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.
Vintage All-Black U.S. Military Basketball Teams: Vermont’s 10th Cavalry ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ Five, 1910
Part I of a multi-part series on George Crowe, the last living Harlem Rens player, covers his Indiana schoolboy basketball career.
Just behold these vintage African American women’s basketball photographs, and the stories they tell.
After racial integration of the NBA, many all-black teams were left with few choices besides sensational names, clowning, and comedic showmanship.
Brian Gaynor of the Des Moines Register copped some nice research about the breaking of the racial color barrier in the old National Basketball League, for a piece he wrote that appeared this week in the Sheboygan Press.
The formal ceremony in the building’s vintage gymnasium was attended by Thurgood Marshall’s 81-year-old widow, Cissy, and by the great-grandson of former president Theodore Roosevelt.
A vintage set of club-going rules from Harlem in 1926.
Judging from what I saw at the 16th Annual John Henry “Pop” Lloyd Humanitarian and Youth Awards in Atlantic City last weekend, this event just keeps getting better.
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.
Ever wonder where the basketball term “flush” came from? What if it came from these early bottomless basketball baskets? Antique urinal. After each made field goal, a referee had to stop play in order to pull the draw string that tipped the basket just enough for the ball to fall out. The ball would go… Read more »
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Black Fives
We inspire excellence in youth and communities by preserving, teaching, and honoring the pre-NBA history of African Americans in basketball.
For years, we have been building something truly remarkable.![]()
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Something deeper than what’s visible on the surface.![]()
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This piece, created by the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective from remnants of our Black Fives throwback jerseys, carries that idea.![]()
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On the front, you see something beautiful.![]()
On the back, you see the work.![]()
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Tens of thousands of stitches.![]()
Each one holding the whole together.![]()
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Like the earlier African American basketball pioneers whose names were forgotten, but whose work helped shape the game.![]()
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Like the countless people, often unseen, who did and are doing the work that holds our country together.![]()
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The surface only exists because of what’s behind it.![]()
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And it’s only as strong as the weakest stitch.![]()
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Do we really want to remove certain stitches?![]()
Are we OK with pieces falling apart?![]()
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Do we value the work we don’t see?![]()
Do we recognize it?![]()
Do we protect it?![]()
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That’s the real story.![]()
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A cultural archive. A sports heritage platform.![]()
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Make History Now.![]()
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For years, we have been building something truly remarkable.![]()
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A deep archive of early African American basketball.![]()
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The stories, the images, the history that shaped the game.![]()
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But this is more than an archive.![]()
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It’s a cultural IP and sports heritage platform.![]()
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Infrastructure of history, identity, and assets ready to build with.![]()
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For partners, institutions, and brands who want real cultural authenticity, not just performative optics.![]()
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Build with us.![]()
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blackfives.org/build![]()
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#blackhistory #culturalheritage #brandpartnerships #archives #intellectualproperty