People, Locations, Episodes

Earl Lloyd, Basketball Player born

*On this date we mark the birth of Earl Lloyd in 1928. He was an African American basketball player, the first Black man to play in a National Basketball Association (NBA) game.

Robert Hughes Sr., Basketball Coach born

*Robert Hughes Sr. was born on this date in 1928. He is a retired Black high school basketball coach. From Tulsa, Oklahoma, Robert Hughes Sr. joined the Army after high school. At 6’6″, he was recruited for a unit that just played basketball; it was the first integrated team Hughes ever played on. When he […]

Paul ‘Tank’ Younger, Football Player born

Paul “Tank” Younger was born on this date in 1928. He was an African American football player and sports administrator.

Junior Gilliam, Baseball Player and Coach born.

*Junior Gilliam was born on this date in 1928.  He was a Black baseball player and coach. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, James William “Junior” Gilliam began playing on a local semi-pro team at age 14 and dropped out of high school in his senior year to pursue his baseball career. He joined the Negro National […]

Elston Howard, Baseball Player born

*Elston Howard was born on this date in 1929. He was an African American baseball player.

From St. Louis, he graduated from Vashon High School where he starred in baseball, track, football and basketball. In 1948, at age nineteen the future New York Yankees’ star played three seasons in the Negro Leagues with the Kansas City Monarchs. He was not an outfielder when he joined the Monarchs, Howard was a catcher, but after working behind the plate on the night he was shifted to the outfield to bolster a wobbly garden defense, and immediately became a match.

Dick Tiger, Boxer born

*On this date in 1929, Dick Tiger was born. He was a Nigerian professional boxer.

Born Richard Ihetu in Nigeria little is known of his childhood but records show that he turned pro in 1952. Tiger campaigned in Nigeria and England and won the British Commonwealth middleweight title before debuting in the United States in 1959. Tiger was an aggressive counter-puncher. He would move forward trying to draw his opponent into an exchange. Tiger would then try to counter his opponent’s punches with blows of his own.

Curt Roberts, Baseball Player born

*Curt Roberts was born on this date in 1929.  He was a Black baseball player. Curtis Benjamin Roberts was a native of Pineland, Texas, but was raised in Oakland, California.  He attended McClymonds High School in West Oakland, the same high school future professional athletes Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Bill Russell, and Curt Flood all […]

John Henry Johnson, Football Player, born

*John Henry Johnson was born on this date in 1929. He was an African American prfessional football player.

Emery Barnes, Politician born

*Emery Barnes was born on this date in 1929. He was a Black Canadian football player and politician.

Born in New Orleans Louisiana and raised in Oregon, Barnes was an alternate hi-jumper for the 1952 US Olympic Track and Field team. He played football at the University of Oregon and graduated he received his B.S. degree in 1954. Later that year he was drafted by the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, but had much more success in the Canadian Football League with the B.C. Lions.

Arthur Dorrington, Hockey Player born

*Arthur Dorrington was born on this date in 1930. He was a Black Canadian professional ice hockey player and Sheriff. A Nova Scotia native, James Arthur Dorrington learned to skate when he was three and began dreaming of a professional hockey career “as soon as I could figure out how to hold the stick.”   Dorrington […]

Don Haskins, Basketball Coach born

*Don Haskins was born on this date in 1930. He was a white-American college basketball coach.  From Enid, Oklahoma, he was nicknamed “The Bear.” From 1949 – 1952, he played college basketball under coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) for three years. After college and a stint with the Amateur Athletic […]

Willie Thrower, Football Player born

*Willie Thrower was born on this date in 1930. He was a Black college and NFL football player. Born near Pittsburgh in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, Willie Lee Thrower played halfback in the single-wing formation for New Kensington High (present name: Valley High School) as a freshman just after the end of World War II in […]

Ollie Matson, Football Player, and Teacher born

*Ollie Matson was boron on this date in 1930. He was an African American football player, teacher, and coach.

The New York Cubans Baseball Team is Formed

*The New York Cubans baseball team is celebrated this date in 1930.  They were a Negro League baseball team that played during the 1930s and from 1939 to 1950. Operating in the Negro leagues, the team occasionally employed white-skinned Hispanic baseball players as well because Hispanics, in general, were largely ignored by the major league […]

Johnny Bright, Football Player, born

*Johnny Bright was born on this date in 1930. He was a Black college and professional football player in the Canadian Football League. John Dee Bright was the second oldest of five children raised by his mother in a working-class neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He and his brothers shared two double beds in one […]