Earl Lloyd

Earl Francis Lloyd (April 3, 1928 – February 26, 2015) was an American professional basketball player and coach. Quotes I stepped onto the court and the world kept spinning, No one said a word -- not the fans, players, anybody. Nothing was ever said about me being the first black. They acted as if I was a player, period. I don't recall any mention in the newspapers about me being the first black to play in an NBA game. It's amazing, but it was fairly uneventful, It was too cold for the [Klu Klux] Klan there. If you wanted a place to play your first game with a black guy playing and you don't want a lot of controversy, Rochester, New York, was it, It was a sleepy town. The high schools were integrated. The University of Rochester was integrated. The attitude toward pro basketball in the 1950s was ho-hum, The NBA had not even reached its infancy. My folks had very little to look forward to, What really spurred them on and kept them going were the needs of their children. The only thing they had to root for was us. As long as you are getting tender loving care as a kid, some things don't bother you, As you get older things start to crystallize. I'll give you an example: My high school, Parker-Gray High, was about as big as my house. We had no facilities. We didn't have a gymnasium; we had a makeshift auditorium. We didn't have a football field, we didn't have a baseball diamond, we didn't have a practice field. And as you got older, people dropped that mantra on you about 'separate but equal.' I would say, 'Don't insult my intelligence. It was like a wall; one side was black and the other side was white. You had Jim Crow fountains, Jim Crow waiting rooms, you name it. When people used to tell me about separate but equal, I used to look at George Washington High School. At their school, they had facilities galore. When they played a night football game, it looked like broad daylight out, you know. They had beautiful uniforms and they couldn't beat the Little Sisters of the Poor. "I went to West Virginia State [an all-black college] and the segregation there was just taken to another level. From kindergarten to college graduation, I never had a white classmate. It makes you pause, for a long time. And it's not that long ago. Earl Lloyd: NBA's first black player, February 27 2015 External Links Category:1928 births Category:Basketball coaches Category:Basketball in the United States Category:2015 deaths Category:Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees