Jack Molinas

Who was Jack Molinas?

Jacob L. "Jack" Molinas was an American professional basketball player and one of the key figures in the point shaving scandal that almost destroyed NCAA basketball. Molinas attended Stuyvesant High School and graduated from Columbia University in 1953, where he set a team record for most points scored in a game—a mark that was eclipsed a few years later by Chet Forte.

Molinas played briefly in the NBA in 1954, participating in 29 games for the Fort Wayne Pistons before being banned from the NBA for life for betting on games during his time at Columbia. Later, he was one of the bookies in a 1961 point-shaving scandal. Notably, two of the players ensnared in the scandal were future Hall-of-Famers: Connie Hawkins and Roger Brown. Molinas gave Hawkins $250 during his freshman year at Iowa, but never encouraged him to throw games. Although Molinas never implicated Hawkins in any way, both Hawkins and Brown were effectively blackballed from both collegiate and professional basketball, until signing with the upstart American Basketball Association in 1967.

Molinas was convicted for his role in the scheme and sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison, of which he served five years. Molinas was said to have contacts with New York City mobster Thomas Eboli. He was murdered in 1975 in an apparent mob hit.