In a nation distinguished by a great black athletic heritage, there is perhaps no sport that has felt the impact of African American culture more than basketball. Most people assume that the rise of black basketball was a fortuitous accident of the inner-city playgrounds. In Hot Potato, Bob Kuska shows that it was in fact a consciously organized movement with very specific goals.
When Edwin Henderson introduced the game to Washington, D.C., in 1907, he envisioned basketball not as an end in itself but as a public-health and civil-rights tool. Henderson believed that, by organizing black athletics, including basketball, it would be possible to send more outstanding black student athletes to excel at northern white colleges and debunk negative stereotypes of the race. He reasoned that in sports, unlike politics and business, the black race would get a fair chance to succeed. Henderson chose basketball as his marquee sport, and he soon found that the game was a big hit on Washington's segregated U Street. Almost simultaneously, black basketball was catching on quickly in New York, and the book establishes that these two cities served as the birthplace of the black game.
Hot Potato chronicles the many successes and failures of the early years of black amateur basketball. It also recounts the emergence of black college basketball in America, documenting the origins of the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association, or CIAA, which would become the Big Ten of black collegiate sports.
The book also details for the first time the rise of black professional basketball in America, with a particular emphasis on the New York Renaissance, a team considered by experts to be as important in the development of black basketball as the Harlem Globetrotters. Kuska recounts the Renaissance's first victory over the white world champion Original Celtics in 1925, and he evaluates the significance of this win in advancing equality in American sports. By the late 1920s, the Renaissance became one of the sport's top draws in white and black America alike, setting the stage for the team's undisputed world championship in 1939. As Edwin Henderson had hoped -- and as any fan of the modern-day game can tell you -- the triumphs certainly did not end there.
Customer Review: A Landmark Work
There aren't enough adjectives to describe this important work on an oftentimes overlooked part of U.S. history/sports.
Bob Kuska takes the reader on an exploration of the development of black athletics at the turn of the last century, with his focus surrounding basketball teams and leagues in New York City and Washington, D.C.
The chapters are in chronological order by year and highlights the important personalities, teams and events in the two cities and throughout the country - from youth leagues to the colleges and beyond.
I am particularly impressed with Kuska's acknowledgement of many individuals that time had seemingly forgotten. The ten years of research he did certainly accomplished his goal of giving the reader a complete understanding of the era.
To set a clear path to the future, our society must have an appreciation of the rough paths taken by those who confronted the hideous Jim Crow laws and other forms of racisim & truly learn from the past.
America's game was changed forever, but not just on the hardwood floors. These heroes knocked down barriers and opened the door for others to pursue their dreams, no matter what the odds.
Customer Review: A truly outstanding sports history
When one Edwin Henderson, a Harvard-educated African American physical education teacher - was introduced to basketball in Washington DC in 1907, he envisioned it as a method of organizing black athletes to allow them to excel at northern while colleges. In sports, he reasoned, blacks would get a fair chance to succeed. Hot Potato details the birth and rise of black amateur basketball in America, examines college basketball and the origins of the CIAA, and surveys the rise of black professional athletes. A truly outstanding sports history evolves.