Race, Basketball, & The Real Hoosiers

W.F.Massey

My dad, W.F.Massey coached at Savanna, IL in part of the 1930's and 1940's. It was the custom at the time after games to stop and feed the players after road games. Savanna had an African-American player, when the team would stop to get a meal, my dad would first go into the restaurant to see if they would serve an African-American. Sadly, it was not unusual for restaurants to refuse service. In thatt case, my dad would go back out and tell the team, "They are full." This was Savanna, Illinois- not Savannah, Georgia. Savanna was  only 40 miles from the Wisconsin border.

Pete Thierry

I had an opportunity to do an earlier blog with Pete Thierry, who was an African-American, who graduated from Galesburg High School in 1953. For those of you unaware, Galesburg is in the “North,” Galesburg is about 125 miles from the Wisconsin border. Even though Galesburg had a significant African-American population, Pete was only the third to play basketball for Galesburg HS. The earlier two players were not usually permitted by opposing schools to play in their gyms when Galesburg was on the road.

Bill Garrett in the 1947-8 season was the first Black basketball player in the Big Ten. He graduated from Indiana in 1951. His entire time at Indiana there were no other African-American players in the Big Ten.

The Kimbroughs

In 1957, the Galesburg coach, John Thiel started 4 African-Americans. This decision resulted in the coach receiving hate mail. Only when the team began to win games did the hate mail slow down, but it did not stop. When Galesburg with four Black players lost to Collinsville with an all White lineup in the Elite 8, the game ended in a near riot. 

Later in the early 1960’s, a writer for a QC newspaper tabulated the number of fouls called on Galesburg and the number of fouls on their opponents at the State Tournament. The implication of the writer was that as a school who played a high number of Black players going vs predominately White teams that the officiating was suspect, especially if the officials were from southern Illinois. 

In 1976 when I was a helping coach our JV team, we played at an all-White school outside of Peoria. After the game, we decided to have the team pick up a burger next to the high school at a fast food restaurant. We had only 8 players, and five players were African-Americans.  ]We had been in the fast food restaurant for 5 minutes when two police squad cars arrived. As coaches, we were instructed, “It would be best if you got our sandwiches to go.” I was not sure if the message was a genuine concern for our safety or if it was promoting a community norm. 

My point with these examples is to make it clear that race was part of basketball much later than what many would like to believe. And that race was an issue in “northern states” like Illinois.

Jack McCallum and The Real Hoosiers book

The Real Hoosiers was written by award winning author, Jack McCallum. It is an interesting book that focuses on the 1940's and 1950's. McCallum looks at race issues in society, race issues in basketball, and myths connected with the movie Hoosiers. Those with an interest in sociology, race, and basketball will find this book fascinating. I would like to share some snippets from the book.

McCallum’s book takes a deep dive into Attucks High School in Indianapolis, and its star from 1954-1956, Oscar Robertson. Attucks HS was a poor school made up of all Black students on the west side of Indianapolis. Their gym was so small and so bad that they had find other gyms to play their games. 

Oscar Robertson 

It was a tough area at the time. Oscar failed to start in his first “home” game as a sophomore because he was late for the game. He was late because  he had to take public busing across town to their “home” gym of the night. He was late because there was a knifing on the bus.

McCallum claims some white officials were appeared to be biased toward the all-Black team. Robertson’s coach, Ray Crowe always implored the teams to get a big lead so the refs would not be a factor at the end of games. A local newspaper commented,”Is it always going to be true that officials will take the close games away from Attucks?”

Crispus Attuck HS

An interesting story that McCallum shares from the Illinois State Tourney in the 1950's.  DuSable from Chicago lost to Mt. Vernon in the Illinois State tourney. DuSable would have been the first All-Black school in the United States to win a State title. According to McCallum, multiple accounts share that after leading most of the game, DuSable lost as the result of very questionable calls going down the stretch which allowed Mt. Vernon to shoot free throw after free throw. 

Because of the high level of racial tension when Attucks played all-white schools, players from both Attucks and opposing teams received threats before their games. Oscar Robertson received a death threat on the phone at his home as a 15 year old.

An irony was that because of Attucks success and popularity, and their lack of a home gym- they gradually moved most of their home games to Butler Field House. It was not unusual for them to have 10,000 plus fans for their biggest games.

Hoosiers fictional movie 

The championship game in the Hoosiers film is against the all Black team. The team represented in the film was Attucks.  The Milan vs Attucks game actually was in the semi-finals not the finals, and it took place in 1954 not in 1952. Milan did defeat them in Oscar Robertson’s sophomore year. The coach of Milan was actually young and inexperienced, and the star was outgoing and loud. Spike Lee is quoted as talking about the Hoosiers film by saying, "You fill a nostalgic need with fantasy, turn back the clock to much simpler time, a time when 'nigras' knew their place.”

Some of the book focuses on how African-American players and teams really changed the game of basketball. At this point, many teams played a traditional style which involved pulling the ball out and stalling if they had the lead in the second half. It was not unusual for a team to have one player just stand with the ball for 4-5 minutes in the second half. McCallum contends that African-American players and teams like Attucks caused a change in the tempo and style of basketball to make it a faster game.

Oscar’s Attucks teams went 62-1 over his junior and seniors years in route to winning both the 1955 and 1956 Indiana State Championships. In 1955, in the Final Four one game had African-Americans as all ten starters in the game. While the HS State series game has 9 of 10 African-American starters, that same year there were only 19 African-Americans in the NBA. 

Coach Ray Crowe & Oscar Robertson

Coach Ray Crowe coached at Attucks for 7 years. He was African-American. He had an overall record of 193-20. His teams won two State titles, and won 4 Sectional titles. He was never selected Indiana HS Coach of the Year.

Oscar Robertson addressed the negative perception that many have had toward African-American players not only in the past but also today. It seems many give great credit to the White players for being "smart players," while crediting African-Americans for being "athletic." Oscar Robertson in his autobiography said,”Reports always wrote that Attucks players were big and strong but were no bigger or stronger than many other good teams. Not once, did a White reporter write that I was a smart player.”

Jack McCallum in looking at Attucks made the following comment,”For all that Oscar and his teammates went through, and for all that they would accomplish over the next two seasons (his junior and senior seasons),the personification of Indiana basketball remains a fictional White team from a small town, not the Black team from Indianapolis, whose actual accomplishments dwarf all others.”