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author
interview
about John McLendon
photos:
click
image to enlarge
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Breaking
Through
John B. McLendon, Basketball Legend
and Civil Rights Pioneer
Milton S. Katz
Forewords by Billy Packer and Ian Naismith
How
a dedicated coach helped initiate integrated basketball
John
B. McLendon was the last living protégé of basketball’s
inventor, Dr. James Naismith, and one of the “top ten
basketball coaches of the century” in Billy Packer’s
opinion. Breaking Through, the first biography of this remarkable
man, is the uplifting story of a champion’s struggle
for equality in 1940s and ‘50s America, when one coach
refused to accept that teams at traditionally black colleges
like North Carolina College and Tennessee State were unable
to achieve national prominence.
McLendon’s creative and courageous efforts to “break
through” the color lines of institutional racism include
the famous “secret game” between his North Carolina
College players and the Duke University Medical School in
1944, ten years before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education
decision. McLendon taught his players, including such NBA
standouts as Sam Jones, Dick Barnett, and John Barnhill, that
dignity and self-respect were more important than the numbers
on a scoreboard, though he nonetheless achieved a 76 percent
winning mark over a twenty-five-year collegiate coaching career.
He was an early pioneer of game preparation, conditioning,
the fast break, the full-court press, and a two corner offense
that became the seed for Dean Smith’s famous four corners,
and he won eight CIAA titles at North Carolina College between
1941 and 1952.
McLendon’s far-reaching list of firsts includes being
the first coach to win three consecutive national titles (Tennessee
State, 1957–59), the first black coach of an integrated
professional team (the ABL’s Cleveland Pipers), the
first black coach at a predominately white college (Cleveland
State), the first black coach in the ABA, the first black
coach to publish a basketball book, the first black coach
on the Olympic staff, the first black coach inducted into
the Basketball Hall of Fame . . . the list goes on. McLendon’s
amazing career culminated in his efforts as a basketball ambassador;
he traveled to fifty-eight countries, teaching the fundamentals
of the game and the value of sportsmanship, and many believe
he contributed more to the proliferation of basketball worldwide
than any other individual.
Breaking Through is both a history lesson and an inspiration
to any player, coach, or spectator who has ever known the
transcendent powers of a game.
ESPN will
televise a two-part, four-hour film over two nights in
March 2008
tentatively titled "Black Magic" about the injustice
which defined the civil
rights movement in America, as told through the lives
of basketball players
and coaches who attended historically Black colleges and
universities.
Katz was interviewed for the documentary and appears in
the film a number of times talking about Coach McLendon's
achievements. The first part is
scheduled to run right after ESPN's NCAA tournament selection
show. |
Milton S. Katz is professor of American studies,
School of Liberal Arts, Kansas City Art Institute. He is the
author of Ban the Bomb and over two dozen book chapters, articles,
and essays on peace and social justice movements in contemporary
American history. He met John McLendon in 1980 and became
close friends with him after spending untold hours interviewing
him and researching his life.
October
2007
6 x 9, 282 pages, 46 photos, index
$32.50 cloth
ISBN 978-1-55728-847-9 | 1-55728-847-X |
