#john mclendon

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The Forgotten Coach TRAILER   (via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGghc9mnzMc)

Inspired by the award winning biography, “Breaking Through: John B. McLendon, Basketball Legend and Civil Rights Pioneer,” by Milton S. Katz, the film reviews the life of this remarkable African-American Kansas Citian, the first black student at the University of Kansas to earn his degree in physical education and study under and be mentored by the inventor of basketball, Dr. James Naismith. A legendary basketball coach, McLendon was also a pioneer, supreme innovator, teacher, and consummate gentleman who not only was the first African-American coach to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame, but along the way waged a successful fight to break down barriers of racial segregation in college and professional athletics.

Dick Barnett has called me several times this past year to let me know that he has been working with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to include Coach John McLendon as a Coach, as well as Contributor to the Hall of Fame.  As such, McLendon will now be inducted for a second time.....this time with the Coach designation.  Well done, Dick Barnett (technically, it’s Dr. Barnett)....and very well-deserved, Coach John McLendon.

Great piece of basketball history within this video....

Coach John McLendon and player Zelmo Beaty to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.  Coach McLendon Coached at North Carolina A&T and Kentucky State, but is most famous for leading Tennessee A&I to three straight NAIB National Championships (1957, 1958 and 1959).  The 1957 National Championship represented the first collegiate National Championship won by a historically black school.  Zelmo Beaty was a star at Prairie View A&M, and later in the NBA (St. Louis Hawks) and ABA (Utah Stars).

John McLendon     Coaching career (HC unless noted) 1941–1952 1953–1954 1955–1959 1961–1962 1964–1966 1967–1969 1969 North Carolina College for Negroes Hampton Institute Tennessee State A&I University Cleveland Pipers (ABL) Kentucky State Cleveland State Denver Rockets (ABA) Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 1979 College Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2007

“Naismith was a very religious person, very liberal in his thinking, and a pure humanitarian, but for him to take McLendon under his wing I think was pretty extraordinary,” Katz told me. “The fact that [McLendon] was the first African-American student in the PE program really meant a lot to Naismith. In that way, the color of his skin really did matter, and it was a positive thing.”