Na onal Basketball Hall of Fame Member

A Two- me College All-American

CIAA Player of the Decade 1947-56

Led West Virginia State to

Na onal Championships in 1948 and 1949

Led West Virginia State to Only Undefeated Record in Country in 1948

Voted one of CIAA’s 50 Greatest Players

First Black to Play in an NBA Game

First Black to Play and Start for

an NBA Championship Team

First Black to Coach in NBA

CIAA Hall of Fame Member

West Virginia State University Hall of Fame Member

State of Virginia Sports Hall of Fame Member

When Rudy Baric, the former West Virginia University basketball great, gained a place in the W. Va. Sports Writers' Hall of Fame last week, Charleston's Joe Peters of Sherwood Road was mystified as to why Earl Lloyd, the former West Virginia State basketball star, has not been named to the hall a long time ago. He phoned into the "Sports Window' radio show on WCHS last week to express his complete dissatisfaction and surprise that a man named on all-NAIA and all-pro teams has been so long ignored in the state where he gained his basketball fame. I agree, as does John Dickensheets of WCHS, that Lloyd ought to be honored by the state scribes, he should have been a long time ago. OK, Joe?

The late A.L. “Shorty” Hardman March 10, 1985

June 20, 2005 The administration, athletic department, faculty, students, fans, and

entire Yellow Jacket family request that Earl Lloyd be considered for membership in the West Virginia Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame.

Sincerely, Robert F. Parker Vice-President/Athletic Director

“The first thing that went through my mind when I heard Earl Lloyd had been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last week was, ‘Earl Lloyd isn't already in the Hall of Fame?’

Chalk it up to being young and stupid, I guess. I just assumed that the first African-American to play in the NBA had been recognized for his remarkable achievement years ago.” David Aldridge, ESPN, on Lloyd’s 2003 election to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame

Booklet compiled and produced by John Simms, West Virginia State University Sports Information Director

From Hall of Fame Induction ceremony program, 2003

Earl Francis Lloyd

Parker-Gray High School (Alexandria, VA), graduated in 1946

All-South Atlantic Conference three times (1944-46) All-State Virginia Interscholastic Conference twice (1945-46)

West Virginia State College (Institute, WV), graduated in 1950

Averaged 14 points and 8 rebounds per game in 26 games as a senior (1949-50) All-Conference (C.I.A.A.) three times (1948-50) All-American (named by Pittsburgh Courier) twice (1949-50) Led team to two C.I.A.A. Conference and Tournament Championships (1948 and 1949) Led team to second place finish in CIAA Conference and Tournament Championship (1950) Led West Virginia State as only undefeated team in the United States (1947-48)

Washington Capitols (1950) Syracuse Nationals (1952-58) Detroit Pistons (1958-60)

Became the first African-American to play in an NBA game on October 31, 1950 Became the first African-American to win an NBA championship (1955 with Syracuse) Averaged 10.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game and helped lead Syracuse to 1955 NBA Champi-

onship. Became first African-American Assistant Coach with Detroit Pistons (1968-70) Became second African-American head coach and first African-American bench coach with Detroit

Pistons (1970-71) Coached two Hall of Famers in Dave Bing and Bob Lanier As a scout, discovered and recommended such talents as Willis Reed, Earl Monroe, Ray Scott and

Wally Jones Named to All-Time CIAA All-Tournament team Named to CIAA Hall of Fame in 1998 Named to CIAA Silver Anniversary Team Voted one of the CIAA's 50 Greatest Players

High School:

High School Playing Highlights:

College:

College Playing Highlights:

Pro:

Pro Playing Highlights:

NBA' Detroit Pistons (1968-70), assistant coach NBA's Detroit Pistons (1970-71), head coach Led the Pistons to a 45-37 record in the 1970-71

season

Pro Coaching:

Earl Lloyd’s cracking of the color barrier in the NBA was a lot like his career at West Virginia State.

He played in the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The CIAA didn’t have the draws that baseball’s Negro Leagues did.

He did it in the shadows – in the shadows of baseball’s celebrated Jackie Robinson, and in the shadows of segregated college basketball on a campus that revered him, but in a state where everyone was soon to be consumed by the white Hot Rod Hundley.

“I was in junior high at Thomas Jefferson (in Charleston) when I first heard of Earl and what he was doing at West Virginia State,” Hundley told me on the day that Lloyd was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. “I never saw him play then.”

Hundley, always one with a flair for hoops, got to understand later what he had missed, when he and Lloyd played in the NBA.

Yes, it was much more than the 11 miles that separated Charleston and the Institute campus.

Lloyd told me, “Charleston was like 1,000 miles away to us.”

I had never met Earl Lloyd until I went to Springfield in 2003 to cover his induction – and Hundley’s acceptance of the Hall’s annual Curt Gowdy Award for broadcasters and writers. After talking with Earl for 15 minutes … well, let’s just say I’m paid to recognize a good, compelling and worthy story …

This was one of those.

Lloyd’s Hall of Fame inscription begins: “Lloyd’s ability to conduct himself with grace, style and professionalism both on and off the court during an era of segregation became a model for others to follow … “

That doesn’t quite say it all. Lloyd was a scoring star in college. In the NBA, he was an enforcing re-bounder.

“When he got into position, you just didn’t move him,” Hundley said. “He was about 2,200 pounds, I guess, and he was very strong.”

Earl Lloyd had to be strong to get through what he did, even after he helped integrate the NBA. He was also the first black NBA assistant coach. Only legendary Bill Russell beat Lloyd to a head coaching job among African-Americans.

And to also think that after getting to play only seven NBA games for the Washington Capitols after he had broken the color barrier, Lloyd had to leave the game after being drafted into the Army.

Earl, likely, already was accustomed to life not being fair … but it was more than that he dealt with it. It was how he dealt with it. That’s why, long before the NBA ever thought of putting a team in Portland, Lloyd was a trail blazer.

When West Virginians think of hoops fame, it goes Jerry West, Hod Rod Hundley, Hal Greer … Earl Lloyd belongs there, too.

Not a bad basketball Mount Rushmore for the Mountain State, is it?

Jack Bogaczyk

Sports Editor/Columnist

A compilation of stories, articles, and general information.

Earl Lloyd: A Basketball Pioneer

by David Ramsey posted to Philadelphia 76’s website Feb. 16, 2005

Jackie Robinson, the man who broke Major League Baseball’s color line, ranks as a national icon. Filmmaker Ken Burns go so far as to compare Robinson to Thomas Jefferson. Earl Lloyd, the first African-Americna to play in the National Basketball Association, ranks as a largely overlooked pioneer. That’s not right. Lloyd forged a path that is now profitably trav-

eled by the NBA’s legion of African-American stars. He walked a path that has since been traveled by Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Dave Bing, Michael Jordan and, now, by LeBron James and Amare Stoudemire. Lloyd started at power forward – with an emphasis on power – for the 1954-55 NBA champion Syra-cuse Nationals, who moved to Philadelphia in 1963 to become the 76ers. He doesn’t mind his low profile. Lloyd has no interest in stand-ing beside Robinson in the nation’s memory. Standing there would only make him nervous. “If you could have lunch with anybody who ever lived on the earth, anybody in his right mind would have to pick lunch with Jesus Christ,” Lloyd says. “Man, I would love to pick his brain. “But when you get back to mortals, my first pick would be Jackie Robinson. Just to talk a couple hours with him. Man, that would be sweet.” Lloyd and the man he calls “my hero” would have plenty to talk about. Lloyd said he encountered vir-tually no racist treatment from his teammates and opponents during his decade (1950-60) in the NBA. He played in a brawling era, when basketball resembled the current-day NHL. Fights were common, and Lloyd never walked away from one, but he says the punches never were provoked by his race. Fans of the 1950s were not so tolerant. The zenith of the Nationals era came in 1955, when Syracuse roared past the Fort Wayne Pistons for the NBA title. Nats players get a far-away look in their eyes when they talk of the victory. Lloyd’s memories aren’t so sweet. He remembers harsh, cruel words. The Pistons played their home games in the title series in downtown Indianapolis, where the scene often grew ugly. “Those fans in Indianapolis, they yell stuff like, ‘Go back to Africa.’ And I’m telling you, you would often hear the N-word. That was commonplace. There were a lot of people who sat close to you who gave you the blues, man.”

“Those fans in Indianapolis, they yell stuff like, ‘Go back to Africa.’ And I’m telling you, you would often hear the N-word. That was com-monplace. There were a lot of people who sat close to you who gave you the blues, man.” Earl Lloyd

When clueless fans called Earl Lloyd names, he declined to respond. He wouldn’t even look at the faces of those who spewed hate. He used their idiocy to fuel his already considerable fire. Lloyd was not the smoothest of players. He averaged more than 10 points per game in only one season. Instead, he earned his living by delivering basketball basics. He set bone-rattling, but clean, picks. He attacked the boards. He played rough, stingy defense. He was a starter on the Nats title team, a squad that resem-bled the Detroit Pistons of 2003-04, with its emphasis on defense. He attacked the game and declined to worry about the dopes in the stands. When fans taunted him, he just tried harder to beat their team. “My philosophy was if they weren’t calling you names, you weren’t doing anything,” Lloyd says. “You made sure they were calling you names, if you could. If they were calling you names, you were hurting them.” Lloyd remains a keen observer of the NBA. He watches games, usually by himself, in his den. This pioneer usually enjoys the show. “I like Shaquille O’Neal,” Lloyd says. “The guy plays hard. He’s unselfish. He’s a hell of a passer. He just a pro guy. I like the way he hurts people in the normal course of his job. He doesn’t go out of his way to hurt anybody, but when he goes to the basket, you got to be a brave man to get in his way.” Lloyd led the way for O’Neal and so many others. When Lloyd was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, he gave credit for his climb to his coaches, his parents, his friends, his wife, his teammates, and just about everyone except Earl Lloyd. That’s his nature.

Now, he often spends his afternoons relaxing in his den while listen-ing to the wandering, wondrous jazz tunes of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. He thinks back to his ride through life and he’s filled with gratitude for those who boosted him. He sometimes sits in his den for eight hours straight, lis-tening and thinking. “I like being extremely retired,” he says. He deserves an extreme boost in our collective memory.

The high school Earl Lloyd attended, Parker-Gray in Alexandria,

Virginia, was one of the schools combined into T.C. Williams High in 1965 when Virginia desegregated its education system.

T.C. Williams’ football team was featured in the 2000 Walt Disney film starring Denzel Washington titled “Remember the Titans”.

“My philosophy was if they weren’t calling you names, you weren’t do-ing anything,” Lloyd said. “You made sure they were calling you names, if you could. If they were calling you names, you were hurting them.”

W.VA. STATE BASKETBALL DOMINATED IN LATE 1940S TITLE IN '48 WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF TEAM'S SUCCESS

THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE 07/20/1999 By: FRANK ANGST

West Virginia State graduate Frank Enty remembers students and teachers at the school in Institute gath-ering around radios in 1947. They gathered on the campus of the all-black school to listen to Brooklyn Dodger baseball games and to follow the progress of Jackie Robinson.

Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball that season.

"Those were exciting times," Enty said.

In fact, there was a lot of excitement at West Virginia State in the late 1940s. Enty was a member of the Yellow Jackets basketball team that captured a national championship in 1948. He and his teammates didn't know it at the time, but from that championship team two players would follow in Robinson's trailblaz-ing footsteps.

Earl Lloyd played center for the 30-0 State team in 1948. On Oct. 31, 1950, he would become the first African-American to ever play in an NBA game when he scored six points and pulled down 10 rebounds for the Washington Capitols against Rochester.

In 1951, Lloyd's State teammate, Bob Wilson Jr., would join the NBA as a member of the Milwaukee Hawks.

"If you had told me [in 1947] that I'd be the first black player in the NBA, I'd have thought you were cra-zy," Lloyd said. "There were no predecessors to look up to. I never thought about it."

Lloyd's skepticism was based on race attitudes of the day. On the court he and his teammates enjoyed a lot of success in the late 1940s.

In 1948 the Yellow Jackets went 30-0 and won the CIAA regular-season and tournament titles. They were voted national champions of black-college basketball by several black newspa-pers. Today, a banner hangs in Fleming Hall - today's basketball team plays in the same gym as the 1948 team - recognizing the National Champions.

Mark Cardwell coached basketball and football at State in the 1940s after a successful high school career at Kelly Miller. Because of race attitudes at the time, many of Cardwell's play-ers felt isolated while growing up. Cardwell offered something different. He empha-sized family with his teams. The players thrived on it.

"He was like a father-figure to us, and we were like a family," Lloyd said. "It seemed like eight or nine of us came in as freshmen, and each year we built it up together. Those were some special peo-ple. The place was special. It was a special time."

West Virginia State played in the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which would eventually change its name to the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The league featured 15 other all-black schools in the Eastern part of the country from Delaware to North Carolina.

Cardwell was able to recruit top players to State by relying on a network of high school coaches and sportswriters from West Virginia and surrounding states.

Cardwell coached football and basketball at State and earned the nickname Miracle Man of the Mountains. His teams won CIAA regular-season titles in '47, '48 and '49 and CIAA tournament titles in '47, '48, '49 and '51.

"He led by example. In all the years I played for him in high school and in college, I never once heard him curse," Wilson said.

In the perfect season of 1947-48, Cardwell's offense was an inside power game relying on the 6-foot-6 Lloyd and the 6-4 Wilson. Lloyd remembers that the team didn't have too many tough games, but nearly stumbled in its season opener against Tuskegee Institute.

"We hit a shot late to go up by one and then they missed a last-second shot. That allowed us to hold on. If not for that, we wouldn't have gone undefeated."

The team again won the CIAA regular-season and tournament titles in 1949.

"I see other students today and they come up to me and say I never saw you lose a game. It's funny I was thinking about it, and I don't think we ever did lose at home. We were a very special group 'special' that

word keeps slipping out, but that's how the people who were there remember it."

Also in the '48-49 season, the team played in an invitational at the Cow Palace in San Francisco against such teams as Pepperdine and St. Mary's (Calif.)

"On that trip we were kind of goodwill ambassadors for black colleges. People weren't sure what would happen if mostly white colleges played black colleges," Wilson said.

The trip was successful in all aspects. California governor Earl Warren (later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) was so impressed by State, he invited

the squad to play one more game.

"We played an exhibition in San Quentin against the prisoners. Some of those guys had been practicing for 15 or 20 years " Wilson said as he burst into laughter upon recalling the game.

In the perfect sea-son of 1947-48, Cardwell's offense was an inside power game relying on the 6-foot-6 Lloyd and the 6-4 Wilson.

After the season, Enty said the team received word that the Na-tional Invitation Tournament was considering offering State a bid. Enty says he's not sure why, but that bid never materialized.

"It's disappointing. That would have been fun, but again, we felt like the CIAA, and what we accomplished there, was special too."

At times, State experienced face-to-face prejudice. Enty remem-bers difficult trips to North Carolina where the team would play North Carolina A & T, North Carolina Central and Winston-Salem.

"We were forced to ride in the back of the bus when we went to a game there. I remember coach being real upset and talking with the driver, but it got to the point where we had to get to the game on time so we rode in the back," Enty said.

Times were beginning to change. To understand the excitement created by Jackie Robinson joining the Brooklyn Dodgers and to un-derstand why Lloyd never thought he'd have the opportunity to play in the NBA requires some understanding of the times in which Lloyd and his teammates grew up.

Lloyd was born in 1928 in segregated Alexandria, Va. He attended a segregated elementary school and high school. He then chose to attend W.Va. State.

"When I talk to kids today, they find it hard to believe that I was 21 or 22 before I ever encountered white people. It's just the way it was," Lloyd said.

In the 1940s, the region of the country also determined your treatment if you were black. Lloyd's teammate, Enty, grew up in Pittsburgh and attended integrated Westinghouse High School. Today, it's not a terribly long drive from Pittsburgh to Alexandria, but for blacks in the 1940s the two cities were worlds apart.

Many schools in West Virginia were segregated. Wilson grew up in Clarksburg and attended segregated Kelly Miller High School, where he helped the team win several black-school state championships under coach Cardwell.

In college, Enty recalled Charleston as accepting - for the most part - in its attitudes concerning race. Towns outside the city were less accepting. Lloyd remembers being forced to sit in a roped off area at a Nitro movie theater.

Changes in attitude came slowly. World War II helped reshape ideas as African-Americans fought for the country. Also, many jobs on the home front were opened to women, blacks and other minorities.

Several State players were World War II veterans including Bum Clark, Wallace Simms, Doug Rockhold and Wilson.

The trip was successful in all aspects. California gover-nor Earl Warren (later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) was so impressed by State, he invited the squad to play one more game.

"We played an exhibition in San Quentin against the pris-oners. Some of those guys had been practicing for 15 or 20 years " Wilson said as he burst into laughter upon re-calling the game.

During his first season in the NBA

future Hall of Fame guard Bill Sharman would pick Lloyd up and drive him to and from games and practices.

In terms of sports, policies at the large state universities varied in the 1940s when it came to their teams. Some schools had a few black players while oth-ers had none. Most Southern colleges were segregated - there were no black athletes and no black students.

Major league baseball integrated in 1947, but the National Basketball Asso-ciation didn't even exist until the 1946-47 season. The NBA didn't allow black players to join the league in the first few seasons.

Lloyd said the story of Jackie Robinson and Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey inspired him.

"Branch Rickey was THE MAN. He made it work for Jackie. I can't say enough about Jackie Robin-son as an athlete and a man. Here's a guy who endured all the name-calling and abuse but still played well enough on the field to make the Hall of Fame. It's amazing that he was able to put everything aside and play as well as he did."

After he graduated from State, Lloyd's challenge, like Robinson's, would be to prove that he could play as well as white players and that he could "handle himself' on the court. At the time, many whites didn't think the two races could mix in competition.

Lloyd was forced to be an example and, despite the unfairness of the deal, he accepted the challenge.

Lloyd would be one of three black players to join the NBA in 1950. He would play seven games for the Washington Capitols before being drafted by the Army. The team would fold after 34 games that season.

"After they lost me, they just couldn't go on," Lloyd says with a laugh today.

Joining the league with Lloyd were Chuck Cooper, out of Duquesne (who coincidentally played with Enty in high school), and Nathaniel Clifton, of Xavier.

Cooper was drafted in the second round by the Boston Celtics. Lloyd credits that pick as helping to open the door for him. When the Celtics took a black player, he said that freed up the Capitols to select him. Lloyd said the Capitols, with a large black population as a potential fan base in Washington D.C., and their proximity to his hometown, were the only team that would have drafted him.

"I went in the ninth round to the Capitols, but they could have waited to the 49th round if they wanted."

Lloyd remembers struggles throughout his career.

"I remember guys who were afraid to step in the same show-er with me. Things like that. It was just ignorance really," Lloyd said.

Lloyd remembers struggles throughout his career.

"I remember guys who were afraid to step in the same show-er with me. Things like that. It was just ignorance really," Lloyd said.

At games, Lloyd said some fans would call him names. On some road trips he was forced to find separate accommoda-tions.

"The thing was, I was so wor-ried about playing well. Once the ball was tipped, I couldn't worry about any of that stuff."

At games, Lloyd said some fans would call him names. On some road trips he was forced to find separate accommodations.

"The thing was, I was so worried about playing well. Once the ball was tipped, I couldn't worry about any of that stuff."

Wilson joined the league in 1951. He dreaded exhibition trips the team made into the South, where he would often be forced to stay in separate quarters away from the rest of the team.

While Wilson's NBA career was cut short by a knee injury in his second season, Lloyd would later establish another first. He, George King and Jim Tucker became the first black players to play in an NBA Championship series in 1954 with the Syracuse Nationals. In 1955 Lloyd won an NBA title with the Nationals against Fort Wayne.

In all, Lloyd played eight full seasons in the NBA and averaged 8.4 points a game.

The State family performed well in the NBA and it lives on today. The team meets regularly.

"At the reunions, we end up telling stories on one another, and the tales get a little taller each time. But there's a great deal of love we have for one another," Enty said. "Of the group of 18 or 19 that played in those years, 11 of us are still alive. We've had good lives and we enjoy talking about those times. We always look forward to our next reunion."

In a world where African-Americans were often degraded, coach Cardwell offered something different. He offered love, and family.

"There's no question, that my experience at State helped me endure those years in the NBA," Wilson said.

Many of the players have committed themselves to education - following in the footsteps of Cardwell.

Wilson, now living in Newark, N.J., was inducted into the YMCA Hall of Fame this year. Lloyd went on to coach the Detroit Pistons. He has served as an administrator with Detroit's Board of Education and always finds time to talk with young people about those times. Enty is a consultant to the schools in Bowie, Md.

Lloyd said today's challenges regarding race are on a more basic level.

"It's going to take people getting along on a one-to-one basis now," Lloyd said.

The undefeated season and national championship came in 1948, but the victories of that Yellow Jacket squad have continued to this day.

The NBA was beginning its fifth season

when Lloyd was drafted by the Washington Capitals. The league had just dropped from 17 teams to 11.

He played in just seven games that season before being drafted into the army. The Capitals folded after 34 games.

BLAZING A TRAIL TO THE NBA, LLOYD GRATEFUL

FOR OPPORTUNITIES AFFORDED HIM AT STATE

THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE 06/21/2003 By MIKE WHITEFORD

THE FACULTY members, it seemed, knew it was critically important that their students earn their col-lege degrees. After all, the cruel social and job-market barriers of the 1940s dictated that an uneducated black American was doomed to a life of menial jobs that not only were low-paying but subservient.

Knowing they were perhaps the last defense against such bleak futures, the professors at West Virginia State College adopted a mother-hen approach. They closely monitored their students' academic progress, almost demanding that they succeed in the classroom, and even gave them their home phone numbers. Whenever prob-lems arose, they said, give them to call.

Back then, 6-foot-6, 220-pound Earl Lloyd, who had enrolled at State in the fall of 1946, thought only of earning a degree in health, physical education and recreation and moving on to a quiet life as a teacher and coach. Although he excelled in basketball for the Yellow Jackets, it would have been preposterous for the Alex-andria, Va., native, to imagine himself as an NBA player and an NBA assistant coach. Those jobs were strictly reserved for whites.

But everything changed dramatically one day in the spring of 1950 when, as he walked from his dormitory room in B Barracks to a campus cafe, a fellow student approached him with astonishing news.

Lloyd still recalls the occasion. "A girl came up to me and said, 'I heard your name on the radio.' And I said, 'What did you hear?' And she said, 'That you were drafted by the Washington Capitols,' I al-most fainted."

Unbeknownst to the Yellow Jacket forward, the Capitols had scouted him when West Virginia State visited Washington's Uline Arena in 1949 and 1950 for the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic As-sociation tournament. And without saying a word to him, they select-ed him in the ninth round of the 1950 NBA draft.

Also taken in that landmark draft were two other black players, Chuck Cooper of Duquesne University of Pittsburgh, who was se-lected by the Boston Celtics, and Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton of the Harlem Globetrotters, taken by the New York Knicks. Three years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major-league base-ball, Lloyd, Cooper and Clifton did so in basketball.

And on Oct. 31, 1950, Lloyd earned the distinction of being the first black to play in an NBA game when the Capitols visited the Rochester Royals. Three weeks later, he was taken in another draft -

Unbeknownst to the Yellow Jacket forward, the Capitols had scouted him when West Virginia State visited Washing-ton's Uline Arena in 1949 and 1950 for the Colored Intercol-legiate Athletic Association tournament. And without say-ing a word to him, they select-ed him in the ninth round of the 1950 NBA draft.

Lloyd still recalls the occa-sion. "A girl came up to me and said, 'I heard your name on the radio.' And I said, 'What did you hear?' And she said, 'That you were drafted by the Washington Capitols,' I almost fainted."

the U.S. Army draft - but he played nine seasons in the NBA, mostly with the Syracuse Nationals and Detroit Pistons, and aver-aged 8.4 points and 6.4 rebounds in 560 games. He later worked for the Pistons as an assistant coach, the first black to hold such a position.

As a racial pioneer who enjoyed a solid NBA career, Lloyd was voted to the Basketball Hall of Fame in April and will be in-ducted during ceremonies Sept. 4-6 in Springfield, Mass.

But don't even think of comparing him to Jackie Robinson, he insists. Robinson's exposure to racism far exceeded anything he faced.

"I had no blatant problems," he said. "The difference to me, and I don't want to denigrate the baseball players of Jackie Robin-son's time, but there were not a lot of college-educated people play-ing baseball. In basketball, almost all of them had had some col-lege years. Plus, you had a lot of guys who had gone to colleges where black kids played."

He says he owes much of his success in the NBA, as well as his overall happiness in life, to West Virginia State.

"I always tell the story about graduation," Lloyd. "Everybody was crying because we didn't want to leave. That was a tough place to leave. Of all the good things that happened to me in my adulthood, I can trace them back directly to my years at West Virginia State."

Although he left the school for the NBA without his degree, he returned to the Institute campus in the summer of 1954 after completing his military obligation to take the final hours needed for graduation.

In addition to his size and natural athletic gifts, it was Lloyd's good fortune to play basketball for coach George Johnson at Alexandria's Parker-Gray High School. Johnson was a West Virginia State graduate who had played football for the Yellow Jackets, and he recommended Lloyd to State basketball coach Mark Card-well, who then offered a scholarship.

At the time, West Virginia State was an all-black school that attracted students from all over the East, South and Midwest, as well as West Virginia. Lloyd even remembers classmates from California. It carried a reputation for academic excellence, and many black professionals sent their kids there.

"It was easier to attract black students," Lloyd noted, "because a majority of white institutions were not available to us."

A four-year starter in basketball, Lloyd played forward an averaged about 16 points in his final three sea-sons and remembers only two in-state teammates, Bob Wilson of Clarksburg and Blow Simms of Williamson.

"I always tell the story about graduation," Lloyd said.

"Everybody was crying be-cause we didn't want to leave. That was a tough place to leave.”

“Of all the good things that happened to me in my adulthood, I can trace them back directly to my years at West Virginia State."

Lloyd’s first NBA game was played on Halloween.

He scored six points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds as Washington lost 78-70 to Rochester.

The campus was a self-contained place filled with activities, keeping Lloyd and his 700 fellow students occupied and giving them little reason to visit faraway places like Charleston. On his infrequent visits to the Capital City, he would board a local bus, and he remembers the countless stops that made the trip seem like an eternity.

But not everything was wonderful. Be-cause they could not schedule nearby white opponents, the Yellow Jackets were forced to travel exhausting distances to such schools as Lincoln University near Philadelphia, Howard University in Washington, Virginia Union in Richmond, Virginia State in Petersburg, Delaware State, North Carolina College, Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C., and Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte.

All of these road trips came in the pre-Interstate era. "To travel from Institute to D.C. to play How-ard was kind of hazardous," Lloyd remembered. "You had these two-lane roads and no guardrails. It was scary."

They traveled in two eight-passenger DeSoto touring cars - the SUVs of the 1940s - but they needed to plan each trip in advance, making arrangements to find hotels and restaurants that would accommo-date blacks. On trips to Washington, for example, they always stopped in White Sulphur Springs.

More than 50 years later, he's still mystified and saddened that segregation ever existed. He's astounded that he would spend the first 22 years of his life without a single one-on-one conversation with a white peer.

"If there was anything that didn't make sense, that was it," he said of segregation. "It just made no sense, man. Can you imagine that I went from kindergarten through four years of college without a white classmate? I tell kids that now and they say, 'Why was that?' And I say, 'It was against the law.' That was the sad part about it, that we couldn't sit together. In my first 22 years, I never had a conversa-tion with a white peer."

But he's grateful that many of the NBA players and coaches of that era accepted him and helped ease his transition to the white world. For example, his first NBA coach, Bones McKinney of the Capi-tols, once visited his hotel room to eat dinner with him, knowing that the hotel restaurant was closed to him.

And he's grateful for the good things that happened to him at West Virginia State College.

After serving two years in the army Lloyd returned to West Virginia State during the summers

and completed his degree in Physical Education and Safety in 1955.

Current WVSU basketball coach Bryan Poore, Mark Cardwell—grandson of Lloyd’s college coach, and Lloyd during “Earl Lloyd” weekend at West Virginia State in 2004.

LLOYD'S DREAM DIDN'T INCLUDE THE NBA CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL 09/05/2003 By JACK BOGACZYK

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Earl Lloyd, with apologies to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., had a dream, too.

It wasn't to play in the National Basketball Association.

"I never even thought about playing in the NBA," said Lloyd, whose hoops persona will elevate to-night to Dr. J's sky-flying neighborhood. "There wasn't any reason to think I could play in the NBA.

"If I'd had my pick while I was playing at West Virginia State, I dreamed about playing for the New York Renaissance."

The Rens were the best pro basketball team in the late '40s, while Lloyd was making more of a name than he thought he could at the historically black college's powerhouse program in Institute, W.Va. There was no Globetrotter clowning by the Rens, a black barnstorming team.

Finally, 50-something years later, Lloyd gets to join the Renaissance.

There are five teams enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Rens are one of them. Lloyd takes that step to what he calls "the pinnacle" of his basketball existence tonight, as one of a seven-member 2003 class.

He's in good company as the Veterans Committee electee, joining Robert Parish, James Worthy and Meadowlark Lemon, among others, as new enshrinees to bring the Hall's individual membership to 253.

"A few years ago I knew I was being considered, but you never know," said Lloyd, 75, who arrived Thursday in the city where James Naismith first hung a peach basket at the YMCA 112 years ago. "I feel good about going in, and about why I'm going in."

His game was much about defense and board work. At 6-foot-7, 220 pounds, Lloyd was considered a power forward in the '50s, but would play the three spot in today's game.

If you checked the statistics of all of the Hall of Fame players - Lloyd is the third with a Mountain State connection, following Jerry West and Hal Greer - chances are they have more than Lloyd's NBA nine-season averages of 8.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

Sometimes, it's not about what's in black and white, at least on the stat sheet.

This four-time grandfather's enshrinement is about braking barriers, not crashing backboards.

Lloyd was the first African-American to play in an NBA game, on Oct. 31, 1950 in Rochester, N.Y., for the Washington Capitols. He and Syracuse teammate Jim Tucker were the first of their race to win NBA championship rings, with the Nationals in 1954-55.

Lloyd was the first African-American to be an NBA assistant coach, at Detroit in the late '60s. He was the second black head coach, elevated by the Pistons in 1971. Boston already had made legendary Bill Russell the Celtics' player-coach.

The language under Lloyd's picture in the Hall's Honors Ring - it goes up tonight - says it best:

"Lloyd's ability to conduct himself with grace, style and professionalism both on and off the court during an era of segregation became a model for others to follow," the inscription reads in part.

"I'm sure I'm going in because of my pioneering activities," Lloyd said. "For me, it's the pinnacle. My

craft was basketball, pro basketball, but one of the most important stops in my life was at West Virginia State. It was like a safe haven. The good things that have happened to me since, that all goes back to those times at State.

"Basketball, however I used it or it used me, what I wanted was to make it better than it was before. There are a lot of things, like they say, at the end of the day, that go into your life. Your accomplish-ments speak for themselves.

"Well, I'd like to think that in addition to having some look at me as a pioneer, maybe somewhere along the way I might have influenced somebody to do things right in their career, in their life."

He coached future Hall of Famers Bob Lanier and Dave Bing. The latter is Lloyd's presenter tonight. As the Pistons' head scout, Lloyd - with connections to the historically black schools that others didn't have - is credited with "discovering" Willis Reed at Grambling State and Earl "The Pearl" Monroe at Winston-Salem State.

He understood from his own experience that players are where you find them. That's how the Capitols found Lloyd. They scouted the since-renamed Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association tournament at Washington's old Uline Arena, across the Potomac River from Lloyd's hometown of Alexandria, Va.

"While being a pioneer in the NBA was big to me, you have to understand that it's just as important that I was the first from my family to go to college and the first to graduate from college," Lloyd said. "After basketball, I worked as an executive for the Chrysler Corp. Those things are important, too."

His NBA playing career - with Washington, Syracuse and Detroit - was interrupted by two years in the Army after only seven games his rookie season. The Caps folded 28 games later, and when Lloyd re-turned from the military, his rights had gone to Syracuse in a dispersal draft.

He had to start over, again, in more ways than one.

"When I finished playing at State, I hadn't graduated," Lloyd said.

"I was going to come back after my first year in the NBA, but I never finished my first year because I was in the Army.

"So, I came back summers after I got out of the Army. I got my degree in health and physical educa-tion safety in '55. There were people at West Virginia State who maintained contact with me and made me promise I'd come back.

"I learned early in life you don't let people down."

"I'm sure I'm going in because of my pioneer-ing activities," Lloyd said. "For me, it's the pin-nacle. My craft was bas-ketball, pro basketball, but one of the most important stops in my life was at West Virginia State.” “It was like a safe haven. The good things that have happened to me since, that all goes back to those times at State.”

W.VA. GREATS HONORED, LLOYD, HUNDLEY HAD DIFFERENT INFLUENCES ON BASKETBALL LEAGUE

CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL 09/06/2003 By JACK BOGACZYK SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Their burgeoning basketball legends were once separated by only a dozen West Virginia miles. Yet, Earl Lloyd and Rod Hundley lived in worlds apart. It took National Basketball Association careers to get two of the Mountain State's most celebrated players on the same floor. They are together again now, sharing a stage and their hoops success, this weekend. Lloyd, a large part of West Virginia State hoops greatness in the 1940s, was one of seven 2003 enshrinees in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday night in Springfield, Mass. Hundley, a Charleston native who went on to stardom at West Virginia University and more than three decades as an NBA broadcaster, accepted the Hall's annual Curt Gowdy Media Award for his television and radio work. "I was in junior high at Thomas Jefferson when I first heard of Earl and what he was doing at West Virginia State," Hundley said Friday at the Hall of Fame, where it's a signature weekend for the Mountain State. "I never saw him play then. "When I got to the NBA in 1957, Earl had already been there. We became good friends. Later on, we both worked for Converse, selling shoes. I hadn't seen him in a long time, until here." Hundley, 68, is white. Lloyd, 75, is black. As Lloyd said Friday when asked how often he and his West Virginia State classmates traveled from Institute to West Virginia's capital city, the new Hall

of Famer said, "Charleston was like 1,000 miles away to us." The 6-foot-7 Lloyd was in his last season with the Sy-racuse Nationals (1957-58) when the 6-foot-4 Hundley arrived in the NBA as a rookie with the Minneapolis Lakers. The two men with Mountain State hoops backgrounds played three simultaneous seasons in the pros. Lloyd, the first African-American to play in an NBA game on Oct. 31, 1950, said he knew after a couple of games against the Lakers that he liked Hundley, who had been a three-time All-America selection at WVU. "Hot Rod, well, he was different," Lloyd said. "He was kind of a wild man. I remember his sophomore year at West Virginia, the last game, he was going for the Southern Conference free-throw percentage record.

"I was in junior high at Thomas Jefferson when I first heard of Earl and what he was doing at West Virgin-ia State," Hundley said Friday at the Hall of Fame, where it's a signature weekend for the Mountain State. "I never saw him play then. "When I got to the NBA in 1957, Earl had already been there. We became good friends.”

"He goes to the line, and he spins the ball on his finger, then shoots it behind his back. He misses. He doesn't get the record. I asked him later why he did that. He said, 'Earl, then I wouldn't have had anything to shoot after the next year.' "

Lloyd didn't simply appreciate Hundley for his flair, however.

"You know, in the '50s, there weren't a lot of stand-up folks," Lloyd said, discussing the integration of the NBA and the societal times, in general. "The day I met Rod, I knew he was one though.”

"He was a decent dude. Rod was a stand-up guy when it was-n't fashionable. I always appreciated him for that. I told him that then."

Lloyd did it again Friday, when Hundley stopped by Lloyd's table at a Hall of Fame media interview session and told the loqua-cious former West Virginia State star, "Earl, we only have 15 minutes more here."

Hundley remembered a time, in the 1960s, when Lloyd flew into Greensboro, N.C., and the two Converse show representatives were to meet to make presentations.

"I meet Earl and we're waiting for his bag to come off the plane," said Hundley, laughing at the recollection. "It's a large bag, and I bend over to pick it up off the rack.

"Earl grabs me and says, 'Rod, I know we've come a long way, but we haven't come that far yet where you have to carry my bag. We both stood there and just laughed."

Lloyd's pioneering punched his ticket into the Basketball Hall of Fame, but Hundley said the State alumnus nicknamed "Big Cat" was a challenging player who was more valuable than his statistics showed.

"Earl rebounded tough," Hundley said, "and when he got into position, you just didn't move him. He was about 2,200 pounds, I guess, and he was very strong. I remember he also stood up to referees.

"He guarded people inside mostly, and it seemed he got called for a lot of fouls, and maybe some he shouldn't have been called for. He defended himself with the refs more than he argued.

"I'd say he was fighting for the right to compete, more or less. He had to do a lot of that. He was kind of an enforcer. Every team had one, sort of like Jim Luscotoff of the Celtics.

"Earl was a fine all-around player and a wonderful person. Still is," Hundley said.

"Earl rebounded tough," Hundley said, "and when he got into position, you just didn't move him. He was about 2,200 pounds, I guess, and he was very strong. I remember he also stood up to referees.” "Earl was a fine all-around player and a won-derful person. Still is," Hundley said.

When Lloyd’s Syracuse Nationals

won the NBA championship in 1955 one of his teammates was former Morris Harvey

(now University of Charleston) star George King. King would later go on to coach West Virginia University.

In 1965 he recruited the first black basketball players to ever play for WVU as well as in the Southern Conference.

“Men black and white have to thank him for what he did.” — Meadowlark Lemon, Harlem Globetrotters, Syracuse Nationals, Detroit Pistons, Hall of Famer. “He was a part of our team, and a part of us.” — Dolph Schayes, Hall of Famer “Earl was a great teammate. He’s also a great guy and a hero.” — John “Red” Kerr “George King did a great job recruiting me. My parents felt comfortable with him and Earl Lloyd told me King was a straight shooter.” — Ron “Fritz” Williams on being WVU’s first black basketball recruit. " Earl Lloyd is my mentor. He went to the same high school that I attended in Alexandria. I met him when he came back as a substitute teacher. He and George King played on the 1965 NBA championship team at Syracuse. They fostered a friendship for life." — former WVU player Jim Lewis, one of the other three black players recruited to WVU by George King at the same time as Williams "The Caps, incidentally, launch their home campaign to-night against the Indianapolis Olympians. Among other rookies, coach Bones McKinney has Earl Lloyd, rugged Negro guard, who appears to be a find. He was a draft choice from West Virginia State." — Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reporter George Beahon the day after Lloyd’s debut against the Royals.

PERSONAL

Birthdate: April 3, 1928 Hometown: Alexandria, Va. Family: Married (wife, Charlita); three sons, four grandchildren Nicknames: Big Cat, Moon Fixer College: West Virginia State (1946-47 through 1949-50; returned in 1955, after military service, for degree in health/physical education) College highlights: Helped 1947-48 State team to national title, as only undefeated team in the nation; All-America twice and All-CIAA three times; one of CIAA's 50 Greatest Players. Military: U.S. Army (1950-52; served at Fort Bragg, N.C., and Fort Sill, Okla.) Other jobs: Administrator for Detroit Board of Education; executive with Chrysler Corporation; the Bing Cor-poration (public relations) Miscellaneous: Named head of Detroit Police Athletic League in 1975; 2000 winner of Distinguished Warrior Award presented by Detroit Urban League;

GQ Magazine, October of 2001

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for Marshall

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basketball for West Virginia University

“The first thing that went through my mind when I heard Earl Lloyd had been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last week was, ‘Earl Lloyd isn't already in the Hall of Fame?’

Chalk it up to being young and stupid, I guess. I just assumed that the first African-American to play in the NBA had been recognized for his remarkable achievement years ago.” David Aldridge, ESPN, on Lloyd’s 2003 election to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame

West Virginia State University

Pioneers of Basketball: Top Row (L-R) Bob Lanier, Al Attles, Earl Lloyd, Bill Russell, Wayne Embry, Shane Battier Front Row (L-R) Ron Thomas, Robert Johnson during the Pioneers of the NBA Symposi-um entitled "They Cleared the Lane" at the National Civil Rights Museum on January 19, 2003 in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Philadelphia 76’ers

Naismith National Basketball Hall of Fame