[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 86 (Thursday, June 19, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1267]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             IN HONOR OF ``THE FATHER OF BLACK BASKETBALL''

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 19, 1997

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor John McLendon, Jr., who, 
played a major role in the integration of college basketball and the 
development of the fast-paced game we see today.
  McLendon attended the University of Kansas in 1933 and was fortunate 
enough to be enrolled in the final classes taught by the inventor of 
basketball, Dr. James Naismith, before his death. The 81-year-old 
McLendon is now the last living link to the era when basketballs were 
shot into peach baskets.
  In 1944, he broke the law, and perhaps more importantly tradition, 
when he organized the first interracial basketball game between his 
team at North Carolina College and Duke Navy Medical School. The game 
was played in Durham, NC at 11 on a Sunday morning, when everyone in 
town was at church, 21 years before the color barrier was broken in the 
Atlantic Coast Conference. McLendon's Eagles beat the Blue Devils 88 to 
44. The story of this ``secret game'' is now in production for a movie.
  As coast at Tennessee State University in 1954, McLendon again took a 
stand for integration. His team was invited to participate in a 
National Association of Collegiate Athletics tournament in Kansas City. 
McLendon refused to come unless his players were allowed to stay at the 
same hotel and eat in the same restaurants as the white players. All 
but two of the maids at the hotel quit when the tournament directors 
conceded.
  These are only two examples of McLendon's boldness and determination 
to integrate the sport of basketball. Throughout his prestigious career 
which ranges from coaching basketball at three different universities 
in the United States and two Malayan universities through a State 
Department cultural exchange program, to becoming the first black coach 
in professional basketball for the Cleveland Pipers, and promoting 
Converse shoes all over the world, McLendon has trailblazed the way for 
breaking down the color barrier in sports. For his efforts, he became 
the first black coach inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball 
Hall of Fame in 1978.
  He is now back in Cleveland, OH, working as athletic department 
adviser and teaching a course titled ``The History of Sports in the 
United States and the Role of Minorities in Their Development'' at 
Cleveland State University.'' My fellow colleagues, please join me in 
acknowledging John McLendon, Jr., for a lifetime of striving for 
fairness in sports regardless of race.

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