Winter Sports Quiz: 1) How many years was American Phil
Mahre the overall World Cup season titleholder? 2) Who is the
only American woman to win the overall World Cup title?
[Overall as opposed to the separate titles for slalom, downhill,
etc.] 3) Entering this season, who is the all-time leader in career
downhill wins for women? 4) For men? 5) Who is the last
American male to win an Olympic gold medal in skiing?
Answers below.
Earl Lloyd
Before the 1950-51 NBA season, a number of firsts occurred for
African-Americans. Chuck Cooper became the first to be
drafted, when he was selected by Boston in the second round out
of Duquesne. New York”s Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton was the
first to actually sign a NBA contract. [Clifton had been playing
with the Harlem Globetrotters.] And Earl Lloyd became the first
to formally play in a regular season game.
Lloyd was drafted out of West Virginia State (a small black
school), taken in the 9th round by the Washington Capitols. At
the time, many college teams were integrated and in 1948 UCLA
All-American Don Barksdale had become the first black to play
on the U.S. Olympic team.
Simply through scheduling, Lloyd ended up being the first to
appear when on 10/31/50, he took to the court for the Capitols as
they played the Rochester Royals before 2,174 fans. The 6”6″
Lloyd ended up taking game honors in rebounding when he
hauled in 10.
The game itself was uneventful. “It was never about me,” Lloyd
would recall. “We played in Rochester, which was a sleepy little
town. There was no big interview before the game or after.
There was no heckling from fans. It just happened.” Actually,
Earl was more nervous simply because it was his first
professional game, not because he was some trailblazer.
While Lloyd downplays his experience, he had the perfect
temperament to deal with his unique situation. Born in
Alexandria, Virginia, he learned to deal with prejudice at an
early age.
The first training camp was initially intimidating for Earl because
here he was, from a little school in West Virginia, going up
against players from North Carolina State and USC. He was
“awestruck,” but by the 4th day Lloyd knew he could play and he
became more relaxed.
Lloyd also remarked, “I don”t think my situation was anything
like Jackie Robinson”s – a guy who played within a hostile
environment, where some of his teammates didn”t want him
around. In basketball, folks were used to seeing integrated
college teams (so) there was a different mentality.”
Lloyd only played 7 games that year before the U.S. Army
drafted him. [The Capitols franchise would fold after just 35
themselves.] He then resumed play in 1952 for Syracuse, where
during the 1954-55 campaign, Earl and Jim Tucker became the
first African-American players to be on a NBA championship
team.
“Jackie Robinson was my hero,” Lloyd says. And while today,
at the age of 72 and living in the mountains of Tennessee, he acts
as though he had no problems, he did, particularly in cities like
Fort Wayne and St. Louis.
In Fort Wayne, he could sleep in the hotel with the team but he
couldn”t eat in the restaurant. And the fans could be rough.
Lloyd was often spat at and cursed. At one game, his mother
was in the stands when a white spectator asked her, “You think
that nigger can play?”
Now Mrs. Lloyd was prepared for talk like that so she responded,
“Trust me, the nigger can play.”
By all accounts, Earl Lloyd was blessed to have very supportive
teammates (unlike the situation that Jackie Robinson faced).
Bones McKinney (whom Lloyd initially thought was some
“redneck” from Wake Forest…hey, watch it) used to offer to
dine with Earl in his room when he wasn”t allowed in the
restaurant. And another time, at a meal stop in St. Louis, his
teammates had been served when Lloyd was told he couldn”t be.
They all picked up their food and left with him.
Lloyd played for 9 seasons in the league, averaging 8 points and
6 rebounds per game. He developed quite a reputation for being
the defensive “stopper,” covering the other team”s star shooter.
At his peak, he made $11,000. “I had a nice wardrobe and a new
car every two years.” After he stopped playing in 1960, he
became an assistant coach and scout, eventually becoming the 4th
black coach in league history as he led the Detroit Pistons (where
over parts of two seasons he compiled a lousy 22-55 record and
was fired).
[The first three African-American coaches were Bill Russell,
Lenny Wilkens, and Al Attles.]
There is a funny story about Lloyd and his unassuming nature.
In 1988, he was part of a question on Jeopardy. “Jackie
Robinson broke baseball”s color line; Earl Lloyd was the first
black to play in this pro league.”
Well, Lloyd was living in Detroit at the time and he was
suddenly flooded with calls. “Why didn”t you ever tell me this,
Earl?” his friends all asked.
For their parts, both Cooper and Clifton had careers similar to
Lloyd”s. Cooper played 6 years and had a 7 points per game
average, while Clifton lasted 8, averaging 10 points and 8
rebounds. Together with Lloyd, they helped to revolutionize the
game and the “black” style of play was far more entertaining for
the fans, with the speed, agility and creative ball handling that
were now increasingly on display.
In 1954-55, the 24-second shot clock was instituted, and two
years later Bill Russell came along, the first African-American
superstar of the game. [We”ll profile Russell some other time,
but for now, feast your eyes on this stat…he averaged 22.5
rebounds per game for his entire career!]
But I do have to add a note on shooting percentages in the early
NBA. We think it”s bad today? Cooper, Clifton, and Lloyd all
shot between .339 and .361 for their careers. And I was just
glancing at the 1946-47 Detroit Falcons. No one on the team
shot at better than a .288 clip! The worst was Howie McCarty.
The 6”2″ McCarty shot .122 from the field (10 of 82) and was 1
of 10 from the foul line. Now I didn”t keep stats from my
fraternity intramural days, but I”m pretty sure I beat that.though
it was close.
And one final note about Chuck Cooper, who played four years
with the Celtics. Cooper had a close relationship with Bob
Cousy and Chuck said of those days, Cousy was “as free of the
affliction of racism as any white person I have ever known.”
Cooper died in 1984, but as part of the 50th anniversary of Earl
Lloyd”s groundbreaking appearance, Cooper”s wife Irva was
interviewed. Speaking of her husband”s relationship with Cousy,
she remarked:
“Bob Cousy was probably the reason my husband stayed in the
league as long as he did. When traveling with the team, there
were places that my husband could not stay with the team. He
would have to stay in separate hotels or eat in separate
restaurants. And Bob would sometimes go and eat with my
husband. Once, they were down south, and the people at the
restaurant put Chuck”s food out by a railroad track and Bob went
out there and ate dinner with him.”
So quaff an ale to Bob Cousy as well, a true champion in every
sense of the word.
[Sources: Chris Broussard / New York Times; Dave
D”Allesandro / Star-Ledger; John Smallwood / NBA
Encyclopedia; Curtis Bunn / NBA.com]
Charley Pride
And another pioneer was Charley Pride, the first (and still only)
black superstar of country music.
Born in Sledge, Mississippi in 1938, Pride was one of 11
children, the son of a sharecropper. He spent his first years on
the cotton farm, some 50 miles south of Memphis.
It wasn”t until he was 14 that he could buy his first guitar, a $10
Sears, Roebuck model. As for his musical tastes, Charley was
influenced by his father, who wasn”t a blues music fan like
others of his generation in the South, rather, he listened to the
Grand Ole Opry. So instead of being schooled on B.B. King,
young Charley followed the careers of Ernest Tubb and Roy
Acuff.
But Charley Pride was also a heckuva baseball player and at 16,
he went to play in the Negro American League. After two years,
he entered the Army for a stint, married an ambitious Memphis
woman, Rozene (who still manages his career to this day), and
then left the service in 1958, determined to carve out a major
league career.
Pride played briefly in the Pioneer League, eventually opting to
take a fulltime job at a smelting plant in Helena, Montana, where
he began to appear in local nightspots in his spare time. He still
harbored major league ambitions, however, and he had a tryout
with the Angels in 1961 (as a pitching and outfield prospect), but
his arm was shot and it looked like he”d have to stick with music.
[Technically, Pride was part of the Mets farm system when he
formally hung it up.]
In 1962, country star Red Sovine discovered Pride in a Helena
club and got him to Nashville. [Another account says it was Red
Foley. Regardless, it was “Red.”] By 1965, Pride had caught the
ear of Chet Atkins.
Atkins flew to Los Angeles with the demo tape and got the
executives at RCA to issue a contract before they knew Pride”s
color. And when his first single was released in January 1966,
once again, his race was shielded from country radio until his
third single, “Just Between You And Me,” hit the Top Ten.
Pride, kind of like Earl Lloyd, suffered through the
discrimination he faced largely in silence, determined that his
talent, alone, carry him forward. But, unlike Jackie Robinson,
who unleashed a floodgate of black talent into his profession,
Charley Pride was it when it came to Country Western music.
Since Pride hasn”t been a star in recent years, it”s easy to forget
just how popular he became, particularly in the decade of the
70s. His 29 #1 Country hits rank 6th on the all-time list (Conway
Twitty is first with 40). “Kiss An Angel Good Mornin”” is,
however, the only tune of Pride”s which crossed over to the
Billboard Pop Charts, not that this has anything to do with
greatness. One look at the 70s music scene reveals a slew of
crossovers, which a purist would say weren”t “country” at all.
[Sources: “The Encyclopedia of Country Music,” (compiled by the staff
at the CMA); “Country Music: The Encyclopedia,” Irwin Stambler.]
The XFL
Well, there was quite a stir around the headquarters of NBC on
Saturday evening. Producer Lorne Michaels was fuming that his
“Saturday Night Live” was delayed about 45 minutes due to the
XFL game going into overtime (as well as having to deal with an
initial power failure which contributed to setting it back even
further). The ratings for SNL thus plummeted, as did the ratings
for the XFL, itself, in its second week.
Since the network owes Lorne Michaels a ton for his work over
the years, as well as his helping the network during the
“Survivor” sweepstakes by adding the 20-minute specials, the
XFL is in deep trouble. Will there even be a product next year?
The guess here is no. And who would you rather see, Jennifer
Lopez or the XFL cheerleaders? That”s rhetorical, folks. No
way am I commenting myself.
Top 3 songs for the week of 2/15/64: #1 “I Want To Hold Your
Hand” (The Beatles) #2 “You Don”t Own Me” (Lesley Gore)
#3 “She Loves You” (The Beatles).
Winter Sports Quiz Answers: 1) Phil Mahre won 3 World Cup
titles, 1981-83. 2) Tamara McKinney is the only U.S. woman to
win the overall World Cup title, 1983. 3) Career downhill wins,
women: Annemarie Proll (Austria) with 36. [Proll so dominated,
next on the list had 17.] 4) Career downhill wins, men: Franz
Klammer (Austria) with 25. 5) Last U.S. male to win Olympic
gold, Tommy Moe (downhill) in 1994.
Next Bar Chat, Friday…John Brisker.
