Howard University

Location: Washington, D.C.
Nickname: “The Blue and White”
Colors: College Blue, Ivory
Managers: Edwin Henderson, J.H. Brown

Select Team Alpha P.C.C. Company E Howard U. Independent Pleasure Club Lincoln U. (Pa.) L.A. Red Devils Monticello A.A. Monticello-Delaney Rifles N.Y. All Stars Philadelphia Panthers N.Y. Renaissance Scholastic A.A. Savoy Big Five Second Story Morrys Smart Set A.C. St. Christopher Club Atlantic City Vandals Washington 12 Streeters

Howard University’s first varsity basketball team was formed by Edwin Henderson after his Twelfth Street Colored Y.M.C.A. squad won the Colored Basketball World’s Championship in 1910. Henderson organized the team using nearly the entire lineup of his “12 Streeters” team.

Most of the former Y.M.C.A. players were already students at the prestigious black college.

The new Howard team was even better than the 1909-10 Washington 12 Streeter team and easily won the 1910-11 black national championship title.

Managed by Henderson and J. H. Brown, Howard’s lineup included captain Henry Nixon, former Amherst Walter Camp All-American football halfback Edward B. Gray, star center Charles Gilmore, brothers Maurice and Arthur Curtis, and former Jersey City and Smart Set star Hudson “Huddy” Oliver.

They were considered invincible.

Both Gray and Oliver attended Howard University’s medical school while playing varsity
basketball, and later became respected surgeons.