Did you see what “NBA-Insider” David Aldridge wrote about me and BlackFives.com in his column on NBA.com this week?

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“Mr. Hudson Oliver has amazed the public by his wonderful playing and is looked upon as the best player of the six colored teams.”
– The New York Age, 1909

Teams: Jersey City Athletic Club, Smart Set Athletic Club, Washington 12 Streeters, Howard University
Born: Jersey City, New Jersey
Died: Harlem, New York City

Hudson “Huddy” Oliver was a four-time winner of the Colored Basketball World Championship with three different teams — the Smart Set Athletic Club, the Washington 12 Streeters, and Howard University.

Oliver was universally considered the best African American basketball player prior to the early 1910s.

This, along with his championship titles, makes him one of the most deserving candidates from the early years of the Black Fives Era for inclusion in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

After graduating from Howard University, where he also attended medical school while playing varsity basketball, Oliver became a doctor.

Dr. Hudson J. Oliver interned at Freedman’s Hospital before beginning his career as a physician in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

He moved to Harlem in 1921, where he became a prominent physician and would practice medicine for 34 years, including a stint on the staff at Harlem Hospital.

Dr. Oliver remained active in basketball, mostly coaching some women’s teams in the mid-1920s.

He was a military veteran as well as an officer in the Knights of Columbus, and was also the exalted ruler of the Monarch Elks Lodge in Harlem. He died in Harlem in 1955.

Mr. Obama stopped at Ben’s Chili Bowl in D.C. this weekend, across the street from a historic black basketball site once known as True Reformer’s Hall.

The building’s gymnasium was the site of many early games between African American basketball teams, including the Washington 12 Streeters led by Edwin B. Henderson.

The Smart Set Athletic Club used the old 14th Regiment Armory in Brooklyn as its home court for basketball during the 1910s.

Read the rest of this entry »

This month, 96 years ago (April, 1912), the Twelfth Street Colored Y.M.C.A. of Washington, D.C. opened. Here’s some more about this landmark building.

But first, some background.

In 1853, ex-slave Anthony Bowen founded the first Colored Y.M.C.A. in Washington, D.C.

It was Colored because the Y organization knew about the segregationist views of most Americans but yet still wanted to provide it’s services to blacks. Having Colored Men’s Branches, as they were called, was the only way.

But don’t get it twisted.

Having a Colored Y.M.C.A. Branch didn’t necessarily mean you had a building for your Y.M.C.A. Branch. That came much later.

Bowen, a minister and the first African American to work in the U.S. Patent Office, was an outspoken advocate for the education of black children.

His pioneering work led the way for many others: by 1896, there were 60 active all-black Y.M.C.A.s throughout the country.

Of these, 41 were student branches at colleges.

In the middle of the 1800s, Washington was the destination of choice for runaway slaves and freedmen anxious to escape the South. The city’s black population soared prior to the Civil War. The Colored Y.M.C.A. helped newly arriving blacks find accommodating hotels, restaurants, entertainment, and other resources to help them settle.

Between 1860 and 1870 the number of African American residents in D.C. more than tripled, and by 1875 nearly 40% of the city’s population was black.

Did you know it was already Chocolate City way back then?!

This was an exciting time for blacks. The Washington Bee, a Negro newspaper, was created in 1856. Howard University, named after a white general named Oliver Otis Howard, the head of the Freedman’s Bureau, was founded in 1867. And the nation’s first public school for blacks, the Preparatory High School for Negro Youth, was opened in 1870.

No surprise, this progress caused a backlash of fear and anger among whites. Segregationist laws and other countermeasures were put in place, and black Washingtonians began to lose ground in many areas. Living conditions deteriorated steeply, and by 1890 only the lowest level jobs in the government were available to African Americans, if at all.

The original Colored Y.M.C.A. was rendered inactive during the 1870s, with little hope of healthy development.

But the nucleus of the black community stood strong, and by 1900 a thriving African American section existed around the intersection of Fourteenth and U Streets, near Howard University and the Preparatory High School (now M Street High).

The neighborhood became known as the “Shaw” District, after the white officer in the movie Glory. Remember him? That was Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who was killed while commanding the first African American unit in the Union Army, the Massachusetts 54th Regiment.

That was a great movie (with Denzel getting an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor) but now I think of Matthew Broderick every time I drive up Georgia Ave. in D.C.

Meanwhile, Bowen’s original Colored Y.M.C.A. Branch rebounded. They incorporated and built an office on Eleventh Street in 1892.

In 1903, now with nearly 600 members, the branch moved to a newly constructed multi-purpose building known as True Reformer’s Hall on U Street. People familiar with the area will know this spot, across the street from Ben’s Chili Bowl, the popular Howard student hangout with the world’s best chili.

Soon the Y needed a bigger space.

So, in 1907 land was purchased on Twelfth Street. On Thanksgiving Day in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone, calling the project “a monument to the advancement of the city of Washington.”

That’s when the branch became known as the Twelfth Street Colored Y.M.C.A.

The new 5-story, 35,000 square foot, Renaissance-style structure with 72 boarding rooms, a swimming pool, and a gymnasium, would take 4 years and $100,000 to complete, and officially opened in May 1912.

Who paid for it? A total of $27,000 was donated by 4,500 black citizens from the surrounding community, and the rest was contributed by several private philanthropies.

It was designed by William Sidney Pittman – the son-in-law of Booker T. Washington — who was one of the nation’s first prominent African American architects.

Over the years, numerous historical greats have been affiliated with the building, including Edwin B. Henderson and his Washington 12 Streeters championship basketball team, Langston Hughes, Charles Drew, Duke Ellington, and Thurgood Marshall.

The success of the Twelfth Street Colored YMCA Branch served as the model for many others until by 1924 there were 160 all-black YMCAs with nearly 30,000 members.

This beautiful building — recently renovated — still stands today.

The original Bowen Branch moved out (to W Street, N.W.) and the building now houses the Thurgood Marshall Center for Service and Heritage.

What’s cool about it is that they rebuilt the original interior, so walking inside is like going back in time.

Stop by there whenever you’re in D.C. (1816 Twelfth Street, N.W., between S Street and T Street).

While you’re there, just sit down for a minute. A lot of goodwill has drenched this place. Reflect. Absorb. Let it move you. Let it make history now.

A week ago I was in Falls Church, Virginia attending the 3rd Annual Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation’s Black History Month Celebration, Celebrity Basketball Game, and Awards Ceremony.

I was invited down to participate in the panel discussion, and to receive that foundation’s Living Legacy Award.

This award is in recognition of contributions and devotion in the area of preserving African American basketball history.

It was a double honor because the other recipients were former New York Rens and Washington Bears star John Isaacs, author and historian James Henderson, who’s book Molder of Men chronicles the life of his father, Edwin “E.B.” Henderson, historian Susan Rayl, and author and blogger Bijan Bayne, who’s book, Sky Kings was one of the first to cover the teams of the Black Fives Era.

The panel was moderated by Ed Henderson II, the grandson of E.B. Henderson.

Henderson’s wife, Nikki Graves, did a great job organizing the whole event.

Together they do a great job and they’re good people.

Anyway, how many people do you know who’s grandmother (Ed II’s) has a middle school named after her?

The panel was insightful and well attended. A range of topics included a discussion of the merits of E.B. Henderson’s enshrinement in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

The basketball game, between the Harlem Magic Masters and the Falls Church All Stars, was a classic. The mayor of Falls Church, the Honorable Robin Gardner, was there with her kids. A fine touch.

And, yo — the award hardware is impressive too.

I would encourage you to attend next year’s event, because you have to see in person what’s going on in Falls Church to really appreciate it.

I’m proud of the Hendersons, and also of the entire City of Falls Church.

(Top photos courtesy of Gary Mester.)

When 93-year-old James Henderson ran into soon-to-be 93-year-old John Isaacs last Friday in Falls Church, Virginia, the trash talking began instantly.

Has there ever been a basketball-loving President of the United States of America?

I decided to do some research to find out.

Benjamin Harrison was the sitting President when James Naismith invented basketball in 1891, but that’s about as close as he gets.

Teddy Roosevelt comes close.

He attended a five-week course in Physical Education at Harvard University’s Summer School of Arts and Sciences taught by Dudley Allen Sargent, whose later student, Luther Gulick, was Naismith’s boss at the International Y.M.C.A. Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts (now Springfield College).

“Go invent a game,” Gulick probably shouted.

That course at Harvard is the same course Edwin Henderson took, in which he learned the game of basketball. Henderson promptly introduced the game to Negro school children in D.C., the first time basketball was introduced to African Americans on a wide scale basis.

Roosevelt became President in 1901 and in that role laid the cornerstone of the 12th Street Colored Y.M.C.A. building in Washington, D.C. in 1908. That’s where the famed Washington 12 Streeters all-black basketball team was formed by Henderson.

Roosevelt also helped celebrate the construction in D.C. of black-built and black-owned True Reformer’s Hall, the home court of the 12 Streeters when they won a Colored Basketball World’s Championship in 1911. Roosevelt’s personal congratulatory letter (about the Hall) included this statement:

No one can watch with more interest than I do the progress of the colored race; and with the colored man as with the white man, the first step must be to show his ability to take care of himself and those dependent on him.

The N.C.A.A.’s Theodore Roosevelt Award is given annually to former student athletes who became famous distinguished citizens. The “Teddy” has been awarded to 4 former presidents: Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, George Bush I, and Ronald Reagan.

Warren Harding could have been a baller; he wore size 14 shoes, the largest shoe size of any President. Instead he was a baseball and boxing fan.

There’ve been plenty of good athletes in the White House.

Dwight Eisenhower played football in college at West Point. Nixon played college football. Ford was on the University of Michigan varsity football team in the 1930s, getting invited to tryouts with the Packers and Lions. Bush I played baseball at Yale.

But they weren’t ballers.

There’ve been some good ballers.

Bill Bradley, the former New York Knicks star, was a candidate for the Presidency in 2000 and would have made a fine Baller-In-Chief.

Bob Dole would have made an excellent Baller-In-Chief as a former star basketball player in high school and at Kansas University under legendary coach Phog Allen.

But they never made it to the White House.

George Bush II came close to being Baller-In-Chief the day he congratulated the 2004 N.B.A. Champion Detroit Pistons at the White House.

According to the White House Museum, the White House basketball court, a kind of First Court if you will, has “been used for decades for occasional games by presidents and their staffs and families.”

I could be wrong, but I think the First Court is gonna get dusted off and put into good use. I think it’s gonna have a roof put on it, for year-round action.

Better yet, how ’bout an indoor court?

I think that’s the first order of business for a Baller-In-Chief.

Photos courtesy of the Library of Congress (White House basketball court) and the White House (George W. Bush congratulating Pistons).

Our ranking of the most deserving Black Fives Era players and contributors who are not yet enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.