Post by 00hmh on May 25, 2015 12:09:10 GMT -6
50 year anniversary of Attucks state championship
Could not be recognized at the time! I did not remember that or was not aware of it.
but, I remember those teams in the 50's. It was before I was really aware of race, I remember in '55 as a very little kid listening to radio broadcasts of the HS basketball and became a "fan" of the Tigers.
I begged my dad to take me to a game the next year and was absolutely stunned when I saw the team and realized every player was black!
I grew up in the time when race barriers were real, but I lived in mixed race West Indianapolis, I was not entirely aware of the racial conflict until I hit college in the 60's. Still I remember being sometimes the only white kid who played basketball in the Summer at the old Attucks dust bowl courts (early and mid 60's) sometimes with the players from those Attucks teams and other Shortridge and Attucks players and sometimes the playground legends who never were in school to make a name.
It's hard to believe now but the college game, or at least the players who made the newspapers in those days were mostly white. IU fielded teams of mostly white players, I remember Walt Bellamy coming to IU from the South because it was the closest school that had white players. The '60 Olympic team he played on I think had Oscar but you expected to see names like Jerry West and other great white players of the day. That was the time for race barriers in sports to start to drop, but it was true even in the NBA. The NBA all star team and great names were mostly white. Oscar, Wilt, Bill Russel, and others changed that dramatically. I think for years before it had been true you saw more name college players who were Jewish like Bob Cousy than black players.
Could not be recognized at the time! I did not remember that or was not aware of it.
but, I remember those teams in the 50's. It was before I was really aware of race, I remember in '55 as a very little kid listening to radio broadcasts of the HS basketball and became a "fan" of the Tigers.
I begged my dad to take me to a game the next year and was absolutely stunned when I saw the team and realized every player was black!
I grew up in the time when race barriers were real, but I lived in mixed race West Indianapolis, I was not entirely aware of the racial conflict until I hit college in the 60's. Still I remember being sometimes the only white kid who played basketball in the Summer at the old Attucks dust bowl courts (early and mid 60's) sometimes with the players from those Attucks teams and other Shortridge and Attucks players and sometimes the playground legends who never were in school to make a name.
It's hard to believe now but the college game, or at least the players who made the newspapers in those days were mostly white. IU fielded teams of mostly white players, I remember Walt Bellamy coming to IU from the South because it was the closest school that had white players. The '60 Olympic team he played on I think had Oscar but you expected to see names like Jerry West and other great white players of the day. That was the time for race barriers in sports to start to drop, but it was true even in the NBA. The NBA all star team and great names were mostly white. Oscar, Wilt, Bill Russel, and others changed that dramatically. I think for years before it had been true you saw more name college players who were Jewish like Bob Cousy than black players.
