Earl Lloyd
As hard as it is to believe today, when the National Basketball Association was founded in 1946 it was an all-white league, by choice of the founding owners. Its first season of play was 1946-47. The following season the first non-white player emerged, an Asian-American of Japanese descent who appeared in three games for the New York Knicks. Not until 1950 was a black player drafted by an NBA team, Chuck Cooper, picked in the second round by the Boston Celtics. The first African American to sign an NBA contract was Harold Hunter, but he was cut during training camp and never played in the NBA.
At the start of the 1950-51 NBA season, Earl Lloyd became the first black player to appear in an NBA game, mainly because the opening game for his team, the Washington Capitols, preceded the opening games of the other two teams with black players, the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks. Thus Lloyd joined Nat Clifton and Chuck Cooper as the first black players in the NBA, with Lloyd holding the distinction of appearing in a game first, on Halloween Night, October 31, 1950.
Earl Lloyd was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia, a city which was largely segregated. He attended all-black schools and endured the “separate but equal” attitude which was prevalent in the South, such as drinking fountains and restrooms labeled “colored only” or “white only”. He learned to remain in the areas of the city which more welcoming than the all-white neighborhoods, where his race and his size made him conspicuous. After graduating from segregated Parker-Gray High School he was awarded a scholarship to play for West Virginia State University.
At West Virginia State Lloyd was an All-Conference Player three times, and All-American Player twice, and played on the 1947-48 team, the only undefeated team in the country that season. After college he played for the Washington Capitols, the Syracuse Nationals after the Capitols went bankrupt and folded in 1951, and finally the Detroit Pistons. His NBA career was interrupted by service with the US Army during the Korean War, and he spent a tour of duty at the front in Korea. Upon his return he resumed his career with Syracuse.
During his NBA career Lloyd endured the racism displayed by some players and fans, and the segregated facilities which were present in many cities. Often he could not dine with teammates or use the same facilities. Racial slurs were tossed at him by many fans, and other forms of harassment were a constant reminder that many considered him to be a transgressor on white privilege. Within the NBA itself, players did not present the same level of racial hostility as they did in other sports, particularly baseball, where many players were from the Jim Crow south. Still Lloyd and his colleagues paved the way for what the NBA is today.