John McLendon

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Basketball player
John McLendon
Ollie Johnson, John McLendon, Ben Warley, Bobby Lewis.jpg

Ollie Johnson, John McLendon, Ben Warley and Bobby Lewis
Player information
Full name John B. McLendon Jr.
Nickname Coach, Daddy, Johnny, Mac
birthday April 5, 1915
place of birth Hiawatha , Kansas , USA
date of death October 8, 1999 (aged 84)
Place of death Cleveland Heights , Ohio , USA
college University of Kansas , University of Iowa
Clubs as coaches
1940–1951 North Carolina College for Negroes 1952–1954 Hampton Institute 1955–1959 Tennessee Agricultural A&I 1959–1962 Cleveland Pipers 1964–1966 Kentucky State College 1967–1969 Cleveland State University 1969 Denver RocketsUnited StatesUnited States
United StatesUnited States
United StatesUnited States
United StatesUnited States
United StatesUnited States
United StatesUnited States
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National team as coach
1964–1967 United StatesUnited StatesUnited States

John B. McLendon Jr. (born April 5, 1915 in Hiawatha , Kansas , † October 8, 1999 in Cleveland Heights , Ohio ) was an American basketball coach , official , educator and civil rights activist . He was James Naismith's last student at the University of Kansas and the first African American to graduate in physical education . He was the first African American to become the first black head coach of an amateur athletic union champion, the first black head coach of a professional integration team, the first after the integration of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), which won its title three times in a row black head coach at a predominantly white university and the first African-American coach on an Olympic team.

McLendon got the director of the athletics department Phog Allen to end the segregation in the swimming pool of the University of Kansas in Kansas City (Kansas), arranged on the advice of Chuck Taylor for the desegregation in the hotels on the sidelines of the NAIA tournament in Kansas City ( Missouri) and more recently became known as one of the organizers of the Secret Game in 1944.

McLendon implemented his teacher's philosophical considerations on total basketball with the introduction of the fast break , the all-field press and the four-corner offensive (he just called the two-corner offensive ). These innovations made him nothing less than the founder of modern basketball.

John McLendon was the only member to date to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as both a sponsor and coach . Acceptance in 1979 as a sponsor was felt by some as an insult, others as an affront. In 2016 he was finally accepted as a coach. The Tennessee State Tigers' championship teams from 1957 to 1959 were inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019, making McLendon the only three-time member of the Hall of Fame alongside Lenny Wilkens .

biography

McLendon was the son of an African American father, John Blanche McLendon Sr., and a mother of the Delaware Nation , Effie Kathryn Hunn. McLendon's grandparents from his father's side belonged to a pair of brothers in Georgia, the McLendons of Edinburgh. His father was born in North Carolina in 1882 and immigrated to Oklahoma in 1905 and to Kansas in 1913, while his mother's family immigrated to Kansas in 1879, fleeing reconstruction from Kentucky with the Exodusters led by Benjamin "Pap" Singleton . McLendon's parents met at Washburn University in Topeka and married that same year.

McLendon was the second of four children. His mother died of the Spanish flu in 1918 , so that the young family had to be torn apart until his father remarried. McLendon did not meet his older sister Anita for about forty years.

McLendon's love story with basketball began in sixth grade. Against the will of his stepmother, he made the decision to become a basketball coach. As a player, however, he said he was unsuitable. The gifted swimmer and boxer received his only varsity letter in high school in gymnastics. He used his banking hours to watch the coaches on the fingers. His mother finally accepted his wish, but not without setting conditions that he accepted all too enthusiastically. In order to achieve his goal, he had to strictly adhere to the time to go to bed, avoid strong drinks such as coffee and tea, sleep without pillows (because this would allegedly be harmful to the posture) and commit to attend the church service regularly.

Education

McLendon's dearest wish was to enroll at Springfield College , Massachusetts, the school for Christian workers where the game of basketball was once invented, but the family had no money for that in the Age of Depression . The fact that Dr. James Naismith was teaching at the University of Kansas at Lawrence just 70 km away , his father found out. The State of Kansas had issued a special ordinance for Naismith personally that allowed him to teach for as long as he pleased.

McLendon was intimidated by the prospect of becoming the first African American student to enter the Faculty of Physical Education in 1933 . Although the education system of Kansas, with the exception of Kansas City, was mandatory, McLendon had attended an all-African-American high school there. But his father explained to him that as a taxpayer he had the same rights as everyone else and that he should visit Naismith personally. McLendon (and the Naismith family as well) were happy to tell about his first meeting with Dr. Naismith, of which a heartwarming anecdote has been passed down.

The two became friends despite an age difference of more than fifty years, and Naismith's holistic approach, which he had learned from Luther Gulick at the YMCA in Springfield , would profoundly shape McLendon. Naismith was a philosopher and theologian who focused on moral education and personal development through sport and saw in people, regardless of belief and wealth, only pure potential and no restrictions. He was an expert in physical education, exercise science , anatomy , physiotherapy , physiology , psychology and sociology , and saw in Sports exemplary life lessons. He was open to any question and guided by his own example. Naismith was not alien to the world. He not only wanted to alleviate the racist pressure, which was also noticeable in Kansas, for McLendon, but also to combat it wherever possible.

Naismith encouraged McLendon to become a basketball coach and, after graduating in 1936, helped McLendon obtain a scholarship for a Masters degree from the University of Iowa . McLendon's research topic during his Masters year was exploring any anatomical differences between races.

Started his career at North Carolina College

In 1937 McLendon was appointed assistant to the director of physical education at the North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University ) in Durham . North Carolina was once the home of his father, who had left 32 years earlier, and a Jim Crow state with an institutional racism that surpassed Kansas. In 1940 McLendon became Head Coach of the Eagles .

Coach McLendon expected more than just iron discipline and superior stamina from his players. They also had to attend a church of their choice, pass their courses and study for school and act as gentlemen at all times , curses were forbidden during training. McLendon preferred no one, was fair, and led by his own integrity like Dr. Naismith. The unparalleled loyalty of almost all of his players to him has lasted for decades. For example, in order to be able to work on the condition of his players long before the start of the season over the holidays, he renovated the gym with them in order to save the college money and thus raise the accommodation costs for his players.

The Eagles played in the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), which has been called the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association since 1950 and which today exists at Division 2 level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Even today it consists almost exclusively of historically black colleges and universities .

Games against white teams were impossible in the south at the time. McLendon challenged several colleges to play against the Eagles in Washington DC . Only Brooklyn College accepted . To this game he invited First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt , who had to be represented by Interior Minister Harold Ickes full of sympathy for the cause .

McLendon tried the competition to instill confidence in his players. Without the direct comparison, they could not have known whether it was really "real" basketball that they were playing. And although Rudolph "Rocky" Roberson beat Hank Luisetti's record of fifty points in a game at eight in February 1943 , doubts about the competitiveness of black players were shared by many in the black community.

Word of the successes of McLendon's team quickly got around and the coach was invited several times to neighboring Duke University . Since he should have dressed up as a waiter, he declined the invitations. In addition to the Blue Devils in Durham, there was another, possibly better team within the campus walls ( intramural ): A service basketball team of former college players at Duke Medical School, who trained doctors for the Army and the Navy. That team had launched a newspaper article proclaiming them state champions, while North Carolina College had just lost a Negro National Championship game to Lincoln University of Pennsylvania at the Renaissance Ballroom in Harlem. Players from both Durham teams met illegally at Durham's YMCA and at some point challenged each other to a game with a music box and referee, known as the Secret Game since the 1990s .

In a climate where bus drivers were armed and a uniformed black GI could be shot in wartime for sitting in the wrong place - the jury decided to acquit the driver after a 28-minute deliberation - the Secret Game took place on December 12th. March 1944 on Sunday mornings during the service. McLendon made his children, who had never touched and rarely seen a white man, shake the hands of the opposing player-coach Jack Burgess. It was agreed not to disclose the game, an attending black press reporter was sworn to this pact and neither the police nor the public ever heard of the game behind closed doors. The Eagles won the game 88-44. Afterwards they swapped, played another game and chatted over sandwiches and refreshments.

McLendon won eight CIAA championships in twelve years at North Carolina College, Durham. In 1946 he and four other coaches decided to found the CIAA championship tournament in order to end the season with dignity and to be able to present the entire talent of the CIAA conference in front of an audience and talent scouts in one place. It took place in the Turner Arena in Washington DC and later from 1949 in the larger Uline Arena of the NBA team of the Washington Capitols . A year later, West Virginia State owner Mike Uline Eagle signed Harold Hunter and Earl Lloyd . McLendon had both set to tryouts, but only Lloyd made it into the team in the end.

With Truman's presidential decree Executive Order 9981 to abolish racial segregation in the military, which of course could only be fully implemented after the Korean War , McLendon was able to play the first public game in the former southern states between two teams of different skin colors in 1949 the Eagles and a Marine Infantry service basketball team from Camp LeJeune .

Another law of 1950 made McLendon more troubled: State money could no longer be used for athletic programs, and the new president of North Carolina College declared in 1952 that all athletic scholarships would be canceled without replacement. McLendon then took his hat off as sports director and went to the Hampton Institute in Virginia (now Hampton University ) as a coach for the Pirates for two years . His win rate was 81.2% in Durham and 70% in Hampton. Hall of Famer Sam Jones , who only played for Coach McLendon in his freshman year, subsequently apologized for every point he scored with the Eagles against his old coach.

Integration of the NAIA

According to Dr. Naismith's return from the Olympic Games in Berlin made him want to concentrate the best teams in a basketball tournament. After the Amateur Athletic Union tournament moved to Denver, he founded the forerunner of the NAIA tournament in Kansas City, Missouri in 1937 with Emil Liston and other citizens of the sister cities on the Missouri. It was intended for smaller colleges that could not find a place in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), but was not limited to a region, but a national tournament.

College basketball had been a lucrative long-runner in Madison Square Garden since the early 1930s , and so the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) was created in 1938 , which was held there and which was to remain the most important college invitation tournament until the 1970s. It was not until 1939 that the NCAA basketball tournament followed at the suggestion of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), as well as the World Professional Basketball Tournament for professional teams, in which black and white teams played and, from 1942, integration teams again and again. In 1940 the National Association for Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB) was founded on the foundation of the National College Basketball Tournament Committee founded by Naismith .

College basketball was more or less integrated in the north of the USA, with the exception of Indiana and southern Illinois, the only northern states with de iure racial segregation, and could not violate the regulations in the southern states because of the regional district game operations. In Missouri, the venue of the NAIB tournament, however, integrated teams were not possible. It was not until 1948 that black players were admitted upon intervention by the US Olympic Committee . The first player was Clarence Walker from John Wooden's Indiana State team, but he could not be accommodated in the same hotel as his teammates. For this reason, Wooden wanted to decline the invitation, as he did in 1947, but was asked by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to compete anyway and let Walker integrate the tournament. In the same year, McLendon founded the National Basketball Committee with eight other coaches to represent the Colored Conferences with the support of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) . The aim was to enable historically black colleges and universities to participate in NCAA playoffs and tournaments. However, the NCAA felt it was too big and too good for historically black colleges and universities. Even in the 1970s, after black colleges were admitted in the 1960s, all black colleges, regardless of size, were Division 2 members.

After signals from the NCAA, mixed at best, the National Athletic Steering Committee (NASC) was founded in 1951 by 21 representatives of black colleges in the YMCA Chicago. His job was to investigate discrimination and racial segregation in college basketball and find strategies for change. The goal was to place a team in one of the college championship tournaments. Alva Duer, managing director of the NAIB since 1949, supported the NASC and was able to inform NASC managing director Mack Greene on March 12, 1952 that the NAIB board had decided at its meeting that the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) , the successor organization the NAIB for all college sport, wants to take the NASC tournament under its wing for the next year, and the winner would be eligible to play in the NAIA tournament, while the Central State College would not be eligible to play in that NASC tournament due to its location, but in the Ohio District playoffs together with its white teams.

Tennessee State A&I University and Hotel Integration

President and Sports Director of Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State College (now: Tennessee State University ), the largest and state-funded Historically Black College, approached John McLendon in the summer of 1954. In Tennessee, with the backing of the governor, he had the opportunity not only to recruit the best players, but also to continue the integration of college basketball. Journalist Sam Lacy, like McLendon half African American, half indigenous American, already sensed an attempt at McLendon's recruitment to build an academic sports empire and several Olympic track and field gold medals, in particular the women's squad of the Tiger Belles , would prove him right in the following decades.

As early as 1954, the Tigers were invited to the NAIA tip-off tournament shortly before Christmas. Recalling a warning from Chuck Taylor that racial segregation in hotels and restaurants could have negative psychological effects on his players, McLendon agreed to only accept on condition that he would be allowed to stay in a downtown hotel. Hall of Famer Alva Duer, who had previously ensured that black colleges could dine in the same restaurants as the other colleges, was open to the matter. With the help and support of the small Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the NAIA's executive board, he found a hotel near the venue. All but two of the maids in that hotel quit in protest, which is why Coach McLendon instructed his players to help these two clean their rooms. The integration was still a success and the tournament was won.

At the end of the season, a historically black college, East Texas State, won the championship in 1955. In the next year, the Historic Black Colleges and Universities district was halved and adjusted to the size of other districts. In the same year, three black colleges took part, including Tennessee A&I. 1956 also took place in Tennessee's first integration tournament. The governor reportedly approved it on condition that white or integrated teams had to come from across Tennessee's state lines. Secret intra-state training games against white colleges still took place in the style of the Secret Game and white visitors to Tigers games sooner or later became the norm.

In 1957, McLendon's Tigers defeated Winston-Salem Teacher's College (now: Winston-Salem State University), which was coached by McLendon's friend and Hall of Famer Clarence Gaines , en route to the NAIA championship tournament in the District Finals . Both had met twelve years earlier and had even gone on recruiting trips together for many years at a time when travel was not without risk for African Americans. They shared a car to save fuel, as McLendon believed, but in fact because Gaines wanted to benefit from McLendon's impartial teaching, basketball knowledge, and coaching philosophy. Both had divided the Midwest between themselves and never competed for the same player.

Coach McLendon was able to recruit the later NBA players Joseph Buckhalter (also a Harlem Globetrotter ), John Barnhill and Dick Barnett for the 1956/57 season . With them, Ron Hamilton, James Satterwhite and later Ben Warley and Porter Meriwether (also later NBA players) he had a stable starting five for the next few years . Barnett almost had to leave the team. Although he had a training discipline like Kobe Bryant including shadow games with improvised dialogue, he believed that he could take liberties because of his achievements. The confrontation between Barnett and Coach McLendon was intense and had to be mediated by third parties. Barnett later went through fire for his coach.

For both of them, extraordinarily successful times should begin afterwards. McLendon won the NAIA's Coach of the Year Award in 1958, and Barnett won the Chuck Taylor Most Valuable Player Award in 1958 and 1959 . During the same period from 1957 to 1959 , the Tigers achieved the historic achievement of winning three NAIA championships in a row. Only Kentucky State College has been able to repeat this feat between 1970 and 1972 - the last year as a "college" and the last year in the NAIA. Experts speculated that Tennessee A&I could have beaten the finalists of the major colleges in those years. The master teams from 1957 to 1959 were inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.

Cleveland Pipers

With a total win rate of over 80% (88.2% at 149:20 wins in Tennessee) just behind Adolph Rupp from the University of Kentucky , McLendon got the offer to join the post-graduate National Industrial Basketball League (NIBL) team at Cleveland Coach pipers. And although he was more at home in college basketball as an educator, he knew that he would have to accept this highest position offered to an African American coach in order to continue on the path of integration he had chosen.

The NIBL ​​belonged to the AAU and gave home to nine works teams , whose skill level was roughly comparable to the midfield of the NBA. In addition, the NIBL ​​was seen as an intermediate step between college and professional basketball and acted as the talent pool for the US Olympic basketball team . The first year ended with a balanced balance, which a new team hardly ever manages in its first season. In addition, the Pipers defeated the Olympic team coached by Pete Newell in 1960, which was to become a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was made up of top-class players such as Oscar Robertson , Jerry West , Jerry Lucas , Walt Bellamy and Terry Dischinger. A success - historically the only one of an amateur team against Team USA - which the national press only published in the results columns. Unfortunately, Ed Sweeney sold the Pipers to a consortium of 16 local owners, whose president would later be the owner of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner III .

The second season ended with the NIBL ​​title and an appearance at the AAU championship tournament in Denver. 28 teams competed for the championship for a week and the Cleveland Pipers defeated the Denver Truckers in front of a home crowd in the finals.

After two seasons in the NIBL ​​with falling audience numbers, President Steinbrenner seized the opportunity to acquire one of eight franchises of the American Basketball League founded by Abe Saperstein , as double headers with Saperstein's popular Harlem Globetrotters were also promised. Steinbrenner wanted to get rid of McLendon, but was overruled by the entire board under pressure from fans and the press and so McLendon became the first African-American head coach of a professional integration team and was even able to sign his former player Dick Barnett from the Syracuse Nationals .

Similar to the original American Basketball League , the champions of two half-series fought for the season championship in the 1961 ABL. The Cleveland Pipers were able to secure the division title of the first half series, but lost in the championship finals against Kansas City and Steinbrenner developed into a serious problem. He undermined McLendon's position, bought players by reputation without consulting and even sold a player at half-time to the opposing team in order to let him appear for that team in the second half. After freezing player salaries, Coach McLendon resigned and in solidarity with him, Captain Jack Adams. Under pressure from the local press, McLendon was reinstated as Vice President. After the second half of the season and winning the championship, the managing director first presented McLendon with the championship trophy in place of coach Bill Sharman . The ABL did not survive its second season and Steinbrenner failed to acquire an NBA franchise.

US Olympic Committee and back to school

Already after winning the AAU championship, Coach McLendon was sent to the USSR on behalf of the AAU for eight games with the Pipers against the A and B teams of the Soviet Union , on the fringes of which he held basketball clinics. After the end of the pipers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent him to Malaya (today: Malaysia) and Indonesia as a basketball teacher for half a year as part of a cultural exchange. In 1965 McLendon was elected to the praesidia of the NAIA and the AAU. He worked closely with the State Department on developing exchange programs and coached Team USA at overseas tournaments between 1964 and 1967. He also advised the Bahamas and Virgin Islands associations .

A crucial point of contention in the disputes between the NCAA and the NAIA has always been the NAIA's Olympic representation. In 1964 the Olympic Committee granted the NCAA three, the AAU and the military two, and the NAIA one team in the preliminary Olympic competitions. As coach of the NAIA All-Stars, he managed a victory over one of the NCAA selections in the game for third place, which should bring the NAIA All-Star and later NBA player Lucious Jackson an Olympic participation.

In 1968 McLendon himself worked at the Olympic Games as chief scout and assistant coach to Hank Iba in Mexico.

In 1964, McLendon went to Kentucky State College (today: Kentucky State University ) as head coach for two years and recruited the first white player for the university. The Thorobreds win rate was 63.8% with 50-29 wins and earned the NAIA's Mid-Western Athletics Conference title in both years.

The Fenn College was in 1966 Cleveland State University renamed and was a predominantly white university. With the renaming, the Foxes became the Vikings and Cleveland State lured McLendon in their first year with the prospect of a new hall and extensive investments. McLendon had fond memories of Cleveland and was drawn to creating a basketball program from scratch. Since many promises went unfulfilled, he had difficulties getting players to his university and keeping them there, although many high school coaches still sent him their best players. The victory rate of the Vikings, who played independently in the first few years, was 39.8% during McLendon's development work, with a record of 27-42 victories, the university’s best record to date, and McLendon achieved his 500th career victory with the Vikings .

Denver Rockets

In 1969 McLendon, who had won both the AAU and NIBL ​​titles in Denver with the Cleveland Pipers, became head coach of the Denver Rockets and thus the first African-American head coach of the American Basketball Association (ABA).

As with the Cleveland Pipers, McLendon's exemplary demeanor took revenge. He hadn't received a technical foul once in his career and always remained emotionless on the sidelines, but off the field represented his values ​​with integrity in all respects. Combined with the fact that in professional basketball, however, it is expected that a coach will knock over folding chairs as part of the show, that made him a target of course. The fact is that McLendon had bad luck with injuries and the win rate of 9:19 ignores the fact that 21 of the first 28 games were away games. McLendon was an educator and basketball was for him as for Naismith a character forge, which is why his place was probably more in college basketball, even if he was more than competitive in the professional camp. The Rockets ended the season in first place and McLendon's successor Joe Belmont frankly admitted that this was all thanks to McLendons.

Ambassador of basketball

A friend of the Hall of Famers Chuck Taylor and Converse Rubber Company Vice President Grady Lewis, Coach McLendon worked as a brand ambassador for Converse from 1969 to 1989 . He had to move to Chicago for this, and both his work for Converse and the US State Department led him to clinics in 58 countries on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. In 1971 he was the only American appointed to the World Basketball Rules Committee. In 1972 he worked again as a scout and assistant to Hank Ibas and remained a member of the US Olympic Committee until the representation dispute in 1976.

In 1989 McLendon returned to Cleveland and joined the university as an advisor to the athletics department. He now researched the role of African American athletes in the fight against racial segregation and was involved in his project "Museum and Hall of Fame Historically Black Colleges and Universities".

Converse flagship Julius Erving , whom McLendon wanted to sign to Cleveland at the time, chose him as his coach in the 1992 Battle of the Legends against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar . In the late 1990s, Isiah Thomas hired Coach McLendon, whom he met when he was ten years old as a consultant for the Chicago Public League Basketball Coaches Association , in the same position with the Toronto Raptors .

John McLendon died on October 8, 1999 of pancreatic cancer.

Honors

In 1991, Billy Packer, a sports commentator for NBC and CBS, named John McLendon one of the top ten coaches of the past hundred years on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the game of basketball. Sports View magazine named Coach McLendon Coach of the Century in 1992.

Honorary doctorate

In addition to two alumni awards, McLendon received three honorary doctorates .

  • 1977 Honorary Doctorate from North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC
  • 1979 Honorary Doctorate from Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, TX
  • 1992 Honorary Doctorate from Cleveland State University in Cleveland, OH

Halls of fame

Part of the controversy over the manner in which Coach McLendon was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame was the fact that the Hall of Fame had commemorative coins minted to show that McLendon was the coach and not a contributor to the hall of fame. However, McLendon did not wish to be unofficially honored in a position he had not officially earned. He feared that this might serve to devalue his honor and his anger was also driven by the disappointment that, as the third most successful college coach with the fourth most wins, it took nine years to get into the Hall of Fame at the time of his retirement.

Overall, Coach McLendon had been nominated seven times before his admission in 1979. By Roy Moore, the director of the Tennessee State University Sports Department; by Richard Mack, Tennessee State University basketball coach; Clarence Gaines, Winston-Salem State University basketball coach; by Charles D. Henry, Vice President of the Big Ten Conference ; by Leroy T. Walker, North Carolina Central University athletics coach and later first African American president of the US Olympic Committee; by Alva Duer, the executive director of NAIA and the National Athletic Steering Committee (NASC) as a whole.

John McLendon has been inducted into the following halls of fame :

  • 1962 Helms Foundation Hall of Fame (Coaches Division), later: NAIA Hall of Fame
  • 1978 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Hall of Fame
  • 1979 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a sponsor
  • 1979 National Sports Hall of Fame
  • 1983 Tennessee State University Sports Hall of Fame
  • 1984 North Carolina Central University Alex Rivera Athletics Hall of Fame
  • 1986 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame
  • 1993 Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame
  • 1994 North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
  • 1998 Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame
  • 2003 Kentucky State University Thorobreds Athletics Hall of Fame
  • 2004 Kansas Sports Hall of Fame
  • 2007 Cleveland State Athletics Hall of Fame
  • 2007 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame
  • 2009 Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame
  • 2016 Small College Basketball Hall of Fame
  • 2016 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as coach
  • 2019 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with the Tennessee Tigers from 1957–1959

Two halls of fame are named after Coach McLendon. The CIAA John McLendon Hall of Fame, of which he is a member and, since 2007, the John McLendon Minority Athletics Administrators Hall of Fame of the National Association of Collegiate Directors (NACDA).

building

Two sports halls are named after McLendon. On the one hand, the hall of the NCCU Eagles, which was still opened in his day in 1950, which a few years later was named Richard L. McDougalds, which was expanded to include McLendon's name in 1991. On the other hand, the hall that McLendon missed during his time at Cleveland State University, and which was named John McLendon Arena in 1992.

John McLendon Classic

The John McLendon Classic has been part of the Post Season tournament of the College Insider website since 2016 and is intended to represent the two conferences that represented historically black colleges and universities in the NAIA. Two college teams, at least one of which is a team from a historically black college or university, play for a place in the second round of the tournament.

Prices

  • 1948 CIAA Coach of the Year
  • 1958 NAIA Coach of the Year
  • 1992 Men's Outstanding Contributor to Basketball Award (Naismith Trophy) from the Atlanta Tip-Off Club
  • 1996 Chuck Rolinski / Tom "Buzzy" O'Connor Award from the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association
  • 1998 University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award
  • 1998 Honor Roll Award from the James Naismith Foundation

Prices in McLendon's name

  • In 1999, Isiah Thomas, who had a close relationship with Coach McLendon, introduced the Coach Mac Award for services to Canadian basketball, which unfortunately has since been forgotten.
  • Cleveland State University presents the John McLendon Award to students who exemplify McLendon's values.
  • The John McLendon Award has been presented by the Chicago Public League Basketball Coaches Association since 2004 for coaches who exemplify McLendon's virtues of integrity and sportsmanship.
  • The NACDA has presented the John McLendon Pioneer Award to African-American sports officials for pioneering work since 2010.
  • The College Insider Tournament annually awards the John McLendon National Collegiate Coach of The Year Award.

John McLendon Minority Postgraduate Scholarship

In 1998, Mike Cleary, manager of the Cleveland Pipers and Steinbrenner victim like McLendon, initiated the McLendon Foundation as managing director of NACDA. In addition to running a Hall of Fame for sports officials, this foundation awards a pioneering award and a $ 10,000 scholarship for minority people who are doing a Masters in Sports Management . Funders are u. a. the American Football Coaches Association, the NABC, the NBA, the MLB , the NACDA, the NCAA, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Sears and Roebuck .

John McLendon in words and pictures

In the book

In 2007 a comprehensive biography of Milton S. Katz was published under the title Breaking through: John B. McLendon, Basketball Legend and Civil Rights Pioneer .

In 2015, John Coy published an illustrated children's book about the "Secret Game" under the title Game Changer: John McLendon and the Secret Game .

The same year The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball's Lost Triumph by Scott Ellsworth was released.

In the movie

There are also several movie features about McLendon: In 1995 Columbus, OH released a VHS tape called A League of His Own by a National Black Programming Consortium produced by Tom Sweeney Productions Group and Paul Rae & Associates . The John McLendon Story . The OCLC number is 38873748. The videography was done by Ron Mounts and the editing by Jeff Poland. Allen Davis was the narrator.

On April 1, 1997, television ran a 21-minute feature about the "Secret Game" on ABC News Nightline under the title America in Black and White: The Secret Game .

In the ESPN documentary Black Magic by Dan Klores, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson among others , large parts are dedicated to John McLendon.

In 2016 the project "The Forgotten Coach - The John McLendon Story" based on Milton S. Katz's biography was finally released as a film as Fast Break: The Legendary John McLendon .

A film adaptation of the Ellsworth book The Secret Game can be expected in the near future , as Legendary Pictures , who already filmed the Jackie Robinson story, have acquired the film rights.

family

McLendon married for the first time in 1937. He was married to Alice Hultz for 16 years and had two children with her, John III (1939–1997) and Querida (* 1941). He stayed married to his second wife, Ethel Richards, between 1954 and 1966. He met his last wife, Joanna Owens Bryant, in Cleveland in 1967 and married her in 1969. They brought two children into the marriage, Nanette (* 1949) and H. David (* 1950).

See also

Web links

literature

  • Milton S. Katz: Breaking Through. John B. McLendon, Basketball Legend and Civil Rights Pioneer Fayetteville, 2007: The University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1-55728-847-X (in English).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eric Angevine: Everybody Into The Pool. How the inventor of basketball and the father of the fast break beat segregation in the 1930s. On: The Classical website, February 8, 2012. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  2. ^ A b Greg Echlin: Kansas City, Kansas, Native John McLendon Honored In Basketball Hall Of Fame. KCUR 89.3 Web site, Kansas City, KS September 13, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  3. ↑ Scott Ellsworth: Jim Crow Losses : The Secret Game. In: New York Times Magazine, March 31, 1996, quoted from the New York Times website. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  4. ↑ Doug Merlino: Fast Break Basketball: How a Black Coach Revolutionized the Game. Excerpt from The Crossover: A Brief History of Basketball and Race, from James Naismith to LeBron James at: Bleacher Report — Website (Turner Sports), April 22, 2011. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  5. ^ Ricardo A. Hazell: TSL Black History Month in Focus: Three Little Known Basketball Facts. On: The Shadow League website; February 8, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  6. ^ Ricardo A. Hazell: Hall of Famer John McLendon: The Greatest Coach You Never Heard Of. Having Been Enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame Twice, Maybe Now People Will Finally Give Him The Respect That He Deserves. On: The Shadow League website; New York City, NY April 12, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  7. ^ Blair Kerkhoff: Another first for basketball pioneer John McLendon. On: The Kansas City Star website; Kansas City, MO, April 9, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  8. ↑ Clarence Edward Gaines Jr .: That's my Game! Big House on Coach John McLendon, Father of Black College & Fast Break Basketball. In: CG Scout Perspective — Blog, September 9, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  9. ^ Daryl Bell: John McLendon finally gets his due in Hall of Fame. In: The Philadelphia Tribune; Philadelphia, September 3, 2016, cited from the PhillyTrib website. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  10. ^ Conor Ryan: John McLendon, 2016 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, remembered as pioneer in a game beset by racism. On: MassLive website; Massachusetts, September 8, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  11. ^ NN: Kansas John McLendons Is A Sad Tale; Prospects For 1944 Teams Look Exceedingly Gloomy For Him. From: The New York Age; New York, January 1, 1944 (page 11).
  12. ↑ NN: Booker T. Spicely. ( Memento of July 26, 2017 on the Internet Archive ) Archived by: Northeastern University School of Law — website; Boston, MA, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2019 (in English).
  13. ↑ NN: Booker T. Spicely. (PDF) On: Northeastern University School of Law website; Boston, MA, undated. Retrieved May 3, 2019 (in English).
  14. ↑ Kevin Nance: Scott Ellsworth on 'The Secret Game' (interview). On: Chicago Tribune website; Chicago, IL, March 19, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  15. ^ Robert Pruter: The National Interscholastic Basketball Tournament. The Crown Jewel of African American High School Sports during the Era of Segregation. in: Separate Games. African American Sport behind the Walls of Segregation. edited by David K. Wiggins and Ryan A. Swanson. Fayetteville, 2016: The University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 978-1-68226-017-3 (page 76, in English).
  16. ^ John Matthew Smith: The Sons of Westwood. John Wooden, UCLA, and the Dynasty that Changed College Basketball. Champaign, IL, 2013: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07973-3 (p. 37, in English).
  17. ^ NN: John McLendon Biography. ( Memento of September 21, 2017 on the Internet Archive ) Archived by: National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) website; Cleveland, OH, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2019 (in English).
  18. ↑ Better than the Best. Black Athletes Speak, 1920-2007 , edited by John C. Walter and Malina Iida. Seattle / London, 2010: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-99053-8 (in English)
  19. ^ Clarence E. Gaines, Clint Johnson: They Call Me Big House. Winston-Salem, NC 2004: John F. Blair Publisher. ISBN 978-0-89587-303-3 (in English), quoted from: Clarence Edward Gaines Jr .: That's my Game! Big House on Coach John McLendon, Father of Black College & Fast Break Basketball , at: CG Scout Perspective — Blog, September 9, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  20. ↑ Clarence Wallace Dooley: TSU's Dick Barnett and John McLendon Tabbed for Induction Into National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. On: Inside Black College Sports website; Atlanta, GA, April 2, 2007. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  21. ^ NN: Pioneering Still. Out: The New Courier; Pittsburgh, Jan. 28, 1967 (page 14).
  22. ↑ Jae Jones: John B. McLendon, Jr .: First Black Basketball Coach At A Predominantly White University. On: Black Then website; February 17, 2017. Accessed July 22, 2017 (in English).
  23. ↑ NN: 1969-70 Denver Rockets Roster and Stats. On: Basketball Reference website; Philadelphia, PA, 2000-2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  24. ^ Tim Warsinskey: The case for basketball pioneer John McLendon: Cleveland sports statues. On: Advance Ohio website; Cleveland, OH, April 23, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  25. ^ Isiah Thomas: Pioneering coach McLendon a mentor, example for many. On: NBA website; New York, February 8, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  26. ↑ Neil Amdur: John McLendon, 84, Strategist In College and Pro Basketball. In: New York Times, October 9, 1999, quoted from the New York Times website. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  27. ↑ Claude Johnson: Basketball legend 'Coach Mac,' John McLendon, finally in Hall of Fame as coach. He will become the only Hall of Fame member inducted as a contributor and coach. On: "The Undefeated" —ESPN blog; California, September 8, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  28. ↑ a b N.N .: Guide to the John B. McLendon Collection. Papers of John B. McLendon, 1954-1996. On: University of Kansas Libraries. Kenneth Spencer Research Library website; Lawrence, KS, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  29. ↑ NN: Appendix E Honorary Degrees. On: North Carolina Central University website; Durham, NC, 2007-2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  30. ↑ Barry Jacobs: An overdue honor for basketball coach John B. McLendon. On: News & Observer — Website, Raleigh, NC April 15, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  31. ^ Search mask for the NAIA Hall of Fame. On: National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics website; Kansas City, MO, 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  32. ↑ John McLendon in the CIAA John McLendon Jr. Hall of Fame. ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: CIAA website; Washington, DC 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.theciaa.com
  33. ↑ John McLendon in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a sponsor. On: Hoophall website; Springfield, MA, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  34. ^ NN: John McLendon. His imprint still strong as the game itself . In: The Tennessean. Nashville, TN, May 9, 1988 (p. 19).
  35. ^ NN: McLendon Enters Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. On: TSU Tigers website; Nashville, TN, September 9, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  36. ↑ John McLendon in the NCCU Alex Rivera Athletics Hall of Fame. On: NCCU Eagle Pride website; Durham, NC, 2010. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  37. ^ NN: John McLendon in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame. On: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference website; Norfolk, VA, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  38. ↑ John McLendon in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. On: Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame website; Nashville, TN, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  39. ↑ John McLendon in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. On: North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame website; Raleigh, NC, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  40. ↑ John McLendon in the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame. On: Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame website; Cleveland, OH, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  41. ↑ John McLendon in the Kentucky State University Athletics Hall of Fame. On: KSU Thorobreds website; Frankfort, KY, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  42. ↑ John McLendon in the Kentucky State University Athletics Hall of Fame. On: KSU Thorobreds website; Frankfort, KY, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  43. ↑ John McLendon in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. On: Kansas Sports Hall of Fame website; Wichita, KS, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English)
  44. ↑ John McLendon in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. On: Kansas Sports Hall of Fame website; Wichita, KS, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  45. ↑ John McLendon in the Cleveland State Hall of Fame. On: CSU Vikings website; Cleveland, OH, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  46. ↑ John McLendon, College Basketball Hall of Fame. On: College Basketball Experience website; Kansas City, MO, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  47. ↑ John McLendon in the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame. On: Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame website; Columbus, OH 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  48. ^ NN: SCB Announces Inaugural Hall of Fame Induction Class. 15 legends will be honored Nov. 17. On: National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics — Website; Kansas City, MO, June 30, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  49. ↑ John McLendon, Small College Basketball Hall of Fame. ( Memento of the original of September 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: Small College Basketball website; Evansville, IN 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.smallcollegebasketball.com
  50. ↑ John McLendon in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as coach. On: Hoophall website; Springfield, MA, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  51. ↑ NN: The CIAA® Announces 2015 John B. McLendon, Jr. Hall of Fame Inductees. ( Memento of the original of July 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On: CIAA website; Norfolk, VA, January 16, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.theciaa.com
  52. ^ NN: John McLendon. ( Memento of July 27, 2017 on the Internet Archive ) On: National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) website; Cleveland, OH, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  53. ^ Ron Morris: NC Central's McDougald-McLendon a gem of an arena. On: The News & Observer website; Raleigh, NC, March 3, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  54. ^ NN: John McLendon, basketball guru. On: African American Registry website; 2000-2013. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  55. ^ NN: Coach John McLendon Classic. On: The College Insider website (CBS-Sports); 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  56. ^ NN: Flames Host CIT John McLendon Classic Monday Night. On: Liberty University Athletics website; Lynchburg, VA, March 11, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2019 (in English).
  57. ↑ Search mask for the Naismith Trophy. On: Naismith Trophy website; Atlanta, GA, 1992-2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  58. ↑ Chuck Rolinski / Tom "Buzzy" O'Connor Award Winners. On: Illinois Basketball Coaches Association website; Elburn, IL, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  59. ↑ NN: John B McLendon, Jr. 37MA. On: University of Iowa Alumni website; Iowa City, IA, 1998-2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  60. ↑ Doug Smith: Hearing Coach Mac's name stirs memories of Raptors days of old, and an award they should bring back. On: Toronta Star Newspaper website; Toronto, ON-CAN, February 16, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  61. ^ NN: CSU Athletics Honors 166 Student-Athletes Honored For Academic Success. On: CSU Vikings website; Cleveland, OH, April 7, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  62. ^ Chicago Public League Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Special Awards. ( September 21, 2017 memento on Internet Archive ) Archived by: Chicago Public League Basketball Coaches Association — website; Chicago, IL, 2004-2014. Retrieved May 3, 2019 (in English).
  63. ^ NN: Public Hall of Famers. From: Chicago Sun Times, April 23, 2010, quoted from: Pressreader — Website; Richmond, BC-CAN, 2003-2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  64. ^ NN: Cooper receives Pioneer Award. On: The Paris News website; Paris, TX, last updated June 30, 2012 (originally June 28, 2012). Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  65. ↑ NN: 2017 John McLendon National Coach of the Year Award. On: The College Insider website; Phoenix, AZ, April 4, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  66. ^ NN: 2013 John McLendon Postgraduate Scholarship Finalists Announced. From: National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) website, June 3, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  67. ^ NN: Kingsley Named A John McLendon Postgraduate Scholarship Finalist. Senior Faimie Kingsley Is One Of 11 Finalists For The Prestigious Scholarship Given Annually By NACDA. On: The University Of Denver Official Athletics — Website; 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  68. ^ OCLC entry from Breaking through: John B. McLendon, Basketball Legend and Civil Rights Pioneer . On: WorldCat website. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  69. ^ NN: Game Changer: John McLendon and the Secret Game by Coy . On: Lee Whedon Memorial Library website; Medina, NY, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  70. ↑ Elizabeth Bush: Game Changer: John McLendon and the Secret Game by John Coy (review). In: From: Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Volume 69, Number 4, December 2015 (pp. 189–190); quoted from: Project MUSE website; Baltimore, MD, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  71. ↑ Evelyn J. Gordon: The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball's Lost Triumph by Scott Ellsworth (review). In: From: Journal of Sport History, Volume 44, Number 1, Spring 2017 (pp. 106–107); Quoted from: Project MUSE website, Baltimore, MD, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  72. ↑ Anica Presley: 'The Secret Game' review: How a scrappy basketball team challenged segregation - and won. On: The Oregonian; Portland, OR, July 1, 2015, quoted from: Oregon Live website. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  73. ↑ Jim Wise: New book tells story of Durham's 'Secret Game'. On: The News & Observer website; Raleigh / Durham, NC, March 17, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  74. ↑ America in Black and White: The Secret Game. On: All Movie website; 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  75. ↑ Linton Weeks: 'Black Magic': A Slam Dunk. On: Washington Post website; Washington, DC, March 15, 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  76. ↑ NN: Starr: Basketball's Black Pioneers. On: Newsweek website; London, March 12, 2008. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  77. ↑ Fast Break: The Legendary John McLendon on IMDB. On: IMDB website; Seattle, WA, September 26, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  78. ^ Blair Kerkhoff: Documentary on John McLendon, groundbreaking basketball coach, premiering at KU. On: KU Hoops — Kansas City Star website; Kansas City, MO, November 15, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  79. ↑ Brittanie Smith: 'Fast Break: The Legendary John McLendon' screened at Lawrence Public Library in celebration of MLK Day. On: The University Daily Kansan website (The Student Voice since 1904); Lawrence, KS, January 17, 2017. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  80. ^ Sara Shepherd: 'Forgotten' no more: Coach and Naismith protégé John McLendon broke color barriers in basketball. Documentary film set to air on television this month. On: Lawrence Journal-World website; Lawrence, KS, March 5, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2017 (in English).
  81. ↑ NN: Film premiere: 'Fast Break: The Legendary John McLendon'. On: The University of Kansas website; Lawrence, KS, November 16, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
  82. ↑ Justin Kroll: Legendary Acquires Scott Ellsworth Book 'The Secret Game' (EXCLUSIVE). On: Variety Media LLC website; Los Angeles, CA, January 12, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2017 (in English).
personal data
SURNAME McLendon, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McLendon, John B. Jr. (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American basketball coach, official, educator, and civil rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Hiawatha , Kansas
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1999
Place of death Cleveland Heights , Ohio