Coach McLendon ran the distance
By LUT WILLIAMS
Black College Sports Page Editor
(Week of October 12-18, 1999)
Football takes a back seat on the BCSP this week because a giant has passed.
Legendary basketball coach John B.
McLendon, Jr., a pioneer, supreme innovator
and thinker, a teacher, a consummate
gentleman and one of the men who waged
the successful fight to break down barriers of
segregation in college and professional
athletics, died Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio
where he had been residing and teaching a
class at Cleveland State University.
Coach Mac, as he was affectionately known,
whose coaching career spanned almost 40
years and whose contributions to the game
and towards preserving for future
generations the struggle to free America
from the bonds of institutionalized racism in
sports continued until his last breath, was 84
years old. His class at Cleveland State was
entitled, "The History of Sports and the Role
of Minorities in its Development."
On the day of his passing, he spoke with
colleagues about his most recent passion, the
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
(HBCU) Heritage Museum and Hall of
Fame which recently secured buildings in
Durham, North Carolina. The museum and
hall are to be lasting memorials for athletes,
coaches, administrators and other black
college graduates who have made significant
contributions to the nation. His place there is
secure.
Born in 1915 in Hawatha,Kansas,
McLendon was trained under Dr. James
Naismith, the University of Kansas
professor credited with inventing the game
of basketball and he translated his love for
the game and sense of fairness into a lifelong
pursuit. It resulted in numerous historic
on-court triumphs and a series of
developments that all but paved the way for
black colleges' and black athletes'
participation in national sports
championships and in professional sports. In
many ways, he was to college athletics what
Jackie Robinson was to Major League Baseball and Martin Luther King was
to the Civil Rights
Movement.
On the court, he was the first coach to win three straight national titles
when he led his 1957, '58 and
'59 Tennessee A&I (now Tennessee State) teams featuring Dick Barnett
and John Barnhill to
consecutive NAIA championships. McLendon's team had to defeat all the other
black college
powers, essentially winning the black college championship, before gaining
access to the NAIA
national tournament. Over the years, he and others lobbied successfully
to end the practice leading to
black college teams entering the tournament through regions just as the
other schools did. The
success of his teams and other black college squads eventually spurred
the more blatantly racist
NCAA to open its championships to black colleges.
In compiling a 523-165 (.762) career record, McLendon established himself
as one of the greatest
minds in the history of the game. He invented the "two in the corner" or
"two out, one in" later
known as the four corners offense and was among the first to employ the
full court press and zone
press successfully.
In stints at TSU, North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University),
Kentucky State,
Hampton and Cleveland State, his teams were pioneers in up-tempo basketball
often scoring over
100 points per game, and his teams were always the most well-conditioned.
One of his most
cherished accomplishments was that in 34 years of coaching he never received
one technical foul. At
NC Central he coached Sam Jones who went on to a Hall of Fame career with
the Boston Celtics.
Both Barnett and Barnhill had successful NBA careers.
He was among the founders of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
(CIAA) basketball
tournament that began in 1945 and he remained an integral part as it has
grown into one of the
largest, most anticipated and well attended black events in the nation.
He was a founding member of
the National Athletic Steering Committe (NASC) in 1951 that devised strategies
to combat
segregation and discrimination in college athletics and was a forerunner
of the present-day Black
Coaches Association. In 1950, he escorted West Virginia State's Earl Lloyd
and NCC's Harold
Hunter to tryouts with the NBA's Washington Caps. They became the first
blacks to sign NBA
contracts, three days before the Boston Celtics signed Chuck Cooper of
Duquesne.
In 1961, McLendon became the first black coach in the old Industrial League
when he took over the
Cleveland Pipers and led them to the league title. In 1969 he became the
first black coach in the
professional ranks when he guided the Denver Rockets (now Nuggets) of the
old ABA. He coached
international teams on trips to Russia, Europe and the Orient, and travelled
to 56 countries all over the
world conducting clinics and spreading goodwill for the sport. Many believe
he has contributed more
to the proliferation of basketball worldwide than any other individual.
Videos outlining his basketball
concepts are on the shelves or in the VCRs of coaches throughout the world.
In 1960 in Dayton, Ohio, he coached a team of amateurs to an upset of the
U. S. Olympic team led
by all-Americans Oscar Robertson and Jerry West. It is the only time an
amateur team has defeated
an Olympic squad.
But his on-court glory and basketball genius was just part of this brilliant
man. He labored tirelessly
to not only make sure black college teams could participate in national
tournaments, but fought eqully
hard for equal access off the court.
He refused to bring his Tennessee State team to the 1954 NAIA tournament
in Kansas City unless
they could stay in the same downtown hotels that the white schools used.
In 1978, he was the first black coach inducted into the Naismith Basketball
Hall of Fame and and is a
member of seven other Halls of Fame. He has unquestionably earned the title
of "Coach of the
Century."
He is survived by his wife Joanna and four children. His funeral was held
Wed., Oct. 13 at 6.30 pm
at the Bethany Christian Church in Cleveland.
Out hearts go out in full embrace to you and the race you ran, Coach Mac.