnovers. LIU Brooklyn statistics Year G FG FGA PCT FT FTA PCT REB AVG A TO B S MIN PTS AVG 1947–48 1948–49 30 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 281 9.4 1949–50 25 204 465 .438 .692 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 551 22.0 1950–51 22 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 603 27.7 Totals 77 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 1,435 19.8

Legacy Sherman White was viewed as a can't-miss pick in the 1951 NBA draft.

Personal life White married twice, and with his second wife, Ellen, they raised six children. He also coached basketball at the Newark and East Orange YMCAs in New Jersey.

Home Box Office (HBO) wanted to interview him for a feature-length documentary on the college basketball scandal of 1951 called City Dump: The Story of the 1951 CCNY Basketball Scandal, but he refused. White was upset that HBO had also wrongly claimed that part of the reason for his harsher punishment compared to the other players was that he had a juvenile criminal record, which he claimed was not true.

White died on August 4, 2011, at his home in Piscataway, New Jersey, of congestive heart failure.