This story from a Black Fives Era descendant links the distant basketball past with the funeral of New York Renaissance star John Isaacs earlier this year.
Accooe Descendant’s Story Comes Full Circle In Harlem
Kudos to Bill Rhoden of the New York Times for orchestrating this idea for NBA Commissioner David Stern to visit a Harlem barber shop. But, what’s the agenda?
An early Sunday morning bicycle ride through Harlem leads to sacredness, grace, astonishment, acknowledgment, gratitude, and smiles.
Legendary New York Rens players like Tarzan Cooper, Charlie Isles and Pop Gates, and a host of other old-time players took the time to help kids like Satch learn the game.
The Naval Ammunition Depot in Hastings, Nebraska — the Navy’s largest W.W. II inland munitions plant — had an all-black contingent that represented the base in the “Colored Servicemen’s Basketball Championship Tournament of Nebraska” around 1944.
Another unidentified all-black W.W. II basketball team whose players are as-yet unknown.
In 1961, during a summer job in Vienna, Austria, my father took pivotal advice from Father Theodore Hesburgh, now President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame.
During World War II the Bronson Field Bombers, an all-black U.S. Navy basketball team stationed at Bronson Field in Pensacola, Florida, won the Naval Air Training Bases basketball championships.
After World War I, some veterans from Company E of the 372nd Colored Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, formed a basketball team.
Part 3 of a multi-part series on George Crowe, the last living New York (Harlem) Rens player, covers his stellar collegiate career and military experiences.