The brothers Ulysses S. “Lyss” Young and William “Pimp” Young, unsung African American basketball pioneers who took their games far beyond the courts.
‘Pimp’ and ‘Lyss’: The Immortal Young Brothers
My two-part article on John ‘Boy Wonder’ Isaacs, originally published in the 2015 Enshrinement Weekend Yearbook of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
On November 13, 1907, the first game between two fully independent, formally organized African American basketball teams was played in Brooklyn, New York.
Did you know that there were many non-playing pioneers of the Black Fives Era who made important contributions to the growth and evolution of basketball among African Americans?
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 Jewish Americans and African Americans together in the sport for the first time. Who was he? What did he do? Was he Jewish?
In addition to being banned for life, Donald Sterling also should be forced to visit the Black Fives exhibition now at the New-York Historical Society, which reveals that blacks and whites have been working together in basketball for a very, very long time.
All-black military basketball teams go as far back as racial segregation in the Armed Services. One such team played in the early 1910s: the 10th Cavalry “Buffalo Soldiers” Five, from Fort Ethan Allen in Vermont.
The Smart Set Athletic Club used the old 14th Regiment Armory in Brooklyn, now breathtakingly renovated, as its home court for basketball during the 1910s.
Beside their football team popularized by Jim Thorpe, the Carlisle Indian School of the 1910s also had a talented Native American basketball team.