Ninth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Black College Basketball was not formed primarily as a tool of assimilation into white culture through sports. In fact, Black College Basketball offers a powerful prism through which the history of black manhood, race, and the black family can be better understood. While scholars have demonstrated the centrality of the church and civil rights organizations such as NAACP to black politics and culture, sports, particularly the game of basketball, became a tool no less important than education, church, or politics in black institutional building and affirming black humanity during the Jim Crow era. Using the extended black family as a metaphor, this paper explores the autonomous formation of Black College Basketball (BCB) at Historically Black Colleges Universities (HBCUs) that was created, sustained, and expanded by black men in the 20th century. In doing so, this paper argues that John B. McLendon is the father of Black College Basketball. As originator of the fast break and four corners offenses and the match-up zone defense, McLendon implemented a full court game that embodied an elaborate and flamboyant style that infused the dramas of racial pride and cultural expression that existed in black American culture. It is through McLendon’s house of hoops that we can best understand the centrality of black men and importance of the black family as a self-determined stabilizing force, defensive mechanism, and a foundation for black men and historically black institutions that expressed concerns about and interest in manhood, race, and culture during the 20th century.