Club Store Co-Eds
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Manager: Dick Hudson
Established: 1930
Type: Barnstorming
The Club Store Co-Eds were a pioneering all-Black women’s basketball team formed on the South Side of Chicago in 1930 by entrepreneurial African American nightclub promoter Dick Hudson.
With financial backing by the Club Store, a Black-run community cooperative shop located at East 47th and Wabash Avenue in Bronzeville, the Co-Eds featured an all-star lineup that included 6-foot 7-inch center Helen “Streamline” Smith and played their home games at the South Side’s renowned Eighth Regiment Armory.
Hudson envisioned a national stage for the Co-Eds and shortly after forming the squad he took them on an extensive West Coast tour with stops in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Colorado as well as Canadian stops in Alberta and British Columbia, making them the first all-Black female barnstorming squad in history.
On the road, they were nicknamed the Chocolate Co-Eds and Smith was promoted as the “tallest woman in the world.”
But this was not a comedy act. Playing straight basketball, they became so dominant that other women’s teams refused to play them, so Hudson scheduled games against men’s teams instead.
At one point, the Co-Eds defeated forty-one all-male squads in a row, and in a typical season, they traveled over 10,000 miles covering dozens of states while scheduling up to 100 games.
The success of the Club Store Co-Eds helped expand the image, definition, and realm of the African American female athlete while also promoting race relations, gender equity, and economic empowerment for Black women, and for women overall during a time when these concepts were new to most Americans.
Club Store Co-Eds™ is a trademark of the Black Fives Foundation. All rights reserved.