Timeline
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1923
The New York Original Celtics play the Commonwealth Five, the first time an African American basketball team plays against a mainstream acknowledged World Champion.
The New York Renaissance Big Five are born when their owner agrees to rename his all-black Spartan Braves basketball team after the newly opened Renaissance Ballroom and Casino in Harlem. When the Renaissance introduce guaranteed year-long contracts, they become the first black-owned, fully professional basketball team. The “Rens” debut at the Renaissance Casino on November 3, beating the all-white Collegian Five, 28–22.
The Loendi Big Five of Pittsburgh, named after an exclusive all-black social club in that city, win their fourth straight Colored Basketball World’s Championship, for the 1922-23 season.
1924
The Loendi Big Five plays the Clarksburg Five in Clarksburg, Virginia in the first game between an all-black basketball team and an all-white team below the Mason-Dixon Line. No ensuing trouble is reported.
The Commonwealth Five win the Colored Basketball World’s Championship, becoming the only white-owned team ever to win the title.
1925
Harlem’s Renaissance Big Five wins the Colored Basketball World’s Championship for 1924-25, the first of many titles as the team subsequently monopolizes black basketball through the late 1930s.
1933
The New York Renaissance Big “R” Five win 88 straight games in a stretch of 86 days on their way to a season record of 127-7. This team in its entirety was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1963.
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