CCNY beats Yale!, by Arieh Sclar

In the early years of the twentieth century, basketball thrived at small colleges.  For instance, one historian found that Oberlin College, located in Ohio, did not have the resources to build a ‘big-time’ football program, so it offered basketball as a way to provide athletic opportunities to students, attract loyalty and funds from alumni and fans, and build institutional prestige.[1]  For similar reasons, New York City colleges such as New York University (NYU), and the City College of New York (CCNY) established basketball programs in the mid-1900s.  Along with Columbia University, which focused on basketball after de-emphasizing football, these schools expanded the athletic opportunities of Jewish students.  Jews from the lower East Side competed for these schools as Samuel Melitzer starred at Columbia and Joe Girsdansky played for NYU.  CCNY’s vast Jewish student population and high number of Jewish players, however, led the school to symbolize Jewish athletic achievement in college basketball.[2] 

During the 1900s, Jewish players helped turn CCNY into an early basketball power.  The tuition-free CCNY primarily served a Jewish population and Jewish players from the University Settlement such as Barney Sedran, Ira Streusand, and Harry Brill led CCNY to a record of 9-2 in 1908.  During the 1909 season, Jews made up the entire team and served as manager, assistant manager, and coach.  The team finished 8-3 and its competitive success drew the notice of the New York press and Spalding guides.[3]  More importantly, a ‘Jewish’ team in college sports drew the attention of Jewish newspapers.  In December 1908, at the beginning of the basketball season, the American Hebrew claimed CCNY’s victories over Princeton and Yale, “stamps them as the premier college five.”[4]  Yet, even as CCNY became a prominent program due to its Jewish players, the school experienced problems associated with the basketball program.

In November 1907, the student newspaper The Campus had exclaimed that basketball could “advertise” the school “to the public outside of New York City.”  The paper equated the fame of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, known as the “Big Three,” to their prestige in the athletic world, and stated, “there can certainly be no harm in athletics flourishing in any college.”  Commentators had been denouncing the commercial and competitive pressures of ‘big time’ college sport since the 1890s, and The Campus ignored the recent ‘crisis’ of college football caused by brutal and violent play.  Instead, the newspaper claimed, “athletics have not been detrimental to the growth of any institution or impaired their high standard.”[5]

The Campus wanted basketball to be a positive force at the college.  The editor criticized students in December 1907 for “hissing” at opponents, which “violated the first laws of hospitality.”  The paper condemned similar behavior during a 33-23 loss to Columbia, but had little to say about CCNY’s overwhelming victory over Adelphi the following week by a score of 95-11.  Later that season, an editorial again asked fans to “be manly and display some courtesy toward visitors.”[6]  Controlling crowds upwards of 1,500 proved difficult.  So did attempts to limit basketball’s impact on other campus activities.  In March 1908, The Campus stated that athletics “are not everything.  Last Friday evening, with the game as a counterattraction, not a single one of the literary societies could muster a quorum and conditions very much the same as this have been the rules since the opening of the basketball season.”[7] 

As much as the basketball team’s success drew students away from other campus activities, a lack of success hurt the basketball program.  In 1910, CCNY remained a predominantly Jewish team, although without Sedran, Streusand or Brill.  The basketball team lost early and often, including to Navy, whose “coach told our [coach] Mr. Palmer that his team learned how to play the game from us.”  Such praise meant little to the students who, during the season, became “indifferent and failed to support the team.”  The lack of attendance proved financially costly because the school’s Athletic Association had provided “our basket-ball men with the best outfits that money could purchase.”  As a result, the team barely made a profit since “it was never dreamt that our student body could be so devoid of any semblance of college pride as to be interested in a team only so long as it is always the victor.”[8]

CCNY’s basketball fortunes returned in 1911 and students looked to avenge the previous season’s loss to Yale.  As the date of the rematch drew close, The Campus appealed for the students to organize more cheers in order to “help the players.”  It became important to beat Yale in order to “maintain the reputation which we have built up by the hardest kind of work.”[9]  CCNY’s 20-15 victory merited a three-page article in The Campus, which exclaimed: “the high standards of our curriculum could not have done, in years, what the glorious triumph of the varsity basketball team over Yale accomplished in one short evening.”[10]

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[1] Horger, “Play By The Rules,” 210-215.  ‘Big-time’ programs existed as an abstraction between the absolutes of professional and amateur sport.  ‘Student-athletes’ received no pay, but universities often earned large amounts of revenue from competitions.  On the history of college basketball, see Neil D. Isaacs, All The Moves: A History of College Basketball (New York: Harper and Row, 1984); Peter C. Bjarkman, Hoopla: A Century of College Basketball (Indianapolis: Masters Press, 1996).  On college sport, see Smith, Sports and Freedom.

[2] On early college basketball, see Isaacs, All The Moves, 39-45.  Columbia abolished football in the early 1900s and expanded the basketball program to compete with professional, non-college, and amateur teams.  New York provided the infrastructure and acceptance for Columbia basketball to thrive in the 1900s and 1910s as it dominated the Ivy League. 

[3] For information on the CCNY team, see Basketball, CCNY Microcosm, 1909.  The New York Times provided regular coverage of CCNY games during the late 1900s, although with only brief commentary on the game.  On CCNY in Spalding, see the guides in 1906, 1908, and 1909.

[4] “The Jewish Athlete,” American Hebrew, December 18, 1908.

[5] Editorial, The Campus, November 25, 1907. In 1907, CCNY moved from 23^rd Street to 137^th Street (its present location).  The new campus included expanded facilities, including a gymnasium.  That same year, the college hired Leonard Palmer as a “tutor in the department of Physical Instruction and Training at a salary of $600 per annum.”  In October, Palmer’s salary was increased to $800.  See Proceedings of the Board of Trustees of the College of the City of New York, February 25, 1907 and October 21, 1907.  On the football crisis of 1905, see Smith, Sports and Freedom, 191-208; Oriard, Reading Football, 164-165, 170-171. 

[6] Condemnation of fan behavior as well as Adelphi score in Editorial, The Campus, December 11, 1907.  Columbia score found in The Campus, December 4, 1907.  The second condemnation found in The Campus, January 8, 1908.

[7] Editorial, The Campus, March 18, 1908.  The same issue contained an article entitled “Basketball Statement,” which illustrated the team had produced net revenue of $440.14 for the season.  On the financial considerations involving basketball at CCNY in the 1900s and 1910s, see reports in the CCNY Microcosm: Official Annual of the College.

[8] “Basketball,” The Campus, February 9, 1910; “Athletics: The Last Straw,” The Campus, February 23, 1910.

[9] “Athletics: Soon,” The Campus, December 7, 1910.

[10] “Our Recent Victory,” The Campus, December 21, 1910.