"From the 1940s on into the '50s and '60s, the greatest basketball players in this country and many of the greatest coaches - were black. Problem was, hardly anybody knew it." Howie Evans, sports editor of the Amsterdam (N.Y.) News
There are certain historical facts the average college basketball fan doesn't know. Most have probably heard of Clarence "Big House'' Gaines of Winston-Salem State, who won 828 games between 1946-93.
But how many knew John McLendon, who won 523 games in 22 years at five different schools, was the first college coach to win three national championships (1957-59 at Tennessee State)?
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Showing posts with label Ben Jobe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ben Jobe. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Signs of times stay with Ben Jobe--Part II
Son of sharecropper says growing up in segregated South left plenty of scars
In his sunset years, Ben Jobe often thinks of his father. Much of what he became - and much of what he accomplished as an educator and basketball coach and valued counselor to hundreds of young black men during the Civil Rights Movement - goes back to the lessons he learned from an uneducated man with uncommon common sense.
"My father was a Tennessee sharecropper who couldn't read or write,'' said Jobe, the youngest of 15 children. "He always worked. He was a workaholic, and so was my mother. But they taught us things we'll never forget.''
One day the family was chopping cotton in rural Rutherford County. Ben, who was 7 or 8 years old at the time, looked up and saw a car passing on a dusty road. "Why do the white people got a car and we don't?'' he asked his father. "Why does Mr. Caldwell got a car and all we got is ol' Jake?''
CONTINUE READING, CLICK ON BLOG TITLE.
In his sunset years, Ben Jobe often thinks of his father. Much of what he became - and much of what he accomplished as an educator and basketball coach and valued counselor to hundreds of young black men during the Civil Rights Movement - goes back to the lessons he learned from an uneducated man with uncommon common sense.
"My father was a Tennessee sharecropper who couldn't read or write,'' said Jobe, the youngest of 15 children. "He always worked. He was a workaholic, and so was my mother. But they taught us things we'll never forget.''
One day the family was chopping cotton in rural Rutherford County. Ben, who was 7 or 8 years old at the time, looked up and saw a car passing on a dusty road. "Why do the white people got a car and we don't?'' he asked his father. "Why does Mr. Caldwell got a car and all we got is ol' Jake?''
CONTINUE READING, CLICK ON BLOG TITLE.
Ben Jobe helps tell forgotten story--Part I
Former Alabama A&M coach gives perspective to hoops during Civil Rights era
Dan Klores' initial idea was to do for basketball what famed filmmaker Ken Burns did for the Civil War and baseball.
"I was going to make the quintessential film on the history of basketball, starting with James Naismith and going right on up to the present day,'' said Klores, an acclaimed New York-based producer-director whose documentary topics included boxer Emile Griffith.
That was the plan.
"Then I got caught up in the forgotten story of basketball at the HBCUs - Historically Black Colleges and Universities - and how all that tied in with the Civil Rights Movement in the '60s, and that's when everything changed,'' said Klores
CONTINUE READING, CLICK ON BLOG TITLE.
Dan Klores' initial idea was to do for basketball what famed filmmaker Ken Burns did for the Civil War and baseball.
"I was going to make the quintessential film on the history of basketball, starting with James Naismith and going right on up to the present day,'' said Klores, an acclaimed New York-based producer-director whose documentary topics included boxer Emile Griffith.
That was the plan.
"Then I got caught up in the forgotten story of basketball at the HBCUs - Historically Black Colleges and Universities - and how all that tied in with the Civil Rights Movement in the '60s, and that's when everything changed,'' said Klores
CONTINUE READING, CLICK ON BLOG TITLE.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Basketball's African American Pioneers
A forgotten ballplayer walked into a small reception room last week at the Reagan Building, had the privilege of meeting the famous Earl Monroe -- and promptly told the Pearl a story.
While Monroe was becoming NBA royalty in New York, Perry Wallace played for a pittance in the Eastern League, a basketball minor league, and moonlighted as a math teacher at the Pearl's Alma mater, Philadelphia's John Bartram High School.
CONTINUE READING THIS ENGAGING ARTICLE ON THE FILM "BLACK MAGIC."
Photo: Perry Wallace#25, during his playing days at Vanderbilt University.
Who is Perry Wallace? Here is a brief bio of this trail blazing pioneer...
Perry Wallace grew up in Nashville and played basketball and ran track for Pearl High School from 1963 to 1966. In 1966, Wallace's basketball team went 31-0 and won the TSSAA state basketball championship in the first year in history the tournament was played on an integrated basis.
Perry won All-Metro, All-State and All-American honors. He was valedictorian of his high school class. After high school, he enrolled as a scholarship athlete at Vanderbilt University where he would become the first black varsity basketball player in the SEC.
He led the team in rebounding each year with a career average of 11.5 per game (second best in school history). His average of 17.7 points per game still ranks as the 11th best average in Vanderbilt history. In his senior year, he was named to the All-SEC second team and became a member of the 1000-point club.
He graduated from the Vanderbilt School of Engineering and was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers. Over the years, he has received numerous awards for his efforts in integrating the SEC. Wallace was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
Since graduation, Wallace received a law degree from Columbia University in New York where he was awarded the Charles Evans Hughes Fellowship and worked as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. Perry is now a Professor of Law at the Washington College of Law, The American University, Washington, D.C.
While Monroe was becoming NBA royalty in New York, Perry Wallace played for a pittance in the Eastern League, a basketball minor league, and moonlighted as a math teacher at the Pearl's Alma mater, Philadelphia's John Bartram High School.
CONTINUE READING THIS ENGAGING ARTICLE ON THE FILM "BLACK MAGIC."
Photo: Perry Wallace#25, during his playing days at Vanderbilt University.Who is Perry Wallace? Here is a brief bio of this trail blazing pioneer...
Perry Wallace grew up in Nashville and played basketball and ran track for Pearl High School from 1963 to 1966. In 1966, Wallace's basketball team went 31-0 and won the TSSAA state basketball championship in the first year in history the tournament was played on an integrated basis.
Perry won All-Metro, All-State and All-American honors. He was valedictorian of his high school class. After high school, he enrolled as a scholarship athlete at Vanderbilt University where he would become the first black varsity basketball player in the SEC.
He led the team in rebounding each year with a career average of 11.5 per game (second best in school history). His average of 17.7 points per game still ranks as the 11th best average in Vanderbilt history. In his senior year, he was named to the All-SEC second team and became a member of the 1000-point club.
He graduated from the Vanderbilt School of Engineering and was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers. Over the years, he has received numerous awards for his efforts in integrating the SEC. Wallace was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
Since graduation, Wallace received a law degree from Columbia University in New York where he was awarded the Charles Evans Hughes Fellowship and worked as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. Perry is now a Professor of Law at the Washington College of Law, The American University, Washington, D.C.
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