Champions

Colored Basketball World’s Champions, 1907-1925

 

The term “Colored Basketball World’s Champion” was coined around 1907 by Lester Walton, the entertainment and sports editor for the New York Age, which was the country’s most widely circulated African American newspaper at the time.

The term stuck and was subsequently used by other sportswriters.

This “championship” was not played at any one specific location or venue. Rather, it was a consensus declaration among the leading sportswriters of the African American newspapers that covered basketball.

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

Coming Soon:

  • Additional champions for additional years.

Please stay tuned.

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Upcoming Dates

Quote of the Month

“We were helping our race by fortifying the bodies of our people in this, the struggle for existence, where only the fittest survive.”
-- Conrad Norman, Co-Founder, Alpha Physical Culture Club, 1910

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