Timeline
A chronology of important dates in the history of the Black Fives Era of basketball.
1891
Dr. James Naismith invents the sport of basketball after he is asked to come up with a game that can keep young men occupied and physically active during the winter months. The first game is played in a YMCA gymnasium in Springfield, Massachusetts, after Naismith nails a peach basket to the bottom of the running track there.
1896
St. Philips Protestant Episcopal Church, the most prestigious Black church in America at the time, organizes the St. Christopher Club in the Tenderloin District of New York City (now midtown Manhattan) as a religious program for young African American men, that soon expands to include athletic activities to keep the attention of its members.
1903
True Reformer’s Hall, the first post-Reconstruction building to be financed, designed, and built entirely by African Americans, is dedicated in Washington, DC. Beginning in 1904, the hall will become the center of the region’s Black basketball scene and remain so for more than a decade.
Now with over 600 members, the Colored Branch of the Washington, D.C. Y.M.C.A. moves from its Eleventh Street office into the newly completed True Reformer’s Hall building.
1904
Returning from a summer class at Harvard University where he learned the game, a black physical education instructor named Edwin Henderson teaches basketball to Black students in Washington, DC’s segregated public school system, and soon organizes teams and events, marking the first time that the sport is widely introduced to African Americans.
1906
In Washington, DC, Edwin Henderson establishes the first all-black athletic conference, the Interscholastic Athletic Association (ISAA), an amateur organization that aimed to promote competitive sport among African Americans. As the result of the formation of the ISAA and Henderson’s evangelistic efforts, various all-Black basketball teams and players from public school systems, athletic clubs, churches, colleges, and Colored YMCAs soon begin to emerge and thrive in and around Washington, and throughout the middle-Atlantic states.
The Smart Set Athletic Club of Brooklyn and the St. Christopher Club of New York City establish the first fully organized independent African American basketball teams; the teams advocate strictly amateur status.
1907
The first official game between two all-Black basketball teams is played in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, New York, between the St. Christopher Club of Manhattan and the Marathon Athletic Club of Brooklyn.
The amateur, all-Black Olympian Athletic League is formed in New York City – the first league comprised of independent teams with a schedule, standings, and a championship – consisting of the Smart Set Athletic Club, St. Christopher Club, Marathon Athletic Club, Alpha Physical Culture Club, and the Jersey City Colored YMCA.
The first inter-city basketball game between two African American teams is played when the Smart Set Athletic Club of Brooklyn travels to Washington, DC to play the Crescent Athletic Club.
Charles “Tarzan” Cooper, considered by many to be the greatest center of his time, is born in Wilmington, DE. Cooper, who played for the Philadelphia Panthers, New York Rens, and Washington Bears, led the Rens to 1,303 wins, including 88 straight wins in 86 days in 1933, and won the World Pro Basketball Championship in 1939 and 1943 before retiring in 1944; he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1976.
1908
The Smart Set Athletic Club basketball team of Brooklyn wins the inaugural Olympian Athletic League title.
The “Colored Basketball World’s Championship” is established; it begins as an unofficial term coined by a New York Age sportswriter to designate the best African American “five” in the country.
1909
The Twelfth Street Colored YMCA of Washington, DC forms a basketball team, known as the “12 Streeters”; almost every player is a current or former student of nearby Howard University. The 12 Streeters win the 1909-1910 Colored Basketball World’s Championship with an undefeated record.
1910
Most of the players on the Twelfth Street Colored Y team leave to form Howard University’s first varsity basketball team, led and coached by Henderson, which promptly wins the 1910-1911 Colored Basketball World’s Championship with an undefeated season.
The basketball manager of the amateur, church-sponsored St. Christopher Club defects with many St. Christopher players and other top stars to form a new semi-pro team, the New York All Stars, the first all-Black pay-for-play team; their manager’s rogue tactics are labeled “unclean.”
The Manhattan Casino, a large ballroom across the street from the Polo Grounds in upper Harlem, becomes the destination of choice for music, dancing, and African American basketball.
1911
Howard University wins the 1910-1911 Colored Basketball World’s Championship with an undefeated record.
1912
In a game that puts Pittsburgh on the Black basketball map, a previously unknown African American team called the Monticello Athletic Association hosts and defeats “invincible” Howard University, the previous year’s national Black basketball champion.
1913
The St. Christopher Club regains full strength with the help of a new manager who introduces “scientific basketball” techniques and novel marketing promotions, leading the team to its first Colored Basketball World’s Championship.
1914
Will Anthony Madden, the manager of the strictly amateur St. Christopher Club, and most of his players break away from the St. Christopher Club in a dispute over money for play. They form a new semi-professional all-Black basketball team, the St. Christopher Club of New York, Inc., whose mirror-image name is so confusing that the public eventually dubs them simply the New York “Incorporators.” The Incorporators enjoy immediate success.
1917
Chicago joins New York and Pittsburgh as a prominent African American basketball power when the Wabash Avenue Colored YMCA “Outlaws” travel to New York City to play the Incorporators and a Black basketball rivalry between New York and Chicago is born.
1920
The Amateur Athletic Union formally certifies a Black basketball referee from New York City, Chris Huiswoud, who becomes the first African American to officiate an AAU-sanctioned basketball game.
The Black-run Metropolitan Basketball Association becomes the first governing body to preside over amateur African American basketball. When the MBA bans all “unclean” pay-for-play teams and players, they miscalculate the popularity of such teams, opening the door for a wave of professionalism in Black basketball.
1922
Two white sports promoters in Harlem form the Commonwealth Five, an all-Black team playing out of the Commonwealth Sporting Club and Casino, using guaranteed full-year contracts, thus making it the first fully professional African American basketball team.
1923
The New York Original Celtics play the Commonwealth Five, the first time an African American basketball team plays against a mainstream acknowledged World Champion.
The New York Renaissance Big Five are born when their owner agrees to rename his all-Black Spartan Braves basketball team after the newly opened Renaissance Ballroom and Casino in Harlem. When the Renaissance introduce guaranteed year-long contracts, they become the first Black-owned, fully professional basketball team. The “Rens” debut at the Renaissance Casino on November 3, beating the all-white Collegian Five, 28–22.
The Loendi Big Five of Pittsburgh, named after an exclusive all-Black social club in that city, win their fourth straight Colored Basketball World’s Championship, for the 1922-23 season.
1924
The Loendi Big Five plays the Clarksburg Five in Clarksburg, West Virginia in the first game between an all-Black basketball team and an all-white team below the Mason-Dixon Line. No ensuing trouble is reported.
The Commonwealth Five win the Colored Basketball World’s Championship, becoming the only white-owned team ever to win the title.
1925
Harlem’s Renaissance Big Five wins the Colored Basketball World’s Championship for 1924-25, the first of many titles as the team subsequently monopolizes Black basketball through the late 1930s.
1933
The New York Renaissance Big “R” Five win 88 straight games in a stretch of 86 days on their way to a season record of 127-7. This team in its entirety was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1963.
1939
From a pool of the nation’s twelve best professional basketball teams, the New York Renaissance beat the Oshkosh All-Stars — champions of the segregated National Basketball League — at Chicago Coliseum, 34–25, to win the championship title in the first World Pro Basketball Tournament.
1941
William “Dolly” King, a powerfully built guard and the star player for Long Island University’s undefeated varsity basketball team, leaves college midseason to play professionally with the New York Rens. LIU went on to win the National Invitational Tournament without him. Within weeks, King was the leading scorer in the Rosenblum Pro Basketball Tournament in Cleveland and made the all-tournament team in the 1941 World Pro Basketball Tournament a few months later.
1942
Toledo White Huts owner Sid Goldberg broke the National Basketball League’s color barrier by signing four African-American players: Bill Jones, Casey Jones, Al Price, and Shannie Barnett. The Chicago Studebakers of the N.B.L. joined the White Huts by signing six Black players: Wyatt “Sonny” Boswell, Roscoe “Duke” Cumberland, Tony Peyton, Bernie Price, Roosie Hudson, and Hillary Brown.
1943
Tennis great Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. is born in Richmond, Virginia. Ashe’s preliminary research of early Black basketball in his seminal book, A Hard Road to Glory: the History of the African American Athlete, provides the inspiration that leads to the creation of Black Fives, Inc.
The Washington Bears, an all-Black team with a roster of former New York Rens players, goes undefeated and wins the World Championship of Professional Basketball in Chicago.
1946
The National Basketball League signs four African American players: William “Dolly” King with the Rochester Royals, Willie King with the Detroit Gems, Bill Farrow with the Youngstown Bears, and future Basketball Hall of Fame member William “Pop” Gates with the Buffalo Bisons. (The Bisons later became the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, representing Moline and Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.)
1948
The New York Rens join the National Basketball League (N.B.L.), taking over the Dayton, Ohio franchise and thereby becoming the Dayton Rens.
1950
Chuck Cooper, Earl Lloyd, Nat Clifton, and Hank DeZonie become the first African American players in the National Basketball Association.
1972
Robert “Bob” Douglas, the owner of the New York Renaissance, is enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor. He’s the first African American so honored.
1977
Charles “Tarzan” Cooper, a star center for the Philadelphia Panthers, New York Renaissance, and Washington Bears is enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
1989
William “Pop” Gates, a star forward with the New York Renaissance, Harlem Globetrotters, Buffalo Bisons, and Dayton Rens, is enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
2011
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame establishes the Early African-American Pioneers of the Game Committee, which has the clout to induct deserving candidates with a direct vote.
Reese “Goose” Tatum, a long-time star with the Harlem Globetrotters and known as the “Clown Prince of Basketball,” is enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame through the Early African-American Pioneers of the Game Committee.
2012
Don Barksdale, a pioneering player who was the first African American to be named NCAA All-American, the first to play on the United States Men’s Olympic Basketball Team, and the first to play in a National Basketball Association All-Star Game, is enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame through the Early African-American Pioneers of the Game Committee.
2013
Edwin Bancroft Henderson, who in 1904 first introduced basketball to African Americans on a wide scale organized basis, is enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame through the Early African-American Pioneers of the Game Committee.
2014
The New-York Historical Society launches the first-ever full-scale museum exhibition dedicated to the history and artifacts of the Black Fives Era of basketball. The exhibition runs from March to July, 2014.
Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton is enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame through the Early African-American Pioneers of the Game Committee.
2015
The famed Renaissance Casino & Ballroom, a historically important Black cultural mecca that was built in 1922 and was the home court of the New York Renaissance Big Five, the first Black-owned fully-professional African American basketball team, is torn down after its sale to condo-developers by the property’s former owner, the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
John “Boy Wonder” Isaacs, a fiery guard with the New York Renaissance, Harlem Globetrotters, Grumman Flyers, and Washington Bears and other teams, is enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
2016
Cumberland Posey, Jr., considered the best African American basketball player from 1910 to 1925, is enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame through the Early African-American Pioneers of the Game Committee. He is also enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
2017
Zach Clayton, who played guard for the New York “Rens” and Washington Bears from 1936 to 1946, winning two World Championship of Professional Basketball titles, is enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame through the Early African-American Pioneers of the Game Committee.
2018
Ora Washington, who played with the Germantown Hornets and Philadelphia Tribune Girls during the 1930s and 40s and won eleven straight Colored Women’s Basketball World Championship titles and twelve altogether, is enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame through the Early African-American Pioneers of the Game Committee.
