On October 13, 1910, history was made when Major A. Hart formed the first all-black play-for-pay basketball team, a new squad called the New York All Stars.
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On October 13, 1910, the history of African American basketball shifted forever.
Major A. Hart, the manager of the St. Christopher Club — a church-sponsored basketball team that played with strict adherence to amateur standards and moral virtues — quit the organization and took its best players with him to form the first all-black play-for-pay basketball team, a new squad aptly called the New York All Stars.
“That this game has taken a firm hold of our people,” wrote Hart, an African American who had served in the Philippines as a rifleman in the Spanish-American War, “has been demonstrated beyond a doubt.”
Hart experienced a significant amount of grief in the form of condemnation through the Negro press, because professionalism in sports was still considered to be “sinful.”
“This team was not formed for any spirit of revenge or to hurt any of the good clubs that are in the game, as has been rumored,” Hart wrote in an open letter to the public. “We are not trying to break up any club or to cause any hard feelings.”
The New York All Stars, 1910.
Although the St. Christopher Club lost many of its top players, the stars of several other teams in the New York City area defected to the All Stars too, including Ferdinand Accooe of the Smart Set Athletic Club of Brooklyn.
“We want to play the game as our white friends play it,” Hart insisted.
Funny how today it’s the other way around. :-)
Major A. Hart, first to openly promote play-for-pay
What a spirit, what a courage must have had major Hart to promote in those days “play-for-pay among all-black teams”. Very interesting blog; so the history of basketball in America has changed back in 1910.
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you need to talk about basketball shoes like ebay places they plaed at and talk about the rules for the kids who have to research
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