New York City high school basketball throughout the 40s–70s turned out some of the best schoolboy hoopers to ever play the game. Some of these players included: Billy Cunningham, Lenny Wilkins, Chris Mullins, Bernard King, Mark Jackson, Rolando Blackman, Stephon Marbury, Roger Brown, Rudy LaRusso, Vinnie Johnson, LeRoy Ellis, Happy Hairston, John Salley, Albert King, George Thompson, Max Zaslofsky, Mike Dunleavy, Joakim Noah, Lloyd (World B) Free, and many many others.
The Public School Athletic League has produced some of the greatest players to ever dribble the ball on the hardwood. This 12” x 15” wood and metal plaque was presented to Connie Hawkins along with his teammates who were part of the 1959-60 P.S.A.L. city championship basketball team on September 18, 2003.
What makes this so significant was this was the team that won back to back titles and sent Connie Hawkins on a full ride to Iowa, but the Hawk never played because he was implicated in legendary basketball fixer, Jack Molina's point-shaving scandal which forced Connie out of basketball until he signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Rens of the American Basketball League.
Accompanying this important and historic award is a program from the March 26, 1960, East-West College All-Star game which featured Tony Jackson (another casualty of the Jack Molinas scandal), Tom Stach Sanders, Lee Shaffer, Jerry West, Lenny Wilkens, Darrall Imhoff, Jay Arnette, and Oscar Robertson.
The undercard of this Who’s Who of College All-Stars was the high school All-Star game which featured Brooklyn-Queens All-Stars vs. Manhattan-Bronx-Richmond All-Stars. The two standouts featured in the game were Connie Hawkins and Roger Brown who would be banned from college and the NBA (just like Hawkins) because of his ties to Jack Molinas. Roger Brown would end up getting his redemption by becoming a superstar with the Indiana Pacers and his eventual induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame. Includes LOA from Connie Hawkins' longtime girlfriend.