Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Jan Matějka

African American Integration into College Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.

2015

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author‟s signature

Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. for his kind advice, comments and support.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ...... 6

2. The Rise of ...... 8

The History of Basketball and its Development ...... 8

College Basketball Origins and Tournaments ...... 9

African American Segregation in Relation to College Basketball ...... 10

3. Pioneers of Professional and College Basketball Integration ...... 13

Coaches Who Greatly Influenced the Integration ...... 13

John B. McLendon ...... 13

Clarence Edward Gaines ...... 15

The Influence of NBA on College Basketball ...... 16

The New Era of African American College Superstars ...... 18

Wilt Chamberlain ...... 19

Bill Russell ...... 20

Oscar Robertson ...... 21

4. Deep South‟s Defiance and Nationwide Integration of College Basketball .... 24

Situation in the Deep South ...... 24

Integration of College Basketball in the Deep South ...... 27

The Game of Change ...... 28

Integration of College Football ...... 30

Perry Wallace ...... 32

Comparison of Integration of College Basketball and College Football ..... 34

5. Conclusion ...... 37

6. Works Cited ...... 39

7. Appendices ...... 43

8. Resumé ...... 46

9. Summary ...... 47

1. Introduction

Race in sports has been a very complex topic in the last century. It has since

become a sensitive issue and the general public avoids its discussion at all costs.

However, every once in a while a scandal related to race in sports reaches the surface

and it becomes a hot button issue for weeks to come. One of the latest scandals was

a recording of Donald Sterling, an 80-year-old billionaire and an owner of the NBA

team Los Angeles Clippers. On the recording, he is talking to his 31-year-old part

African American girlfriend Vanessa Stiviano: “It bothers me a lot that you want

to broadcast that you are associating with black people. Do you have to? … You can

sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in. You can do whatever you want.

The little I ask is not to promote it on that [website], and not to bring them to my

games” (qtd. in Hart). This statement has caused a wave of uproar and a number

of well-known people condemned his actions, among them his team, former NBA stars,

NBA commissioner Adam Silver and even president Barrack Obama (Hart).

Scandals such as this one show that race in sports is still an ongoing issue, which

is why this thesis explores the integration of college basketball. The reason why it is

focused at college basketball and not at the professional basketball is that professional

basketball was integrated much faster than college basketball. It took nearly 80 years

to integrate college basketball since its formation and consequently it is worth analyzing

why it took this long and which actions led to the integration.

The thesis begins with an introductory part consisting of three chapters – history

and development of basketball, college basketball origins and its tournaments and

African American segregation in relation to college basketball. These chapters are vital

to fill all the gaps a reader might have about basketball and segregation that might

otherwise obstruct him/her in better understanding of the topic. The main body

6 of the thesis is split into two parts. The first part dedicated to the individual pioneers of professional and college basketball integration. It begins with the two most important coaches of that era, John B. McLendon and Clarence Edward Gaines. It explores their influence on the integration and basketball itself. The next subchapter seeks what kind of an influence had the integration of professional league on college basketball and the following subchapter explores the new era of African American college superstars.

It deals with the most prominent stars and their impact on African American community and integration. The second part of the main body of the thesis examines the core of the problem, which was the Deep South and it explains why it was so hard to integrate college basketball in this area. The succeeding subchapter researches the events that made integration in the Deep South possible, such as the Game of Change and integration of college football. The final subchapter compares college basketball integration to college football integration and investigates the possible reasons for a later college basketball integration.

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2. The Rise of College Basketball

The History of Basketball and its Development

The birthplace of basketball is Springfield College in Massachusetts. It was

in 1891, when , then a 31-year-old graduate student in his second year,

invented the game of basketball. The reasoning behind the invention of a new sport was

a need for an indoor activity that would provide exercise during winter time for a large

number of students/athletes. One of the requirements was that there had to be

no excessive contact and violence that could cause injuries, resulting in sidelining

the athletes during football season. The sport had to be easy to learn and simultaneously

it had to appeal to the students, to raise their interest in playing it (White).

Naismith put together components of several games he knew, such as football,

soccer, lacrosse and a game from his childhood – duck on a rock. Then he requested

two square boxes from a school janitor, but instead received two peach baskets, which

he nailed to the balcony, surrounding the gym 10 feet above the ground. Lastly, he put

in writing the original thirteen rules of basketball describing the methods, objectives and

fouls of the game (White).

These thirteen rules have grown into very complex rule books over the decades.

Only two of Naismith‟s thirteen rules are still in place and relevant in this day and age.

The first – “The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands” and

the last – “The side making the most goals in that time shall be declared the winner…”

(Stevens).

In the beginnings, basketball teams consisted of nine players; the initial basket

was a peach basket with a solid ground and backboards were non-existent. They used

a soccer ball, there was no dribbling, playing time was two fifteen minute halves and

there was no time limit on a team‟s possession of a basketball. These rules changed over

8 time. Nine player teams were reduced down to five player teams, peach basket became a rim with a net and backboards were introduced to stop the spectators from interfering with the game. Soccer ball evolved into a bigger, lighter and bouncier basketball, dribbling was introduced so the players could move with the basketball, playing time was expanded and each team can now be in the possession of the basketball only for twenty four seconds (A Chronological Look At The Major Refinements).

There have been many other major and minor rule changes and additions since the invention of basketball. These are just a few of the major rule changes that have had a great impact and which illustrate how much has the game of basketball evolved.

College Basketball Origins and Tournaments

The first game of basketball ever took place on December 21, 1891 and the final score was 1-0. The word of the new game spread quickly, people came to see the students play and the students themselves spread the game around the country. They brought the rules home during the holiday break and gave them to their local YMCAs

(White).

The birthplace of college basketball is the Vanderbilt University. It has been mistakenly retained by Geneva College, when they thought they were the first to play against an outside opponent, the New Brighton YMCA on April 8, 1893. However, new evidence has been found, making the first college to play a game against an outside opponent the Vanderbilt University. They played against the local YMCA and the game was played on February 7, 1893 (“Vanderbilt Was the First”).

The first game between two college teams took place on February 9, 1895 between Hamline College and the Minnesota State School of Agriculture. The first intercollegiate game with five-man teams was between the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa (“Vanderbilt Was the First”).

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The outcome of the immense expansion and popularity of basketball throughout the United States was the establishment of basketball tournaments. Initially, there were some tournaments held as a one-time contest between amateurs and college teams, nevertheless these are hardly worth mentioning. The important tournaments are the reoccurring, intercollegiate championships held by National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and most importantly National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The first regularly occurring, intercollegiate tournament was held by NAIA in 1937. Just a year later, in 1938, NIT held their first, much more prestigious tournament. It was hosted by at the in New York

City and it attracted over sixteen thousand spectators. NCAA held their first championship in 1939 and started as an inferior tournament to NIT. However, NCAA used various location for their tournaments, every year playing some place different and thus reaching more fans than NIT which hosted its championship every year in New

York. By the 1950s, NCAA became the premier college basketball tournament and retained its prestige to this day (From the First NIT to the NCAA Final Four).

African American Segregation in Relation to College Basketball

After the Civil war, were given freedom, right to vote and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 forbade racial segregation in public accommodations and public transportation. Some states, specifically majority of the southern states, had a hard time accepting this new policy and created a new way how to discriminate

African Americans – the Jim Crow segregation laws. Separate but equal was their slogan, except the African Americans were hardly equal.

Almost everything was separated by race. African Americans had separate wagons on trains, they went to separate schools and had separate drinking fountains.

10

These facilities were, however, not even remotely equal. The vast majority of the separated facilities were immensely inferior. Along with the segregation laws rose to power the infamous Ku Klux Klan, whose members would threaten, intimidate and lynch the blacks who wanted to vote or were a part of a political party.

Consequently, it is obvious why African Americans could not play against a white team, let alone be on the same team.

This was the situation in the South. On the other hand, colleges in the North had integrated teams – black players played alongside white players. For this reason, southern colleges avoided playing colleges from the North. “This resulted in southern colleges either organizing careful scheduling so as not to play any team with an African

American player or simply canceling a game against an integrated team, as the University of Tennessee did against Duquesne in 1945” (Anastopoulo). They would, however, agree to play any team that enter into a gentleman‟s agreement, which prohibited the black athletes from playing in the match against the southern school

(Anastopoulo).

At this point emerged coaches, who tried to improve this situation. They coached at the historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). HBCUs were institutions that provided higher education and refuge from a largely racist world for African American students (Klores). They started to surface after the Civil War.

They were primarily concentrated in the South and their main purpose was to “educate farmers, scientists, and teachers” (Purnell). These colleges and universities were, similarly to every segregated institution in the South, underfunded and inferior.

However, since they were segregated, they did not need to concern themselves with whites not wanting blacks on their basketball team. They simply founded all-black

11 teams, played against each other in their own league and as a result they have built a foundation upon which they could become successful (Klores).

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3. Pioneers of Professional and College Basketball Integration

Coaches Who Greatly Influenced the Integration

During the course of college basketball history there were many coaches that

influenced the integration. It could be said that any African American coach assisted

with the integration as they became visible in those positions. There were also several

white coaches who aided in this pursuit, for example or McCarthy.

However, the most significant coaches were African American – John B. McLendon

and Clarence Edward Gaines.

John B. McLendon

John McLendon was a basketball pioneer. He is known for his incredible

accomplishments in the game of basketball as an African American and as a coach.

“He broke many color barriers and he did it in a graceful, non-self serving manner”

(Stein).

His story begins with going to The and meeting with Dr.

James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. Naismith taught him that basketball is about

activity, the faster one can play it, the more entertaining it gets. When McLendon left

school, he went to North Carolina College, where he became the head basketball coach.

He started coaching with Naismith‟s instructions in mind, making the game as fast as he

could in times, when everybody played the half-court game1. His system was based

around series of fast breaks2 and on an eight second rule – the basketball was supposed

to be shot at the basket roughly every eight seconds (Klores).

Inventing the system based on fast breaks was the most significant innovation

in the college basketball integration. If McLendon had not created this system, the

1 When basketball is taken over the middle line of basketball court in a casual pace and then the team uses some strategy to score a field goal. 2 Opposite of half-court game. The ball is quickly taken after a made or missed field goal to the opposite team‟s basket, so the defending team cannot set up their defense and the team with a ball has a chance to outnumber the defending team. 13

African Americans would not be able to win their recognition. The other significant actions and events would not happen, because everyone would play the same half-court game and the young athletes coached by McLendon would most likely not defeat the whites since they would have no significant advantage.

John McLendon was continually trying to integrate the biggest post season tournaments NIT, NCAA and NAIA that did not allow African Americans to play.

For that reason, he started a committee in 1948 that petitioned NCAA to open up the tournament for historically black colleges. They denied the request with a message saying that they do not appreciate the way the historically black colleges play ( style) and that they believe the coaches are not competent enough (Klores).

Finally in 1953 the NAIA, thanks to John McLendon‟s ceaseless pressure, integrated the HBCUs. But there was a catch, HBCUs had to play against each other in a separate tournament and only the winner could play against the predominately white universities (Klores).

This was still a great accomplishment achieved by McLendon, because it allowed at least one black team to draw attention to themselves as they attended the tournament. It took only four years the Tennessee State University, coached by no other than McLendon, to be the first integrated team to win a collegiate basketball national championship (Stein). The victory over a white team further agitated the protagonists of college basketball segregation and their belief that black athletes cannot work as a team or play on the same level as white athletes. They also proved that their style of play is effective even though it might not be appreciated by the NCAA committee.

John McLendon was a significant help to the integration and a true pioneer of the game of basketball. He developed entirely new basketball strategy, coached a first integrated game in the South and was a first African American coach to be given a job

14 at predominately White university. He is the single most important person in the college basketball history to contribute to the integration, because he is the one who started this battle. He fought for the rights to compete against the white teams and countlessly proved his and his teams‟ worth. McLendon‟s greatest accomplishments in college basketball are listed in table 1.

Clarence Edward Gaines

Clarence Gaines was the second winningest coach in the college basketball history upon his retirement. He is known under the nickname Big House, 190 cm tall and weighing at 120 kilograms, it is no mystery as to why he received the nickname.

He graduated from with a bachelor‟s degree in chemistry and then he went off to Winston-Salem Teachers College where he became a head football and basketball coach within two years of his arrival. He coached football for three more years, but then he moved to basketball exclusively and resided at the university for extraordinary 47 years ().

He was friends with John McLendon and as he did not know much about basketball when he started coaching it, he would learn everything he could from

McLendon and also adopted the fast break game style. They recruiting together the talented African American athletes all over the West Coast of the United States.

They would go to New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana and

New York to get the best fits for their teams (Klores). They recruited athletes from high schools and also from the playgrounds. This way the talented players got a chance to achieve higher education and if they were exceptionally talented, they could get a chance to play in a professional league.

Coach Gaines received many honorary acknowledgments during his career such as six CIAA Basketball Coach of the Year awards and eight Outstanding Tournament

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Coach awards. However, the apex of his career is winning the NCAA basketball title as the first historically black college after 31-1 season and being named the NCAA

Basketball Coach of the Year afterwards (Anonymous).

Gaines helped countless of young students from all parts of West Coast, when he recruited them to Winston-Salem Teachers College. He devoted his career, lasting

47 years, to the sport he loved while helping fight the segregation. Even with his stellar record of 828 victories and 447 losses, winning was not everything in his eyes:

"The greatest pleasure I get out of athletics is to see all the guys we work with, who weren't supposed to make it [by society's standards], grow into successful young men,"

(qtd. in Anonymous).

Both coaches did their best to help integrate college basketball and to help the young basketball players achieve their goals, whether it was playing in professional league or attaining college education. Their impact on the integration of college basketball was far greater than anyone else‟s. These two gentlemen literally changed the face of college basketball. Their actions led to the integration of the collegiate tournaments, NBA and many schools in the North.

The Influence of NBA on College Basketball

“While black college basketball was beginning to thrive, there were few opportunities after college for standout players to continue to play, except for a small number of all-black basketball teams which barnstormed around the country” (Klores).

The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed in 1946 as the Basketball

Association of America (BAA) and adopted the name NBA after merging with National

Basketball League (NBL) in 1949. There were no black players in the beginnings of this league. There was, however, one team with black players that could play the white NBA teams – . They were a form of a resistance against white

16 oppression. For whites, they were just clowns, making them laugh with their tricks.

But in truth they masked their brilliance as athletes and within the African American community they were heroes. They even beat the NBA champions Minneapolis Lakers.

They were role models for many of the African American youths playing basketball

(Klores).

Few years later in 1950, the African American youths had new role models –

Harold Hunter and Earl Loyd. It was a result of John McLendon‟s brilliant coaching that they became the first African Americans to be drafted in the NBA. They were drafted by Washington Capitals. Harold Hunter was the first African American to sign an NBA contract, but Earl Loyd was the first African American to play in the NBA.

There was an unwritten rule that no team should have two black players, therefore

Harold Hunter was dropped after the exhibition season. They justified it by telling him that he was too small and they wanted to save space for taller players.

These role models were especially important in those days, because they gave courage to the young black college students to go play in the South, where they would otherwise not have the audacity to go. African Americans from North could start pursuing higher education in South as well, because of the events of 1954. It was the year when “the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously (9–0) that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits the states from denying equal protection of the laws to any person within their jurisdictions” (Duignan). The ruling was based on the reality, where the educational institutions were not of the same equality for white and African American students.

The ruling was also supported by a contemporary psychological research which stated that “forcing African American children to attend separate schools solely because of their race created in them a feeling of inferiority that undermined their motivation

17 to learn and deprived them of educational opportunities they would enjoy in racially integrated schools” (Duignan).

This ruling resulted in two outcomes. First, the HBCUs received better funding and students attending HBCUs as a result received better, more equal, education.

Second, the more important, some white colleges in the South started accepting black students and began to integrate their basketball teams. Most of the universities remained reluctant to this new policy, especially the whole southeastern part of the United States.

Those who integrated, most likely saw the financial benefits of having a black superstar basketball player. Regardless of the reason why the predominantly white universities recruited the black basketball players, whether it was because it was the right thing to do or whether it was because of the money they could potentially make, they made another step forward in the direction of integrating college basketball. The only downside was that the HBCUs suffered the consequences, because the predominantly white colleges were not taking just any black players, they were taking the best of the best and HBCUs were left with the ordinary players (Klores).

Among the first schools which acquired the biggest future basketball stars were

University of San Francisco (William Felton "Bill" Russell), University of Kansas

(Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain) and University of Cincinnati ().

This was the turning point in the integration of college basketball: “by the late 1950s more and more black players and coaches were having an effect on the game” (Klores).

The New Era of African American College Superstars

Wilt Chamberlain, and Oscar Robertson, three amazing basketball players who ignited a revolution in college basketball and broke numerous color barriers. They came from similarly poor background and were able to accomplish great things.

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Wilt Chamberlain

Wilt Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia and he was one of nine children.

His family lived a “in a racially-mixed middle class neighborhood” and had a relatively calm childhood (Wilt Chamberlain). At the end of his high school he was being offered scholarships at more than 200 universities. He chose the University of Kansas, because he wanted to escape big cities, get far from home and they had a great coach

(Armitage).

When he arrived in Kansas in 1955, he was shocked, the city of Lawrence was still segregated: „“When I came to the University of Kansas there was still a lot of bigotry going on”‟ (Armitage). He was used to being regarded as a star and now there were places, he was not allowed to enter. He may have been shocked, but he paid no attention to the signs restricting his access, he ignored them. “He promptly made a practice of visiting segregated restaurants around town, sitting in them until he was served” (Armitage). As a result, this young student, single-handedly changed the views of the whites in Lawrence and made life for many African Americans living there better.

Chamberlain got on well with his fellow students and teammates. He was so popular that he actually had his own thirty-minute weekly radio show on student station. He excelled in his sophomore and junior year as a basketball player, putting up big numbers, grabbing a great deal of rebounds and blocking shots. However he was not able to reach the NCAA championship trophy (Armitage).

He had one more chance to reach the championship trophy in his senior year, but he decided not to return. He wanted to earn some money to help his big family and he was tired of the people in stands calling him names and throwing various objects at him when they were on the road. “I never lost my temper. This helped me to do what

19 some of my sponsors hoped I would do. Promote interracial goodwill. But I don‟t know whether I would have been able to control myself through another season” (Howard).

He then went on to become a professional basketball player and one of the greatest to ever play the game of basketball. He spent most of his career trying to beat his rival,

Bill Russell.

Bill Russell

Bill Russell‟s childhood was different from Chamberlain‟s. Russell was growing up in Louisiana where he experienced the racism first-hand. “In one instance, his father was denied service at a gasoline station until all the other white customers were taken care of. To add insult to injury, when his father calmly drove away toward another station, the attendant shoved a shotgun in his face and threatened to kill him unless he came back and waited” (Thompson). In 1942 they moved to Oakland, California to escape this environment and Russell spent the rest of his childhood in the projects

(Thompson).

His career started in high school after he was almost cut from the team. He was not a natural talent, but he was athletic, had big hands and his coach saw a potential in him (he actually kept him as the 16th man on 15-man squad). In high school his team won 3 championships, however, in spite of this fact, only one school wanted to recruit

Russell – University of San Francisco. No one else wanted to recruit Russell, because

“his unorthodox playing style was not well understood by college scouts” (Bill Russell

Biography).

When he arrived at the university he kept working and trying to improve himself. “Russell forced himself to endure intense, rigorous, and most of all, perpetual workouts” (Graham). He is one of the first players to ever block shots in the game and he became known for his terrifying presence in the post. “With his long arms and tall,

20 powerful legs, he was able to rise above those with the ball and pound it straight back to the ground” (Graham).

His college years were continually accompanied by racism and various insults.

In those days it was a rarity to have an African American on a team. His team was to have three starting African American players (Bill Russell Biography).

One time there was a tournament in Oklahoma City and all hotels in the city refused to accommodate black players. So the whole team spent the night in a vacant college dorm. He called it a great bonding experience and it “helped him become solid as a rock when targeted in racial situations” (Graham). He and his team went on to winning

55 straight games in the span of two seasons and winning back to back NCAA championships.

After college he won a gold medal at the Olympics and joined Boston Celtics in the NBA. He became one of the greatest players to ever play the game and won the most (eleven) NBA championships. He also became the first African American coach in the NBA.

Bill Russell started as a poor, oppressed, talentless boy and through hard work and dedication proved everyone that he did not have to stay that way. He “had been the target of racially-inspired jealousy and criticism” his whole career and he showed others that violence or vocal outbursts were not the key (Kram). He dealt with the racism in his own way. He proved everybody wrong by focusing on himself, trying to become the best he could, winning on and off the court and breaking many color barriers, such as becoming the first African American coach in the NBA.

Oscar Robertson

Oscar Robertson was born in Charlotte, Tennessee and grew up in the projects in Indianapolis. He grew up in a poor family, but did not even realize it until he was

21 older. “At the time I did not know we were poor. I did not know we were being discriminated against. The only time I even saw white people was at a very early age, back in Tennessee” (Robertson). He started playing basketball on a court near his house called dust bowl3. In high school, Robertson won a national championship and led his team to a 45 game winning streak. When he went to college he was the most sought- after college prospect in the nation (Oscar Robertson).

In College “he found great success on the court that was once again shadowed by blatant racism” (Oscar Robertson). He averaged 33.8 points a game, third highest average in history of college basketball and every year in his three year-long college career he was named an All-American, won a scoring title and was chosen as a college player of the year. “Only the University's fifth black player, Robertson had the difficult task of being a leader and teammate on a team that was unable to fully accept him because of his race” (Oscar Robertson). When his team was on the road, he had to stay in college dormitories, while his teammates stayed at the fancy hotel rooms. However he did not dwell upon it and his great accomplishments on the court were also accompanied by his stellar achievements in the academic sphere. He “graduated in the top 10% of his class at Indianapolis' Crispus Attucks High School, earned a business degree in four years at the University of Cincinnati, and was recently named one of the NCAA's top student athletes of all time” (Robertson).

After his graduation, Robertson won a gold Olympic medal in basketball with the 1960 U.S. Olympic team and then he enter NBA where he carried on with his domination. He became one of the greatest and most versatile players to ever play the game. After his NBA career he became the President of the NBA players

3 It was dusty, when kids dribbled there 22 association. Nowadays he acts as an international ambassador for the game of basketball and continues to inspire young children and students to follow their dreams (Robertson).

These three African American college superstars grew up in similar conditions.

Their families were poor and their parents kept instilling in their heads how important the education is. They all worked very hard to get a scholarship and to follow their dream. They were not afraid to be the one of the first African Americans at freshly desegregated states and schools and consequently push the color barrier further. They integrated their respective basketball teams, overcame the uneasiness of their teammates and became leaders of the teams.

They realized that they played a big role in the integration process and that they had a responsibility not to make mistakes. Their steps were closely scrutinized and only a small number of whites wished them success. As Bob Billings, teammate of Wilt

Chamberlain said: “he had to keep in mind that any and everything he did would reflect not only upon himself, but also upon his teammates, his school, and the entire colored race” (Armitage). This applied to all of them of course, not only to Chamberlain.

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4. Deep South’s Defiance and Nationwide Integration of College Basketball

Situation in the Deep South

It has been established that black basketball players began their integration

on some of the colleges in the South. However, those were the states close to the North-

South border. In spite of all the efforts invested in by the coaches and all

the advancements in the college basketball, the circumstances in the Deep South

remained unaltered and they were a great deal away from changing.

The racist attitudes of whites towards the blacks in the Deep South were rooted

in the times before civil war. Whites were used to treat the blacks in a certain way and

this mindset was passed down from generation to generation. It survived for over

a hundred years and the actions carried out by whites represent it.

In the 1950s there was an immense pressure on southern colleges to integrate

their college teams, nevertheless, the representatives of the states were of a different

belief. The “officials in Birmingham, Alabama … went so far as to pass laws

prohibiting interracial sporting events” and the state of Louisiana did the same, when

“in 1956 adopted a bill making it illegal for blacks and whites to compete in any athletic

event” (Anastopoulo).

In 1963, newly elected Alabama Governor George C. Wallace crossed the line

with his inauguration speech. He did not like how North was dictating the rules

on segregation. The inaugural speech was broadcasted over the whole United States and

he decided to send them a message. He wanted to exercise his states‟ rights and

continue with the segregation. “In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod

this earth, I draw a line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and

I say, segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever”

(qtd. in Freemark and Richman). The speech was accepted by many of his followers and

24 it made living for all the African Americans in Alabama ever so dangerous in the following weeks and months (Freemark and Richman).

Later that year, when the University of Alabama was to be desegregated by enrolling two black students – James Hood and Vivian Malone – Wallace decided to step in. His action is known as “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” and that is what happened. He stood in the door of the Foster Auditorium with state troopers on his side and tried to prevent the two black students from registering. When confronted by the U.S. Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, federal marshals and the Alabama National Guard, he refused to step aside and gave a speech, complaining about the sovereignty of Alabama. He only stepped away after being confronted by the Alabama‟s National Guard, federalized by the President John F. Kennedy

(Dunn).

People in the Deep South did not like John F. Kennedy. Ben Jobe remembers the day when the President was assassinated. He was at the University of Tennessee and when his professor received the message about the assassination, he dismissed the class.

Ben did not know what happened and when he walked outside, people were celebrating.

They were blowing horns, waving the rebel flags and shouting South will rise again, celebrating the death of John F. Kennedy. He was so scared that he went to his room, locked the door and did not go out for four days straight. After the end of the semester, he left the university (Klores).

It was very brave from the African American players on the integrated college teams to come and play in such a hostile environment. When they visited a team in the Deep South, some hotels would not let the black players sleep there or when they walked into a restaurant, they would not want to serve the black players, as it has been mentioned in the previous chapter. But that was the least of their worries. In Glory

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Road, a film about an integrated team – Texas Minors, there are scenes about what the black players on the team truly had to endure. For instance, the team stops for a lunch at some local diner. They behave well, they are friendly to the other guests and they do not cause any commotion. One of the black players needs to use the restroom. When he goes there, he is followed by a group of 3 white people, who beat him up, shove his head into a toilet and casually leave before the team finds out what has happened. They had no reason to do this, the black player did nothing provoke them in any way, they simply saw an opportunity to beat up someone, because he was different (Gartner).

Another example from the film is that when the team returned to their hotel from a game against East Texas State University, a room belonging to two black players was absolutely trashed. Everything was torn down from the walls, lamps smashed on the ground, clothes, blankets and pillows were all over the room. All this mess was cover in blood (most likely pig‟s blood) and on the walls was written in big letters:

“NIGGERS DIE, COONS GO HOME, KKK” (Gartner).

At the actual matches, it was even worse. Perry Wallace remembers his experiences with the crowd very vividly. “Nigger, shoe polish, coon, we're gonna hang you, we're gonna lynch you, we're gonna burn you at the stake” (Klores).

And the atmosphere was as much hostile as was the crowd: “The bands playing Dixie, always the rebel flags, and the cheerleaders chanting cheers against me in particular - get the nigger, get the nigger, wrah wrah wrah” (Klores).

Fortunately, these actions against African Americans were the beginning of an end for the all-white teams and segregation in the Deep South. “Extremism on one side often handed victory to the other. The Klan‟s horrifying violence pricked white

26

America‟s conscience and, ultimately, moved the nation closer to passage of epic civil rights legislation” (Sokol).

Integration of College Basketball in the Deep South

The integration in the Deep South started with the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case in 1954 which allowed African Americans to study at the historically white universities. Whites resisted it as much as they could for several years. However,

African Americans fought back. University students especially, organized various sit- ins4, protests and filed lawsuits against schools refusing to enroll African Americans.

“At the time, [sit-in] was not just the largest black protest against segregation ever; it was the largest outburst of civil disobedience in American history” (Lewis). The first organized sit-in happened in Greensboro and it quickly spread to over 70 cities in just eight weeks. The most significant point of the sit-ins was to “highlight the immorality of segregation by forcing Southern policemen to arrest polite, well-dressed college students sitting quietly just trying to order a shake or a burger” (Lewis). In regards to the lawsuits, there were several of them, the best-known is the lawsuit filed by James

Meredith against Ole Miss. “Meredith viewed the University of Mississippi as a symbol of white supremacy, and in a calculated move, applied for admission in early 1961”

(Donovan). He wanted to fight for his rights and for the rights of the African American people “he saw his application to Ole Miss as a way of challenging the practice of discrimination” (Donovan). He was denied twice, but he knew he had a chance to succeed, because he had a strong legal case and he was well-qualified for enrollment.

After many hearings the court ruled that Meredith had every right to be enrolled. After some initial complications with the governor, he successfully registered and became the first African-American to integrate Ole Miss.

4 An organized event, where a group of African Americans came to a segregated facility, such as a restaurant, coffee house or a diner, sat down to a table and after being refused a service, remained seated as a form of protest. 27

This wave of protests was followed by Civil Rights Act of 1964 which was a “comprehensive U.S. legislation intended to end discrimination based on race, colour, religion, or national origin” (Civil Rights Act). This law stood at the creation of modern

America. It made segregation illegal. Restaurants and hotels could not refuse to serve or accommodate anyone anymore. There could not be any segregated public places and facilities. Trade unions, schools and employers could no longer discriminate their employees, students and applicants (Civil Rights Act).

Throughout the history of American Civil Rights Movement, there were many more important actions, such as the Rosa Parks incident, Little Rock desegregation and

Martin Luther King‟s speech. However, none of them are related to universities and these actions did not influence the integration of college basketball in the same way, the sit-ins and lawsuits did. Following the sit-ins, lawsuits and the Civil Rights Act, people like Nate Northington and Perry Wallace attained extra courage and carried out actions that aided in the integration of college basketball. However one of the most important acts was carried out by white college students, their coaches and the President of the university, who defied the southern conventions.

The Game of Change

The “Game of Change” is a phrase used to refer to an NCAA matchup between

Loyola University of Chicago (LUC) and Mississippi State University (MSU). Loyola had four black starters and Mississippi had an all-white team. The match occurred on March 15, 1963 a year prior to passing the Civil Rights Act. To fully understand its importance, it is necessary to know the background to this matchup (Anastopoulo).

The Maroons from MSU won the SEC5 championship in 1959, 1961 and 1962, but they could not play in the postseason NCAA championship, due to the unwritten

5 28 rule of the state that did not allow the team to play the integrated teams from the North.

In 1963, the Ramblers from Loyola University beat the Tennessee Technological

University and they were to face MSU in the regional semifinal. Neither of the teams knew whether they were coming. The Governor‟s stance remained unchanged:

“The Maroons were not to leave” (O'Neil). However, the president of MSU Dean

Colvard and the team‟s Coach James McCarthy, had enough and decided to let the team play. When Senator Billy Mitts, former MSU student heard of this, he “convinced a judge to issue a temporary injunction to prevent the team from leaving” (O'Neil).

Nevertheless, Colvard got a word of the injunction and decided to sneak everyone out of the state: “Colvard directed McCarthy to head for the Tennessee state line and stay in Memphis while he traveled to Alabama for a speaking engagement to prevent the injunction from being served” (O'Neil). The next day, the assistant coach took some freshmen and reserve players to the airport as a decoy and when there was no one to prevent them from leaving, he called for the rest of the team (O'Neil).

In the meantime in Chicago, the Ramblers began to receive threatening letters from the South not to play the white teams in the tournament. On the other hand, they had a black community supporting them, saying that they must win the game and that it is an enormous opportunity for the black race (Corley).

Then came the match. “At the time we didn‟t realize the importance of the game,” said Ron Miller, a Loyola guard about the matchup before they were to face the opponent. But then the two captains came to the court to shake hands and the Captain of the Ramblers team, recalls: “when we shook hands, the place lit up, it seemed … that everybody that was in that arena had a camera and all of them flashbulbs [were] just popping all over the place. I saw that gleam in his eye, as if we are opponents, but we really [were] together” (Harkness, Shows and Miller).

29

One can only imagine the atmosphere this action created at the stadium. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the match itself and LUC won the game 61-51. They then went on to win the whole tournament. The Maroons returned home as heroes and they were welcomed by a large crowd of people at the airport. “One of the reasons why that 40 minutes were so important, it changed our state and it changed a lot of attitudes towards the race situation” says Bobby Shows, one of the MSU players. The game “has since been considered an important step towards achieving racial equality in the South, and it made interracial competition between southern and northern schools politically, if not socially, acceptable” (Anastopoulo).

The game did not result in many striking changes right away, but it was a signal that the South was ready to adjust. “My dad was pretty much a segregationist until the latter part of my college career,” Shows said. “He wasn't Ku Klux Klan or anything, but he used the N-word in the house. He didn't know any better. But he was 100 percent in favor of me playing in that game. He wanted me to have a chance, and after it was over, I can't remember him ever saying anything derogatory after that” (qtd. in O„Neil).

These little attitude changes in the minds of segregationists were the most important thing when it came to the pursuit of the integration of college sports.

Integration of College Football

One of the actions resulting from the Game of change was the integration of college football in the Deep South. “By 1965, no university in the SEC had a black player on any of its rosters. Some barely had black students” (Kazadi). However, this is what the president of the , John Oswald and the Governor of Kentucky, Ned Breathitt decided to change and they arranged the desegregation university‟s football team. The Governor invited Nate Northington to his mansion for lunch and after promising Northington that he would not be the only African American

30 on the team, persuaded him to sign a letter of intent to join the Kentucky Wildcats.

It was very important for Northington that they would recruit some other African

American to share the burden of living in the Deep South and facing other SEC teams:

“Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Florida, violent battlegrounds in the fight for civil rights where whites lynching blacks only recently stopped being the norm (Kazadi). The second recruit was Greg Page. Page and

Northington got along great. They helped each other overcome the hatred, they faced – being called the N-word, receiving weird looks, having the dogs turned loose at them and overall not feeling welcome at the campus. They managed to deal with all this, because they understood their role and were very well aware of what they were doing for the African American community. They were also promised that there would be more black players recruited so they put up with the hate for greater good (Kazadi).

Then, in the sophomore year, during a practice, Page collided with another player and suffered a spinal injury that paralyzed him from the neck down. They rushed him to the hospital, but after 38 days, he passed away. Northington broke down. He was depressed, he had no one to talk to and the football field reminded him of the accident.

On top of that he was being forced to play with an injured shoulder and his meal tickets were canceled as a punishment for missing classes during Page‟s time in hospital.

Consequently he decided to leave, but before he did, “he notified his black teammates, encouraging them to continue what he and Page started, to make sure that all of the sacrifices of the past two years weren't in vain” (Kazadi). Only then, after making sure that what he and Greg accomplished was not for nothing, was Northington able to leave for Western Kentucky University.

Nate Northington and Greg Page undertook a big step in integrating the collegiate athletics. They endured the hardships of the South and for the dream

31 of being equal, Greg paid the ultimate price. Their sacrifice became an inspiration for other African American athletes to come to the Deep South and not let the fear of segregationists dictate their decisions. Among these athletes was also Perry Wallace.

Perry Wallace

Perry Wallace is the first African American to play for a basketball team in the SEC conference. He was not a superstar in the same way Wilt Chamberlain or Oscar Robertson were, coming out of high-school, but he was a great player. Many renowned universities were interested in him such as UCLA, Michigan and Kentucky.

However, Vanderbilt University was interested in him as well. At first he did not even consider it, but then the coach of Vanderbilt Commodores made a personal visit at Wallace‟s house which made a very good impression on his parents and on him too.

“We liked people to sit down and look you in the eye and talk. Just tell you they're very interested and sincere in talking business with us” (qtd. in “Wallace Was First”).

He was impressed with their engineering program, basketball prestige and Vanderbilt was close to his home (Carey).

Coming to the Vanderbilt University, Wallace entered exactly the same situation as Northington did at the University of Kentucky. After Wallace, Commodores drafted one more African American to play for them – Godfrey Dillard. As a result, Wallace had a friend to help him face the difficulties in the Deep South. They played together on the freshman team, however, Dillard got injured, could not play for an extended period of time and eventually transferred out of Vanderbilt, leaving Wallace the only black player on the team.

The worst thing about playing basketball as an African American in the SEC were the road games. Wallace called it “racism with enthusiasm” (“Wallace Was

First”). Some of his experience such as name-calling, threats and the hostile

32 environment were shared in the previous chapter, but that was not everything.

The crowd cheered whenever he made a mistake or anything resembling a failure “they really wanted me to fail and they ridiculed, bullied and badgered me” (qtd. in “Wallace

Was First”). He also felt that the referees were not so strict with the opposing team and let the players be more physical with him just because he was black. On the other hand when it came to Wallace, they were stricter with the rules. He wanted to lash out, but he knew he had to embrace it, he understood his role as a racial pioneer: “things like complaining, yelling back at the crowd, yelling at the players, expressing frustration was something I couldn't do” (qtd. in “Wallace Was First”). The only school in the SEC that was fair to him was Kentucky. “The players didn't call you names. They didn't try to give you an extra elbow or push. These were excellent players and they were coached with high standards” (qtd. in “Wallace Was First”). It was most likely because

Kentucky was used to an integrated team, since they had their own integrated football team.

He was very popular among the students on campus and his teammates liked him as well. “They supported and worked with him trying to make a bad situation tolerable” (“Wallace Was First”). In spite of that, he felt like no one understood him and he felt very lonely. After the last game he played for Vanderbilt he shared with a reporter what the four years at Vanderbilt were like for him: “a tremendous sense of isolation, an invitation NOT to return to the University Church of Christ, the difficulty of dealing with certain teachers who couldn‟t seem to get past the color of his skin, the physical and emotional assaults at away games, and the horrible feeling that his teammates and even his coaches didn‟t understand what he was going through”

(Puryear).

33

He wanted to share his pioneering experience, draw attention to the problems of African American students on campus. He felt that by saying that the four years were okay, he would be misleading the African Americans who were considering the universities in the SEC. In another interview he regretted not going somewhere else entirely: “if I had to do it over again, I would go to school somewhere in the East or the West” (qtd. in Risen).

This shows how hard it was for all the pioneers, not just for Wallace. Everyone went through similar conditions, some gave up and some fought through, but Wallace was the first to openly speak in the newspaper about the issues and the problems on university campus. It outraged some of the people who knew him, however it opened eyes to many others, who believed that he was happy at Vanderbilt (Risen). Perry

Wallace thus became the last piece of the puzzle in the integration of college basketball.

Once he integrated Vanderbilt, other SEC schools soon followed.

Comparison of Integration of College Basketball and College Football

The integration of college basketball took a long time. From the first ever played game at a college it took nearly 80 years for all schools in the United States to accept

African American basketball players. It was mostly a result of the political situation in the South. Rest of the country, mainly the North integrated basketball much sooner.

Most of the colleges in the North integrated college basketball by the end of 1960s.

However, some colleges integrated much sooner. For instance Columbia University had

George Gregory Jr. playing for them back in 1930. He was the first black All-American college basketball player (Lyons).

An interesting concept arises, when basketball integration gets compared to football integration. For example, William Henry Lewis was named the first All-

American college football player in 1893. That is 24 years since the first college

34 football game, in basketball it took 38 years (Albright). One would expect that it would take African American basketball players less time since there were African Americans playing football. But that was not the case. Basketball seems to always be a few steps behind football in the association with integration. Similarly, the most stubborn schools in the South integrated football before basketball, with the only exception of Vanderbilt

University (see table 2).

There has to be a reason as to why black basketball players were more difficult to integrate than the black football players. There were hardly any differences between them, both basketball and football players were fast runners, high jumpers, they were quick and skilled. The only thing that set them apart is that football players were usually more muscular and basketball players were taller. But if the whites were to be afraid of anything, it would be the muscular blacks, not the tall skinny ones and that would be a reason to integrate them later than basketball players, not sooner. Therefore if it are not the differences between the players, it must be the differences in the games that were the problem.

Basketball is played in a much smaller court/field. In fact, it is roughly ten times smaller, however, the team is merely reduced by half the players. This means that the whites would come more often into contact with the blacks. Even though basketball is a contactless sport, there is much more skin on skin contact than in football since basketball players used to wear fitted shorts and tank tops as opposed to heavy armored football players. And the contact also takes longer in basketball. For instance, while defending, one always keeps touching the opponent and tries to stop him with his whole body in contrast to just tackling someone down. In basketball the black color of the players is also more visible because of their outfits. On the other hand, when watching football, the spectator might not even notice that half of the team is black

35 since all that can be seen from the players are their necks and forearms. The last difference contributing to the later integration is the number of games. In college basketball there are roughly three times as many games per season. Hence not only are the black basketball players more visible, they are also seen more often.

Whether these factors played a major role in the integration is unclear, but for some reason, football has always been prioritized over basketball. These factors may have played only a minor role and even if it was only on the subconscious level, some of them must have been in the mind of every segregationist.

36

5. Conclusion

It has been a long road to integration, it took nearly 80 years to accept the black

players in college basketball. The integration process started with the coaches

at HBCUs, who fought for the right to compete at tournaments in pursuit to prove

the whites that they are equally as good at basketball and in life as them. They helped

with the integration of college tournaments and NBA. Seeing the success of black

players in college and professional basketball, predominantly white universities started

recruiting their first black superstars. These superstars helped fight segregation

in the recently desegregated states at the North-South border, became racial pioneers

and continued with the process that was started by the coaches. The reason why

the integration suddenly came to a halt were the attitudes of the people living

in the Deep South states. Their feelings about African Americans were rooted

in the time before civil war. They resisted the desegregation process and fought for their

ideals. However, after some time, the general public in the South began to realize that

their ideals might be flawed and they started to treat the African Americans more

respectably. The most important actions leading to integration were the “Game

of Change”, integration of college football in the SEC and finally, integration of college

basketball with Perry Wallace being the first African American playing in the SEC

conference. All things considered, basketball took this long to integrate mainly because

of the mindset of southerners, who did not want African Americans at their universities,

let alone touch them during a sport such a basketball.

The race situation has considerably improved since SEC was integrated.

Basketball “has been transformed by the presence of African-Americans and has been

an important lightning-rod of cultural, political and social change in the United States”

(College Basketball Holds a Rich African American History). However, there is still

37 room for improvement. College sports have been integrated by the early 1970s, but racism has not yet disappeared from the Universities.

Lately there have been many instances of racism at colleges in United States.

For instance some college fraternities have been throwing racially themed parties such as MLK Black Party or Blackface party, where the students promoted negative stereotypes. They served watermelons, wore oversized clothes and they even wore blackface. The blackface party was the worst, they wore KKK costumes and one of the guys who was wearing blackface also had a noose around his neck (Escobar).

Noose around a neck was also placed on a statue of located at MSU‟s campus. The perpetrator, former student, Graeme Phillip Harris also placed an old

Georgia flag with a confederate symbol around the neck of the statue (Muskal). Last example is a fraternity from University of Oklahoma chanting: “You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me; there will never be a n***** in SAE”. SAE being the name of their fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (Kingkade). These examples show that even though African Americans are now accepted as equal and have successfully integrated the society, not everyone treats them accordingly and it will take a long time before all the racial stereotypes and hatred towards them disappears.

38

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42

7. Appendices

Appendix 1 John B. McLendon‟s greatest accomplishments

Appendix 2 Integration on SEC schools

43

Appendix 1

Table 1: John B. McLendon’s greatest accomplishments

Year Accomplishment

1940-54 Developed fastbreak basketball.

1944 Coached the first integrated game in the South.

1946 Co-founded the CIAA Tournament.

1957 Coached Tennessee State to the NAIA Championship.

1960 Became the first Black coach to defeat the U.S. Olympic Team with an amateur

team.

1961 Became the first Black coach to win the National AAU Championship.

1962 Inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame.

1962 Became the first Black coach to author a book on basketball:

"Fast Break Basketball, Fine Points and Fundamentals."

1966 Became the first Black coach to be hired by a predominately White university:

Cleveland State.

1978 Inducted into the CIAA Hall of Fame.

1979 Inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

1990 Began effort to establish the HBCU Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame.

Source: Remembering our past; John McLendon: Basketball pioneer was Jackie

Robinson of coaching, Michigan Chronicle

44

Appendix 2

Table 2: Integration on SEC schools

Football Basketball

University of Alabama 1967 1969

Auburn University 1969 1969

University of Florida 1969 1971

University of Georgia 1970 1970

University of Kentucky 1965 1970

Louisiana State University 1971 1971

Mississippi State University 1969 1972

University of Mississippi 1971 1971

University of Tennessee 1967 1971

Vanderbilt University 1969 1967

Sources:

Pioneers: Who Broke Color Barrier at Predominantly White Schools? n.p., n.d. Web. 1

March 2015.

Schexnayder, C.J. The Integration of Football in the Southeastern Conference. Vox

Media, Inc., 9 May 2012. Web. 1 March 2015.

Schexnayder, C.J. The 1967 Walk-ons: The Forgotten Pioneers of Alabama Football's

Integration. Vox Media, Inc., 6 June 2012. Web. 1 March 2015.

Man of Courage. CBS Interactive, 11 September 2012. Web. 1 March 2015.

45

8. Resumé

Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá integrací vysokoškolského basketbalu. Hlavním

cílem této práce je objasnit, proč integrace vysokoškolského basketbalu trvala tak

dlouho. Profesionální basketbalové ligy byly integrovány během několika let. Za to

u vysokoškolského basketbalu to trvalo několik desetiletí. Tato práce se také zabývá

jednotlivci a událostmi, které pomohly nebo bránily v procesu integrace. Příkladem jsou

trenéři, basketbalové hvězdy a aktivisté za občanská práva. Mezi zmíněné události patří

integrace různých institucí a ligových organizací, protesty a důležité zápasy

s integrovanými týmy.

První část této práce slouží jako úvodní kapitola k historii basketbalu, vzniku

vysokoškolského basketbalu a segregaci. Popisuje vynalezení basketbalu, vznik

vysokoškolských turnajů a situaci v jižní části Spojených Států Amerických ve spojení

s basketbalem. Po těchto úvodních kapitolách navazuje hlavní část této práce, která

začíná trenéry McLendonem a Gainesem a zkoumá jejich vliv na vysokoškolský

basketbal a na studenty. Následující podkapitola prošetřuje vliv NBA a vede ke kapitole

o vzniku nové éry Afroamerických vysokoškolských hvězd. Tato podkapitola se zabývá

třemi jednotlivci – Chamberlain, Russell a Robertson. Studuje, jak jejich působení

ovlivnilo integraci a pomohlo s desegregací. Poslední kapitola zjišťuje důvody, proč

se jihovýchodní část Spojených Států Amerických tolik lišila, že byl takový problém

zde integrovat vysokoškolský basketbal a také zkoumá činy, které konečně vedly

k samotné integraci.

46

9. Summary

This bachelor thesis deals with the integration of college basketball. The main

object of the thesis is to clarify why it took so long to integrate college basketball.

Professional basketball leagues were integrated in a matter of years. In contrast, it took

several decades to integrate college basketball. The thesis also examines the individuals

and events that helped or hindered the integration process. For example the coaches,

basketball stars and civil rights activists. Among the events are integrations of various

facilities and leagues, protests and important matchups with integrated teams.

The first part of the thesis serves as an introductory chapter to the history

of basketball, origins of college basketball and segregation. It describes the invention

of basketball, creation of collegiate tournaments and the situation in the South,

explaining its correlation to basketball. These introductory chapters are followed by

the main body of the thesis and it starts with coaches McLendon and Gaines.

It investigates their influence on college basketball and the students. The next

subchapter explores the influence of NBA and leads to a chapter about formation

of a new era of African American college superstar. This subchapter deals with three

individual players – Chamberlain, Russell and Robertson. It explores how their actions

affected integration and helped with desegregation. The last chapter studies the reasons

why is the Deep South so different that it was such a problem to integrate college

basketball there and it also examines the actions that finally led to the actual integration.

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