This historic 1941 basketball ticket that celebrates FDR’s birthday and raises funds to prevent Infantile Paralysis represents a major milestone in the sport.
Artifact of the Week (8): The 1941 Diversity Ticket
In addition to sharing tales of Isaacs’ life and memories, the panel distributed different media and news clippings of Isaacs’ historic career, as well as provided a display that shared more details and images of Isaacs’ life.
Henry “Hank” DeZonie, who was a star basketball player with the Harlem Yankees, New York Renaissance, Dayton Rens of the National Basketball League, and Tri-Cities Blackhawks of the National Basketball Association, died January 2, 2009, at Lenox Hill Hospital in Harlem. He would have been 87 years old yesterday.
In the winter following his rookie year in the Major Leagues, Baseball Hall of Fame member Larry Doby became the first African American player in the American Basketball League.
Though news coverage of the NBA’s upcoming racial integration was limited, there was enough to get a glimpse of what the milestone meant at the time.
When SLAM asked me to write something about 93-year-old former professional basketball player John Isaacs, I wanted to go beyond what’s been told (and retold) before. I wanted to tell what matters most.
William “Dolly” King, the 6-foot 4-inch, 220-lb. star center and captain of the undefeated LIU Blackbirds, left his team mid-season to join the all-black New York Rens.