College Basketball HOF Inducts Inaugural Class

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Kansas City, Missouri

Of all the shots from the court and shouts from bench in the arc of 115 years of college basketball, what marks these men as the first five pillars in the hall of fame?

The answer has nothing to do with the ball.

For the many records broken, titles won and lost, highlight reels watched again and again, and cheers heard from the bleachers, the honorees at Sunday's induction share a common experience beyond championship basketball.

They are champions of principle.

The first five enshrined in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City stood proudly for racial equality. Each took a stand off the court against viciousness and bigotry, which, by today's measure seem almost unimaginable.

Bill Russell was collegiate basketball's first black star. He became the founding heart of the Boston Celtics dynasty whose color-blind teamwork with Russell at center led to 11 NBA titles. But during his days at University of San Francisco, Russell was a target on and off the court.

University of San Francisco's Bill Russell rides off the court after his 47 points helped defeat La Salle 77-63 to win the NCAA National Basketball title in Kansas City in 1955.

In 1955, during a warm-up for the All-College Tournament in Oklahoma City, many in the stands pelted Russell and his black teammates with coins. While white players were to stay in hotels, tournament officials directed the team's four black players to remain in dorms on the Oklahoma City University campus. "Those were times when you grew up fast," Russell said on Sunday.

That same year, while Bill Russell made his mark in San Francisco, Oscar Robertson set schoolboy records in Indianapolis at Crispus Attucks High School, named in honor of a man of color killed during the Boston Massacre of 1770. Robertson led his alma mater to the Indiana title, as Attucks became the first all-black school to a win an open state championship in the country.

"It meant everything because it meant blacks could achieve," Robertson said. "You heard white people say blacks couldn't do anything, that they were lazy. When we won basketball games, people felt great about themselves. It gave people an air of pride."

Dean Smith earned his way into the College Hoop Hall as the most successful coach at North Carolina. He retired from the Tar Heels with a career record of 879-254. No college coach has more victories.

But Smith's tenacity to change business-as-usual at North Carolina's then segregated recruiting system was paramount on his horizon. Change took time, but by 1967, Charlie Scott broke the program's color barrier and became the school's first scholarship black athlete. He quickly became the ACC's first rising black star.

David Thompson, James Worthy and Michael Jordan would soon follow. Smith had but one regret. "I had hoped it would have worked out sooner than it did," Smith said.

In 1948, Indiana State's coach John Wooden had will of steel in all matters . He refused to bring his team to the NAIA Tournament in Kansas City without Clarence Walker. Although nothing could be found in any official policy, a silent agreement prohibited black players from the tournament, and Walker was unwelcome. Wooden's team also qualified in 1947 and yet remained in Indiana for the same reason. Wooden was unfazed. No Walker, no Indiana State.

It also happened to be an Olympic year in 1948, and the NAIA champ would have a slot in the Olympic trials. When the Olympic Committee threatened to withdraw the NAIA from the trials if black players were kept from the tournament, officials capitulated. And Walker and Wooden came to Kansas City. Though he played in the games, Walker had to bunk in with a local minister while the rest of the team stayed in a segregated hotel.

Dr. James Naismith, the father of basketball, had his own hand in cracking the race barrier, however unaware of the consequences he may have been. As the first basketball coach at Kansas, Naismith taught the game to John McLendon, who was a student at University of Kansas in the 1930s. But as black student, McLendon was barred from playing the game because of his race. Yet were it not for the intervention of Naismith to desegregate the university pool, McLendon may not have passed a swimming test as part of his degree requirements, and a hall of fame coaching career may never have started.

Basketball is a game. No inductee will claim otherwise. The rules are crisp and elegant, the movement within the lines subject to little else but a whistle.

But when the game is done, basketball, like its other uniquely American counterpoint – baseball – is too a crucible in which the nation both fights and finds itself.