Drugs and Gambling: Coaches Following McGuire’s Example

Concerned about the recent basketball scandal at Tulane University, which involved point shaving and drugs, basketball coaches in the Pacific 10 said the other day that they want their players to meet next fall with FBI agents or other qualified persons who would warn the players about gambling, drugs and the link between the two.

The coaches have asked that such sessions be made mandatory, which would make the Pac-10 the first conference in the country to approach the problem as a conference.

The idea, however, goes back more than 20 years in practice, and about 35 in theory. Al McGuire, who coached at Marquette University for 13 years before becoming a TV personality, and ended his coaching career by winning the national championship in 1977, invited FBI and narcotics agents to speak to his players each year at the start of practice. And he got the idea from one of his former coaches.

McGuire being McGuire, however, he wasn’t sure Friday which of his coaches it was. He played under both the late Joe Lapchick and Frank McGuire--no relation--at St. John’s of New York, graduating in 1951.

“Those were the days of the first (point-shaving) scandal,” McGuire said by phone from his office in Milwaukee. “I remember we all had to read this scrapbook full of newspaper clippings from the Daily News and the Brooklyn Eagle. There were stories and pictures of all the players involved.

“I remember there was one picture of Sherman White of LIU (Long Island University) in a long overcoat and one of those big, wide-brim zoot-suit hats. If you wore one of those hats, you never had to worry about the birds.

“We all had to read the scrapbook and sign your name to a sheet of paper, saying you’d read the scrapbook.”

The idea, of course, was to warn the young players of the dangers of associating with gamblers.

When McGuire got to Marquette in 1964, he remembered. “We had different guys come in,” he said. “We had the FBI and the narcotics guys, too, to explain the drug thing. The FBI explained the gambling. Kids don’t understand about gambling. That’s why point shaving happens. They don’t understand. They’re not throwing the game, they’re just shaving points.

“We think because a guy’s 6 1/2 or 7 feet tall, he’s 32 years old. But he’s a kid. He’s 17 and he’s got acne. What does he know about gambling?

“I’d get these guys to come in and they’d go down to the locker room with the players. Maybe some other coaches did it, too, but I don’t know of any. I’d get the FBI guy down there with the players and then I’d leave the room.

“They (the players) had to get this somewhere. These backseat guys come out of the woodwork and the players don’t stop and think. If they would just ask one question: ‘Why is this guy here?’

“I always knew there would be another point-shaving scandal. There’ll be another one after this one, too. But I always thought it would come from the (player) agents. Instead, it was the drug thing. I knew it was coming, though.”

So, McGuire brought in experts to explain to his players why the “backseat guys” might be approaching them. Now, it appears, the Pac-10 players will get the same benefit.