Floyd Layne, 95, Basketball Player Tarnished by Gambling Scandal, Dies

Floyd Layne, who helped City College win both the N.C.A.A. and N.I.T. basketball championships in March 1950 but who shattered his career in a point-shaving scandal, died on Friday. Layne, who eventually found redemption working with young people in recreation programs and as City College’s head basketball coach, was 95.

His death was confirmed by Karina Jorge, an assistant director of athletics at City College, who did not say where he died.

An outstanding ballhandler and defensive player at guard, the 6-foot-3-inch Layne was among four sophomores in the starting lineup for an unheralded City team that won the National Invitation Tournament and the N.C.A.A. tournament at Madison Square Garden in championship games held 10 days apart.

But late in the following season, players from powerful teams like City College, Long Island University, Bradley University and the University of Kentucky were arrested after being accused of taking bribes from professional gamblers to lose games or keep margins of victory within the point spread established to attract bettors.

When three of Layne’s teammates were arrested in mid-February 1951, accused of point-shaving, students staged a campus rally to support the squad, and they carried the presumably unsullied Layne on their shoulders.

But Layne was soon arrested as well. He was accused of agreeing to help keep City College from exceeding victory margins set by gamblers in their point spreads for games with Missouri, Arizona and Boston College during the 1950-51 season. Layne led detectives to the bedroom of his Bronx home, where he had hidden $2,890 — all but $110 of the bribe money — in a rolled-up handkerchief embedded in the dirt of a flower pot.