Sherman White (December 16, 1928 – August 4, 2011)[1] 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).
[2] 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 caught,[3] thus forcing him to prematurely quit and never getting to finish his college basketball career.
[4] At Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, the 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) sophomore immediately became the star basketball player under coach Tom Morgan.
[4] However, he had an innate ability to recall the names and statistics of the leading college basketball players in the country.
Morgan was an alumnus of Villanova University, and pushed White to enroll there because he felt that the Wildcats were a good fit.
[4] Shortly after returning home, White was contacted for a second time by Long Island University (LIU) head coach Clair Bee.
White, who deferred socially to his older, more street-wise teammates, became friendly with a guard, coincidentally named Eddie Gard.
On February 28, 1950, White set still-standing LIU single game records of 63 points and 27 field goals made against John Marshall College.
[2] In a March 22, 1998 interview with The New York Times, White said, "After that NC State game, Eddie Gard befriends me.
[2] Gard's family was poor and he did not want to give up a steady income of cash, which amounted to $1,000 per player per thrown game.
Sherman White, along with teammates Bigos and Smith, disregarded Sollazzo's intended fix for a game played on January 16 against Duquesne.
[2] On February 18, several CCNY players that had just gotten off of a train at Penn Station after playing in Philadelphia that night were arrested.
Police and detectives had researched and followed the previous several years' games and the CCNY players, respectively, that led to their arrests.
[3] The only reason that he was still able to accept the honor was because the Sporting News had already mailed out their newest issue and it was too late to recall the magazine.
[2][4] Although Eddie Gard was the primary catalyst for LIU's involvement in the gambling and point shaving, White was the only player from Long Island University to be handed more than a suspended sentence.
White recalled his feelings of the stiff sentence handed down by Judge Streit: "To this day, I believe there was some kind of collaboration between my lawyer and the prosecution.
Riker's [sic] Island was supposed to have been built for rehabilitation, but it was the worst place in the world for a kid to try and straighten out his life.
[2][4][8] The man who started the whole gambling scandal, Salvatore Sollazzo, served 12 years in prison and was handed a $1,128,493 lien for evasion of taxes.
[9] After White served his sentence at Rikers Island, he played in the Eastern Professional Basketball League on the weekends.
He played for the Hazleton Hawks, Baltimore Bullets and Wilkes-Barre Barons for ten seasons while simultaneously selling storm windows, automobiles and liquor.
[10] 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.
[2] Due to his NBA career having ended before it started, White was mostly remembered as one of the best players in college basketball history whom no one ever saw play professionally.