Perhaps the finest athlete in Johnson County history, George Crowe led Franklin High to the cusp of a state basketball championship, and was selected Indiana’s first-ever Mr. Basketball.
William ‘Dolly’ King excelled in football, basketball, and baseball at Long Island University before starring in basketball with the Rens and other pro teams.
Please join me in wishing a Happy Birthday to George Crowe, the last surviving member of the New York Renaissance professional basketball team. Crowe turns 88 years old this weekend.
In addition to sharing tales of Isaacs’ life and memories, the panel distributed different media and news clippings of Isaacs’ historic career, as well as provided a display that shared more details and images of Isaacs’ life.
Brian Gaynor of the Des Moines Register copped some nice research about the breaking of the racial color barrier in the old National Basketball League, for a piece he wrote that appeared this week in the Sheboygan Press.
_______________ “The colored race looks upon him as their Babe Ruth. He is a great baseball player as well as the colored race’s standout cager. Like such men as Nat Holman, Rody Cooney and Davy Banks, Jenkins gets away from a standing start at bullet-like speed.” — The Hammond (Indiana) Times, 1938
A man, a mentor, a teammate to all.
Isaacs was born Sept. 15, 1915. After retiring from serious competition, he coached Tiny Archibald, Chris Mullin and a thousand others. Later, he became a counselor at the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club in The Bronx. He died Monday after a stroke. He was 93.
When SLAM asked me to write something about 93-year-old former professional basketball player John Isaacs, I wanted to go beyond what’s been told (and retold) before. I wanted to tell what matters most.
Black Fives® are dozens of African American basketball teams that played before the racial integration of the N.B.A., from 1904 through 1950. At BlackFives.com, you Make History Now™ by joining us in bringing these stories back to life, in ways that are relevant today! “Fives” referred to the five starting players on a basketball team. [...]
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