The Black Fives Foundation is expanding and reinforcing its mission and goals with solid momentum from strategic partnerships and its first grant.
Press Release
During the 1910s, a Lower East Side basketball coach brought Jewish Americans and African Americans together in the sport for the first time. Who was he? What did he do? Was he Jewish?
During the 1910s, a Lower East Side basketball coach brought African Americans and Jewish Americans together in the sport for the first time. Who was he? What did he do? Was he Jewish?
Edwin B. Henderson — a Black Fives Era pioneer who is known as the “Grandfather of Black Basketball” — has been elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame! He is “unsung” no more.
April birthdays related to the Black Fives Era of basketball include Don Barksdale, Bill Yancey, John McLendon, Paul Robeson, and Charles Scottron.
The Basketball Hall of Fame will form a special review committee to look at overlooked African American candidates, but there’s a catch.
Ralph Bunche was born in Detroit on August 7, 1904. He would become a star basketball player, summa cum laude graduate, and class valedictorian at U.C.L.A. in the 1920s, a Nobel Prize winner in 1950, and the United Nations under-secretary general in 1968. He lectured at Howard University while working towards his doctoral degree at… Read more »
Some readers wondered what “throwing for goal” was all about, so I’ll continue with the ongoing shout out to 1904’s “How To Play Basket Ball” that I’ve been doing lately. This advice is particularly interesting in light of the United States Olympic Basketball Team’s crushing 64% field goal percentage in an exhibition victory over Lithuania… Read more »
Here’s the a portion of the front cover of the 1904 publication “How To Play Basket Ball,” distributed by Spalding Sporting Goods.
A close look at the last line of copy in this 1904 advertisement for gum bottom “basket ball” shoes may explain why Spalding lost its grip on the athletic footwear business a century ago.