"To our Colored journalistic brothers we present this as a matter of self-interest. Spell it with a capital." - Ferdinand Lee Barnett, Spell It With a Capital (1878)

Colored Basketball World's Champions, 1907-1925

The term "Colored Basketball World's Champion" was coined around 1907 by Lester Walton, entertainment and sports editor for the New York Age, the nation's most widely circulated African American newspaper at the time. The term stuck and was subsequently used by other sportswriters as a way of describing the consensus black national champion of basketball.

Team		Season
Smart Set Athletic Club of Brooklyn		1907-08
Smart Set Athletic Club of Brooklyn		1908-09
Washington 12th Street Colored YMCA		1909-10
Howard University		1910-11
Monticello Athletic Association		1911-12
Alpha Physical Culture Club/Howard University		1912-13
St. Christopher Club		1913-14
New York Incorporators		1914-15
Hampton Institute		1915-16
New York Incorporators/St. Christopher Club		1916-17
St. Christopher Club/New York Incorporators		1917-18
St. Christopher Club		1918-19
Loendi Big Five		1919-20
Loendi Big Five		1920-21
Loendi Big Five		1921-22
Loendi Big Five		1922-23
Commonwealth Five/Eighth Regiment Five of Chicago		1923-24
New York Renaissance Big Five		1924-25