By Vince Thomas for TheRoot.com (Originally posted March 10, 2010.) Before the NBA was desegregated, there were the Black Fives. Alpha Physical Culture Club, Harlem, New York, 1910. There’s a good 50-year gap in the story of basketball’s evolution. We go from the game’s invention late in the 19th century and fast forward to the [...]
January is a difficult month for friends and fans of the New York “Rens” of Harlem, the all-black pro basketball team that played in 1920s, 30s, and 40s.
Crowe, a handsome former pro basketball and pro baseball star who looks much younger than his 88 years of age, still strikes a chord though a man of few words.
Isaacs was born September 30, 1915 and would’ve been 94 years old today. The day he first saw our ‘Rens’ throwback jersey is a fond memory now.
This story from a Black Fives Era descendant links the distant basketball past with the funeral of New York Renaissance star John Isaacs earlier this year.
Kudos to Bill Rhoden of the New York Times for orchestrating this idea for NBA Commissioner David Stern to visit a Harlem barber shop. But, what’s the agenda?
An early Sunday morning bicycle ride through Harlem leads to sacredness, grace, astonishment, acknowledgment, gratitude, and smiles.
Part 3 of a multi-part series on George Crowe, the last living New York (Harlem) Rens player, covers his stellar collegiate career and military experiences.
Did one devastating punch thrown by a future Basketball Hall of Fame player in an unrelated game threaten to derail Jackie Robinson’s baseball debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers?
But now it’s as if the Hall mistakenly thinks that its progress regarding the election of African Americans in general somehow goes toward satisfying the need to consider specific deserving black pioneers from the earlier time.
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