Complete The New York Times Obituary

Brooklyn, N.Y. - Sherman White, an All-American forward on the men's basketball team at Long Island University, died Aug. 4 at his home in Piscataway, N.J.. He was 82. The cause was congestive heart failure, his wife, Ellen said.

White remains one of the greatest players in LIU history as he still ranks 10th on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,435 points. He set the single-game scoring record with 63 points scored against John Marshall on Feb. 28, 1950. As a senior in 1950-51 he scored 603 points, the seventh-highest single-season total in program-history.

White also earned consesus All-America honors during his career and when Madison Square Garden marked the 50th anniversary of the college game there in 1984, White was named to its all-time team of collegians who had played at the old or new Garden, and he was introduced as “the virtuoso of New York basketball.”

In the winter of 1951, White emerged as perhaps the finest player in college basketball and was named player of the year by The Sporting News. An athletically gifted 6-foot-8 forward, he was leading the nation in scoring with an average of more than 27 points a game. He was adept at rebounding, jumping, handling the ball and running the court. The Knicks were expected to select White in the N.B.A. draft, and he was told by his coach, Clair Bee, that they were going to offer a lucrative contract.

Unfortunately, just days after being named player of the year, White and several L.I.U. teammates were arrested in February 1951 on charges of accepting bribes from a professional gambler. Players from powerful teams like City College, Bradley and the University of Kentucky were also implicated in what became a national scandal.

As a result, White was sentenced to a year in jail in November 1951 on his guilty plea to a misdemeanor conspiracy charge and along with the other players in the scandal, he was barred from the NBA.

White spent time playing in the semipro Eastern League, but he focused as well on coaching and mentoring inner-city youngsters. He did volunteer work with a community development center in Orange, N.J., and, as he related it to Charley Rosen for his book “Scandals of '51”, “I'll tell a kid about my involvement in the scandals if I think it will do him any good.”

In addition to his wife, White is survived by his daughter, Marcell White-Arcudi, from his marriage to his first wife, Doris, which ended in divorce; three stepchildren, Laurie Badami, Shelley Lane and Wilbert Lane; a brother, Robert; and a sister, Rebecca Davis.